The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1898-09-08
A STORY OF WATSON.
AN OCCASION WHEN THE OLD SEA
DOG WANTED TO SWEAR.
Not Being q Profane Man, However, he
Gave the Job Which Reused His Wrath
to Fuller, the Bos'n's Mate, and Then
Let Eyepts Take Their Course.


Let Evepts Take Their Course.
John Crittenden Watson does not be.
long to the list of "cussing officers,
vet as a man .o'-war skipper he never
had man of his ships company aft fol
swearing. He was singalarly indulgent
of the hard swearers forward.
"Eard language helps man along
occasionally" he has been known to
say to one of his deck officers upon over
hearing a stream Of maledictions from
the lips of some old fiat foot working at
stubborn job forward, "and it is bet
ter for the men to work off their wrath
over fouled anchor chains in cuss words
than to take it out of each others
hide"
Aboard one of the ships under Wat
son S command there was an old bos'n's
mate named Fuller, who had the call
throughout the whole navy as the cham
pion prOfalie man of the government
line of packets. Fuller never raised his
voice when he swore. He would simply
stand back and quietly regard the imam
innate object of his wrath-a bent be-
laying pin perhaps or slack ridge rope
land then he would open up in an Or
binary conversational tone But the ut
terances he gave vent to were sulphur
Gus. 1t always took Fuller good five
minutes to work off what he considered
the necessary number of remarks on
such occasions, and it always seemed
when he was through, that he had quite
exhausted the whole vocabulary Of pro
fanity. But this was mistake. The
very next time anything went wrong
with a bit of Fuller's gear he would
start in on a new line that would con-
tain absolutely not single repetition
of any of his previous performances. 1t
was always source of wonder to Full
1er's shipmates, even the old timers,
where he picked up the new ones, all
of which were of startling originality
and force.
These shipmates related only one in
stance in which he found himself at a
Joss for words. He was with a landing
party from his ship, marcl:;"S OF the
outskirts of Chemulpo, Korea. I!c stub
bed his toe on a loose LoI. Der III tire
road and fell on his face : '~>t.
He picked himself up az. !.
road. He opened his lccuth
thing, but he had u -.
dumb with wrath. Ty:c II t'' -,
he attempted to begin, bus !; !, no
go. He was stuck for cnce, 50 lie ruli.u
out pistol and deliberately fired Ii into
thc 81 i've times. EEe had to express his
feelings iii some way.
! When Fuller was serving aboard
Watscu's ship, he was i'll gcCd shape,
and his frequent quiet ou.tuTSts kept
the forward part Of the ship keyed up
with wonder as to what was coming
next. One morning at big gun drill
Captain Watson himself was superiI-
tending the exercise. One Of the wooden
cartridges became damned in the breech
of the inch rife to which he was de-
voting most of his attention. He
wouldn't permit any Of the gunner;s'
mates around him to attempt to loosen
the cartridge, but essayed the job him
self. He tugged at the jammed cartridge
and broke his finger nails over it, and
still it wouldn't come out. 1t was a
pretty hot morning Oh deck, and the
perspiratioi began to roll off his face in
streams, but be persisted in trying to
loosen the stuck cartridge. He looked
as if he would like to say heap We're
he a swearing man, but he wasn't a
swearing man. When he had been
working for five minutes over the jam
med cartridge with no success, he look
ed pretty helpless and miserable. He
gave one final tug, but the stuck car
fridge remained in the guns breech.
The skipper gathered himself together,
mopped his forehead and looked at the
gun.
''Confound it ALL" he broke ont,
"where Fuller? Send me Fuller, some
body"
Fuller was On hand directly. He
wasn't a gunner's mate, and he had
nothing to do with the guns, but Wat
son wanted Fuller to tackle the damned
cartridge all the same.
Fuller, said Watson, "try and get
that dummy out Of that gun"
Fuller looked at the stuck cartridge,
and Watson retreated to the starboard
side of the quarter deck. Fuller made
two CT three claws at the wooden car
fridge but it wouldn't come out. A
gunner's mate could have got it out in
aHiHy, bat Fuller wasn't in that line
OF the service. Ile tugged away, but it
was no go Watson stood regarding the
horizon on the starboard side of the
quarter deck. Fuller spat on his hands
and made one more try. The dummy
didn't move tenth of an inch. Then
Fnller mopped his forehead with his
ncckerchief, clapped his cap on the back
of his head and opened up. TWAS great
work, this performance of Fuller's, and
no mistake. He eclipsed all of his for
mer efforts He stood with his hands on
his sides, looking at the gun breech and
saying things at it that no Morgan or
Kidd Or Teach or other heaven defying
pirate could ever have equaled. The
men stood around, just looking at Full
Ter in open mouthed amazement. They
couldn't make out where be got them
all. They were all in English, but the
combinations were weird The perora-
ton was frightful, although delivered
in the mildest tone imaginable.