The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-31
A RHYME OF THE SEA.

" NiS'tNi"'
A RHYME OF THE SEA.
| purchased glass of stiff Maine grog
for salty son of the sea,
And he confdentially leaned on the bar
and spun this yarn to me:
Twas down on the aidge of the Sara
gos' in the nineteenth latitood
That think see the dumdest sight that
ever a sailor viewed.
We was dobbin' along with dumpy sails
in a nigh about dead calm
When the forward watch Civ a good long
squint and he yapped loud alarm.
And there ahoat, two points to port, was
a shark-a reg'lar he 'un--
The biggest shark I've ever seen outside
of the Carribeaun.
The old man fired mighty cuss and he
yelled to the second mate,
Sling over the biggest hook we've got
with good big plug of bait
We dragged er astern and his nobs como
on and then with a mighty splosh,
lie guped the pork. he bit the rope and
away he went, by gosh!
But when he skipped two miles to lee
and begun to wopse and wheel,
We Figured he found the lunch he had
rayther too hearty meal.
Yet right behind in the quarter wash the
critter swum next day,
And though he gobbed the bait we threw,
he allus got away.
And at last do ye know. We liked the
fnr bp ha cbo Ia
spunk;
SO we named him Pete and we shared
salt hoss and tossed him "A daily
Junk.
He got the orts of the fish we caught
and. all in all I'll bet
a two-horse wagon wouldn't haul the
grub that critter ct.
Then one day Jones, the liieliest man we
had in all the crew,
Went off the rail with a swinging sail
and Pete he ct him, too.
/ From that time on We tipped our caps
to the raZor-backed old brute
/ We tipped our caps and pulled a bow in
a most profound salute
! For twas only due from a decent crew
to honor a comrades grave
Though twas odd I'll own to have "A tomb
aioat on the ocean wave.
/ And the old man ordered the fish lines
/ coiled, for he lowed 'twarn't proper
game
| 10 bob for a cemetery lot: 50 Pete swum
on the same.
Swum on the same though we come to
see that he didn't act quite right:
/ For he grew as thin's Il beIayin' pin on
that gol-durued appetite
/ And we couldn't flgger the secret ont,
though the second mate was firm
| That slowed tween decks in the sharks
insides was bastn' big tape worm.
As We didn't have no vermifuge we could
only mourn for Pete
/ And steal salt hoss when the mate
warn't round ana give him lots to
eat,
But at last he rolled his CLASSY eyes and
Civ an awful Churn
And turned his belly up 10 view and
drifted of astern.
! lie rolled and sogged on a logy swell like
u nut cake dropped in fat,
, And il 'peared to all there was suthin'
wrong with the shark We was lookin
at.
So the Old man ordered the sig crew up
and the bosn piped q tune,
( And away we sDlOshed, with the mate
ahead a-Prippin' big harpoou.
He sluuG the thing when we drew abeam
and we backed like all-pOssessed,
| But that shark was slcepn' sound YOU
bet for We never broke his rest.
We never broke his peaceful snooae
though plunk to the eyelot head
| Went rippin' in that big halpoon, for YOU
see the shark vas dead.
And the old man ordered an ortopsy. for
the thing seemed mighty queer
That an able-bodied, hearty shark was
dcader'n a door knob here.
So the mate was medical 'xaminer and
he straddled the critters back
And laid him open from deck to keel
with one almighty whack,
Now listen close while tell the rest for
this is the story's peth-
You may takc my mob for a scuttle butt,
If the shark warn't starved 70 DEATH
Starved TO death, though the sea was fun
Of the fattost kind OF fish,
And though a mariner plump and sound,
had fallen in his dish.
Starved, though he had in his gorged in
sides, I'll bet a hundred weight
OF every kind of "a floating thing from
a goldfish down to bait.
And this was how: He'd spied, we iudg-
ed, an empty cask afoat,
And boin' a glutton ne grabbed the caslJ
and tucked it down his throat.
Tho cask We found had an open end. the
bottom good and stout;
The shark had followed the whole end
fust. the open end was out.
And ev'y mossel the crittcr ct was SCOOP
ed by the caslS inside
His vittles failed 10 reach the spot and
so the poor shark died"
This Is n sample OF weird, wild yarns the
mariners relate
Tndcr the spur Of a glass of gros In the
Prohibition estate.
! Holman r.. Day, in Lewiston Journal.