Griggs courier., 1898-08-05
A SPANISH SAILORS LIFE.
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severe Poaishneats from
0s0tal Superl0Fs.

severe Paaishneats from
Dfstal Superiors.
''The Spaniards do not know how to
fight their ships" said q naval officer.
Il am perfectly confident that George
Dewey could have exchanged fleets
with the Spaniards in Manila harbor
and then given them almost as sound
drubbing as he did with his own fleet"
The same opinion has been expressed
by o large number of American naval
officers who are familiar with the prin-
ciples upon which the Spanish navy 10
run.
1t is asserted that majority Of tho
Spanish sailors are from inland Spain.
The Spanish merchant sailors, the men
living in Spanish ports who are of age
for service aboard warships, know too
we'll the crueltics and hardships in
aicted upon men forward in their coun-
try's naval service to put themselves
in the way of being trapped into it.
Spanish petty officers, even within
the past five years, have been ambus-
caded ashore and killed by shipmates
that they have thus shanghaied.
Spanish sailors forward are Ill
treated habitually by their officers.
This is not prejudice or an exag-
gerated statement. 1t is literally true.
The officers of the Spanish navy are
Tor the most part younger sons Of
good families who have gained their
billets not by ability nor through COM
petition, but through the intercession
of their people at the court.
The incapacity of many of them IL
laughable; their cruelty is notorious.
From the very day that Spaniard is
enlisted in the ships company of one
Of his country's war vessels-enlisted
voluntarily or involuntarily-he 10
made to feel that he is no better than a
beast.
For the slightest infraction of regu-
lations he is punished in fashion that
makes his fellow bluejackets in navies
like our own and that of Great Britain
flush with anger. The central and con-
suming idea of the Spanish naval off,
GER is that all hands forward are his
servants.
In the Spanish navy every man for
ward, from the chief petty officers
down to the landsman, stand by
for trick as Wallets for all the officers
aft. They are not asked to wash the Of
ficers' linen; they are not requested to
blacken the officers shoes or pipeclay
their belts-they are commanded to
do these things and tasks more menial,
nt tn nf
spect; and the slightest Indication of
hesitancy on the part of a bluejacket
is visited by heavy punishment.
When a Spanish officer gets it in for
a chief petty officer for any real or
fancied cause, he does not Immediately
undertake to securc~tl petty officers
disrating. Instead, he begins syste-
matically to hulniliate the petty Of
ficer.
| He calls him vile names in the hear
ing of the unrated bluejackets and not
infrequently kicks him.
He calls him aft-especially when
the petty officer is showing party of
women visitors about the ship-and
orders him to blacken his shoes, right
in sight of all hands and all the visitors
on the main deck.
The Spanish bluejackct, standing at
attention during the progress of a
drill, may never know when he is to get
the fiat, or even the edge, of sword
across his back welded by an officer
of :.'somewhat impulsive" disposition,
as Blanco might describe an officer
| who would order the rnassacre re the
inmates of q hospital maintained by
Cubans.
The stanchion punishment is en-
ployed for the most trivial offenses in
the Spanish navy. The bluejacket who
breaks his liberty by a few hours
knows that he is in for the stanchion
lash when he returns aboard.
The "rule o. thumb" is another COM
mon punishment in the Spanish navy
the suspending of offenders by the
two thumbs, so that their feet barely
touch the ground, from overhead graf
ings.
Another feature of the punitive sys.
TEN is the solitary and fish, infiction.
This consists in locking up Il minor
offender in an unlighted and practical
ly unventilated compartment and in
feeding him upon salt fish, and no
water whatsoever for a couple of days
at q stretch.-Boston Advertiser.
A Parrots Sense Of HumOr.
Tim does not laugh much. He has a
sort of jocular chuckle with which he
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