The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-05-15
A CADET ON THE OREGON
Tells How They "Crossed the Linen
on the Pacific.

cadet Cyrus H. Miller, Of the battleshin
oregon, writes a letter, which we find in
Inc Milwaukee Sentinel, from CalIao. in VIII oh
ne tells how, when the ship crossed the
equator, the old ceremony of the boarding Of
the snip by Neptune was observed. incidental
ly he mentions the effect of the eoustorIaI
sun, winch made the deck in his room so hot
he could not stand on it in bare feet send
ing the mercury up to 12O degrees. driving
everybody up under the awnings on the upper
oeck' while the f1remen in the hold swei cred
uhoer 16O degrees of heat. The ice machine
however, furnished cooling drinks of which
| one can drink copiously in such temperat,re
without injury. Of the ceremony he says:
On March 81 we crossed the line (equator)
anu, as we then entered the domains Of
Neptune he came on board to welcome us
especially those who had never crossed be-
fore One Of the old Jackies made an i'm
posing king, with his crown and trident
while his wife Amphitrite cut a stunning
inquire with long blonde hair made out CT
ufanlla rope. The imperial pair were fol-
lowed by the court, composed of Judge and
secretary Tin rather battered dress suits) and
numerous policemen who We're DISTINGUISHED
by their immense size and huge stuffed clubs
The costumes were ridiculous in the ex-
treme but could never begin to describe
them. All hands were called aft on the
ceived by the captain, who turned the ship
over to him. The god of the sea then sur
veyed the horizon carefully through the BIZ
noculars Ia couple OF beer bottles dashed to-
gether) and then made very pretty speech.
in which bullfrogs, mermaids and tadpcIes
were prominent. He promised immunity
from sharks, seagulls water snakes and NAL
DE mer, to say nothing of thousand terrors
OF the sea that l have forgotten. We then
adJourned to the upper structure, where
court opened. Neptune took his place on
the bridge and every officer in the ship was
summoned to appear and prove, II he could
that he had crossed the line before. If he
could not bring two witnesses to support his
word the judge was under the painful
necessity OF ordering him to pay the custom
airy tribute The tribute was a number of
bottles OF beer, so that you can how
painful it was for the poor judge when he
stood in the heat and conjured up visions Of
ice-cold bottles. The officers having been dis
posed of, the crew was than taken up Pro-
ceedings were changed a little, for the first
man that failed to toe the mark as to proofs
was seated on stool, and two new person.
ages thso har to view One had the her
ready although it was much better to catch
him unpreparedl the shaving brush Ia good
sized paint BRUSH was plunged into terrible
mixture of egg, flour, molas5es and vinegar,
and heavy coating of all the lather ap-
pied all over the victim. The neck. hair.
were remembered. sometimes in a way far
from delicate, for the slap of the brush could
be heard all over the deck. The man with
a long wooden razor next got in his work and
shaved the poor unfortunate in way tfat
caused him to swallow number Of tea
spoonfus of the lather. When the to>H Mt
was carried far enough in that line the stool
was given quick jerk and the victim shot
the chutes from the bridge to the deck below
where canvas tank with four feet of salt
water was rugged.
Here he was waited for by the bears,
who ducked him numerically. beat him with
their clubs, and so abused him that, when he
finally emerged from the place of torture, he
really did not know where he ar! So
on with about 400 men. Occasionally the
in the chair would smile while the lather was
being applied, this the barber promptly
stopped by plunging the brush into the
miscreant's mouth.
The Peruvian currency is all silver. so
the result is that for $40 in American god we
get AZ Peruvian soils. Each of the latter is
as large as Uncle Sans silver dollars. So
you can imagine what lot Of money l had.