The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-06-14

+. me, Mrs. S. BARNHART, NEW CASTLE.
PA
hereafter: and didn't care whether
there was or not.
pretty soon the men understood
what was the matter with the cats
which they found out through the sec
ond mate being foolish enough to tell
them | don't want to say anything
against the second mate, but it can't be
denied that he was young. and when a
man is young he is naturally foolish. |
was foolish myself when | was young
man. and don't doubt that you We're.
too begging your pardon, and not
meaning any otfense. Well, when the
men knew that the cats had gone mad.
they We're dead sure that they would all
go mad, too. most of them having been
chewed up considerable since the cats
first came aboard. and it being well
known that the bite of a mad animal is
certain death. The Captain did his
best to quiet them by telling them that
! if they were bound to go mad there was
no help for it. there being no medicine
that could do them any good, and conse-
quently, the best thing they could do
was to say their prayers regular, and do
|
Il judged that he made mistake in
this. He ought to have told them that
he had a medicine which was a certain
cure for hy(}rocephalus. and then he
ought to have ladied salts into them,
with, say. a little tar mixed in with it to
give it a favor and then the men would
probably have been satisfied. But
there's the Inconvenience of not being
able to tell a lie. | can't really blame
the Captain for it. but it would have
been a sight handler if the Natchez had
happened to have Captain who was a
tirst-class liar, and could have qlieted
the men down. and avoided amy serious
trouble with them.
Il don't say that | wasn't nightly
afraid of those cats myself for | never
liked the idea of going mad: and to 90
mad i'll consequence of a cat was more
aggravating than it would have been if
the cats had been dogs Inever went on
deck without heavy bit of wood in my
hand. and when saw Il cat coming my
way | generally went the other way in
double-quick time. Two of the men
were caught by the mad cats. and the
way they were bit up was a sight. Final
~ the men broke into open mutlny and
sWore they would stop below in the TO-
csle till the Captain would promise to
put into the nearest Brazilian port which
was then only about 800 miles to leeWard
| The old man gave i'll and promised for
there was nothing else for him to do.
and we braced up on the starboard tack
and headed for Pernambuco. The men
seemed to be more or less satisfied: but
that night. soon after the second mate
came on deck in the middle watch. |
having gone below and the old man tax
ing all night i'll, three OF four of them
jumped on him from behind as he was
leaning over the rail. and gagged him
and made him fast to the wheel. Then
they tossed some provisions and a
breaker of water into one of the quarter
boats. and having backed the maintop-
sail, the breeze being light at the time
they got into the boat. all hands of them
and lowered away. and that was the last
any man ever saw or heard of them.
''The men had worked so quietly that
neither the Captain nor | woke up. but
after while the old man, happening to
awake and look at the compass over his
berth, saw the ship was heading about
north. and knew that something was
wrong. so he rushed on deck and loos-
ed the second mate. and told him to call
all hands. There was nobody to call
except the carpenter and me and the
niger cook and the cabin-boy but when
we were all mustered on deck, we braced
the yards up again. and put her on her
! course. The second mate was wild with
anger and fright, for several times
while he was bound hand foot and could
MT help himself, or even sing out, cats
had come up and investigated him, but
curious as it may seem. nobody bit him.
| calculate that this was on account of
the tobacco that he used to use. which
was the worst that | ever smelt Amy
way. it showed the advantages of using
tobacco. and I've often thought of-it
when my wife talked to me about the
evils of smoking
In three days time we ran into Per
nambuco. and the minute the ship was
fast to the quay the cats bolted. They
went along that quay like a streak of
black and tabby lightning and the
natives ran and yelled that whole
! regiment of devils had been let loose on
them. Wenever saw any more of those
cats. though l did read in the Boston
papers after we got back to Boston that
an epidemicof hydrocephalus had broken
out at Pernambuco, and that the people
We're that scared they We're leaving the
| town.
I'VE shipped a new crew-and scaly
lot of Dagos they were-and pursued
our voyage to Singapore and Canton |
never mentioned cats once to the old
man, for could see that he was a good
deal cut up about the failure of his
speculation: but one day while we We're
| lying at Singapore, he said: Mr.. Baker,
| you warned me not to put my trust in
cats, and laughed you to scorn. You
were right, and l beg your pardon
| Cats are an irreligious and an unscrup-
ulous animal, and no Christian man,
let alone Christian sailor, ought to have
any dealings with them.'" Philadel-
phia Saturday Evening Post.
| Last fall l sprained my left hip while
handling some heavy boxes, The doctor |