The times., 1899-08-27
TEE NAVAL APPRENTICES
Recruits Come From All Conditions
and Glasses.
The Strict Discipline and Rough Life
Develop Good and Bad Qualities.
Manly Lads Sure to Get Along.
Petty and Warrant omcerships
the Reward for Faithful Service.

The hard knocks and general aIl-round
rough life OF an apprentice boy in the Unit
ed States Navy either make the boy a man
by the time he reaches his majority. or
bring out the bad qualities in him which
unfit him for a useful capacity either on
shore or at sea.
1t all depends on the makeup Of boy s
character. II he is morally. and more or
less mentally weak. he is generally fall
ure, but If he possesses manly qualities he
is pretty sure 20 rise in the navy to the
| highest petty or warrant officerships
The same treatment is accorded to ALL It
is the aim of the apprenticeship service to
develop the boys not only physically but
mentally. develop in them we'll balanced
minds and give them mechanical exper-
ience, which will be useful in their after
career in the service. All must bow 10 the
same grinding, relentless discipline.
Observation shows that the apprentices
who go into the blue-iaeket uniform as
tough and incorrigible boys. become ssnsi-
bic, self-restrained and trustworthy sea-
men by the time they attain their majority.
On the other hand. lads who exhibit traits
the service become in about four cases
out OF five hard customers in the course OF
/ their apprenticeship. and not OF much ae-
count either for men-of-war or the shore
The reason for this is not hard to discern.
Before entering the naval service the un-
manageable boys have had their whirl at
juvenile righteousness and mischief and
are about ready when they find themselves
In the bell bottom trousers to pine down
and to make something out of their op-
portunities Being tough, they are not
easily contaminated by the burly rough
ness OF speech and manner displayed by
/ the old-timers
The milk-and-water boy, on the contra
ry, who enters the service with mis- mind
somewhat too fully stored with p1o5pects.
maxIms, rules of conduct ard shining ex-
amples of the great, good and iilustrions
and whose shore experience has been de-
rived within radius of two hundred
yards from the front gate of his mothers
yard, steps smack into a world entirely
new and strange to him when he puts his
foot over the gangway of a nlan-o'-war.
and, after the absorbent fashioa OF bows
OF such type, he Immediately begins to be-
come lnoculated with the pure surface
manners of the old-timeFs under whom he
serves, tries to emphasize the rodghness
CT these traits in his own person, and
sooner or later becomes more or less of a
rowdy
The rapidity with which boysishness fs
yanked out of very young lads who enter
the navy is remarkable. From his very
first day on board either q training ship or
a man-of-war proper, the unfiedged young
ster is expected TO hop right out OF his
boyhood and to assume 10 all intents and
purposes. the full status of man. He lives
among men who have ranged the world
most OF their lives; he works alongside
some Of them, and almost as much work IS
expected of him as OF the oId-timers; he
puts up with the same amount OF hardship,
toes the same mark of discipline, and is
just as liable to tour in double irons in
the brig for misconduct as his older ship
mates who regard the circumnavigation Of
the globe as a bagatelle.
The boy who at the outset of his naval
life sheds a lonesome tear or two IN his
hammock. but keeps up q brave front
when in view of his shipfnates. is the lad
who may be always marked for winner.
II would be out OF nature for a youngster
of any sort of sensibiilties to plunge into
man n-o-war life with all of it's apparent
rigidity without being bit taken abaek
and depressed by the roughness Of it all
But the plucky boys buckle down and force
themselves to become used TO IL, and even
during their lubberly days at sea they new
er even approach to the verge of deck
whimpering. The Little Lord FauntlerOy
sort of lad had better keep out of the navy.
The navy is composed. as a whole. fore
and aft of genuine masculine men. and
of men of considerable hidden sentiment
too; but in no environment is the parade
of even the slightest suspicion Of senti-
mentality more quickly frOwned upon
than upon the forward deck OF a man-o'
war. In floating community such as a
man war, therefore. the boy of weak
heart ard Of liIy-livered vision can find no
habitatiOn OF peace, much less OF eventual
honor.
From the purely physical point of view.
in the navy is fine thing
for lad. Nine out of ten naval appren-
tiees, when they attain their majOrities,
are strapping. rugged, brawny men, capa-
bic of enduring any amount Of hardship,
and possessing a quality Of health and
soundRess that is bound to see them
through many ups and downs ashore,
should they elect TO quit the a when they
attain the age of twenty most
of them stay on in the service, by the way.
There couldn't well be a much finer physi-
cal specimen than young Breen. OF New
York city, the ex-appTentice in the navy,
who fought with Roosevelt's Rough Riders
during the recent war, and yet, when he
entered the navy, he gave no promise OF
developing into a young fellow who could,
anu Qlu. WdIOQ luOSl Oi the men lie went
up against in friendly bouts toward the
wind-up of his naval service. or course,
in order to get into the navy at all. the
apprentice must be sound CT body but
many Of the lads only get into the service
by narrow margins, owing TO their being
understood or of no very rugged character
of physical makeup.
Once they get to work on deck OF a
nan-of-war it is amazing 10 observe hov
ne deck lads hGgip IN nd
They are put through the most exa- ting
quite aside from their daily bit
II heavy WOrk-eXercises that are design
d to bring every muscle of the body into
'lay. The result is that they very soon
'egin TO expand and the steel gets into
nelr muscles, there to remain as long as
hey live. After year or so in the blue
aeket uniform most naval apprentices be-
IN TO look so entirely unlike as to bodily
the way they sized I'd when
hey first entered the naval service, as to
uzzle their own people on visiting days
he writer has often enjoyed the s-e tacle
Fhen the mothers of naval apprentices
ave visited the lads aboard ship upon the
eturn to port after long cruises. There is
touching, primitive, OF first
FlnclpIes IN the mother-love that beams
rom the eyes OF these women when, right
the main gangway and in full sight Of
il hands. they are enfolded in the arms
their towering. big-shouldered sons.
tted clear OF the deck, no matter what
heir weight. and then taken off to a re-
lote ships corner for a yarn-spinning.
There are boys belonging to famous
merican families serving their apprentice
hip in the United States Navy. some of
hem from choice. and others because their
eople have insisted upon it. These lads
'ere most OF them ineorrigible when thew
lrPrPd the service Thatr