Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-09

| seas he licked almost every man forward
| on the China station.
He got bad conouct discharge when his
ship returned to San Francisco, and he
| didn't have a dollar when he went ashore
| But he had learned in China of the good
/ opening there for clever American clerks
| Ia the customs service, and so he shipped
aboard wind jammer'' and made his
| way to Canton, where he Immediately went
| to work as customs clerk. He was chief
| inspector within three years, with enough
gilt on his uniform to outfit two admiralS,
| big pay, and perks enough to permit of
| his hanging on to his membership in all
of the best foreign clubs in Canton.
A New England Yankee from up Bath
way named Babcock, who had done lot
of merchant SailoriZing I'D to the rate of
second mate. shipped an A. B. in the
United States navy at the Portsmouth navy
yard in 1885. Babcock was rafting good
sailor, man without education, but with
whole lot of native ShrewdnesS. He was
liked well enough by his shpmates, who
however. voted him the stingiest man-o'-
wars man that ever knotted a halyard.
Babcock didn't spend a cent aside from
his mess and tobacco money during his en-
tire thrce-year cruise, and, as he was made
petty officer soon after his enlistment, he
had a snug pile of savings when he went
over the gangway of his ship at Yokohama,
Japan, clear of the navy"
Saw His Opportunity.
Babcock looked around him for a while
in Yokohama. AMI then he corralled about
dozen skiIlful Japanese feather-workers,
employed them at very small pay, and set
them to work making ee-by-four- foot
representations in colored feathers of
George Washington. the father of his coun-
try. 1t cost Babcock about 10 yen to have
these really artistic portraits in feathers
made, and he sold ali of them that he could
make by employing more men and max
ing them work overtime to the United
States mnD-O- wars from to
yen apiece. When the sale of the George
Washingtons in feathers grew slack Bah
cock set his Japs to work making Ameri-
can flags of delicately worked feathers. lie
sgot from % to 80 yen each for these, all
that he could turn out of them, for almost
every American naval sailor on the China
station bought one of them to send or bring
back to his people in this country. BY this
time the shrewd Babcock, who didn't drink
s4li or any other kind of confusing liquid,
had plant. He set a large force of skill
full JapS to work making all sorts of jap
anese curios, and he started emporium
| in Yokohama. He widened this out into
wholesale establishment and began ship
ping Japanese curios to England, America
and the other big markets for Japanese
products of art. Babcock hasn't made any
effort to have the tatooed compasses and
stars removed from his big, horny hands.
even IL he is now ore of the very wealthy
Americans living in Japan. He makes fire.
quent tours of his branch wholesale Japan
csc curio emporjums at Kobe, Nagasaki
and Hakodate, and he enjoys life prodi-
gously in quiet sort of way. He is one of
the very best friends the American sailors
have on the China station. Whenever one
of them goes broke ashore in Yokohama.
all he has to do is to make for Babcocks
emporium, and, if Babcock IS there the tar
always comes away with enough yen under
his mastering shirt to see him through the
rest o. his liberty.
Made His Pile.
of France is an ex-American man-o'-wars
man. who put in nearly twenty years on
the Mediterranean station as chief bo'
suns mate. without ever once returning TO
the land of his birth. This was very I'M
usual thing, but this chief bo'sun's mate
made it go through because he mastered
knowledge of the channels of all of the
Mediterranean ports. and therefore became
an invaluable man to be kept on that sta
ton as long as he wanted to remain there.
He wanted to remain there very badly, for,
during his first cruise the station, he
met a pretty millinery girl in Nice that he
grew very fond Of and ne married her.
The chief bosun's mate saved his money,
and after few years he set his wife up in
the millinery business in Nice. She made
it go from the start, and it was not long
before she was making five times the
amount of her husbands pay as sailor.
She wanted him to quit the navy, but he
liked the navy and he was an independent
man besides His wife, thoroughly devoted
to her good-looking American sailor hus-
band. continued in business, and the
pair began to grow wealthy. By this time
there We're half a dozen young ones in the
family. The chief bo'sun's mate continued
to save his own money, and after while
he went into the Wlne-deallng business in
Nice, as a side issue to his naval sailoriz-
ing. His business prospered from the
jump, and he began to make money rapidly.
Still he stuck to the navy. A few years
ago the idea finally did soak into his mind
that it was absurd for him to remain in the
service when he already had more money
than he Fhew what to do with. and gave
up his bosun's mates billet, to the general
regret OF his officers. He hung to his
Nice wine business. and went to the Bur-
gundy district and started to growing
grapes. This, also, was conspicuous
success. and after a few years of it he
closed up his business in Nice. as his wife
did hers, and they settled down with their
children on one of the Drettiest estates in
the wine district. The son of a. rich Lyons
silk merchant made eyes at his eldest
daughter and married he:, and a while
later a young French noblemrl, who Was
decide lily not impecuniouS, mar ed anotf-
er of his daughters. His wife, still pretty
pokes fun at him down to the present day
over the twang that he mikes in with his
French speaking, and the establishment
surely is a happy one.
MulvihilI Was Smart.
An Irishman named Mulvihill, who had
been cook in Irish and English restau-
rants, wound up, after a jamboree in Liver
pool about ten years ago. on an American
man-of-war that was shy a galley cook.
with saucepan for rating badge on his
watch arm, and he made one of the best
cooks in the American navy, too. He saved
his money during the three years that he
put in chiefly on the Mediterranean station,
and his ship, the old Pensacola happened
to be lying in the port of Marseilles when
the day came for Mulvihill to be paid off
and decide, ashore, if he wanted any more
OF the navy in his He went ashore in
Marseilles, and the idea struck him that
that big port ought not to be lacking in a
restaurant where travelling Americans and
Englishmen could get chop and steak
cooked and served in the right Anglo Saxon
style. Mulvihill opened little steak and
chop place on one of the side streets of
Marseilles, considerably out of the way of
the big thoroughfares, but touring Ameri-
cans and Englishmen have a nose for
places of this sort, and it did not take
them long to find Mulvihill out When they
found him cut, it was all over, so far as
the assurance of Mulvihilrs success was
concerned. Mulvihill knew how to put a
chop or steak before his guests in a way
that made them dream over it, and his lit
tie restaurant soon became overrun with
custom He permitted it to be overrun
and to let his guests take their turn at the
tables, until he had saved enough money