The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1900-10-26
The Courage of a Coward.
Il
BY Edwin J. Park.

r cause he was patriotic, ana
partly because he had got urea
Of packing up and down from Portland
10 Philadelphia in a coastwlse schooh-
er which carried coal in one direction
and lime in the other.
Jerry had been on the coastwlse
hoOkers three years, long enough f0r
the habits Of the farm from which
he came TO be superseded by those
of the deep sea sailor man, and TO get
him shipped as an ordinary seaman
when he appeared before the recruit
ing officer.
We got Jerry at Newport, when he
and a miscellaneous assortment OF am
ateur and professional fatfect came
over the side OF the Columbia, which,
with the Minneapolis, was cruising off
the Massachusetts coast, looking for
an often reported but never seen Span
ish squadron.
Some of the outfit we took aboard
were ordinary landsmcn, and didn't
pretend to be anything else; few OF
them professCd to have been sailors,
and then gave themselves away by
talking about going upstairs and down
stairs and referring to the front and
"hind" ends Of the boat instead OF
saying fore" and aft" and 1t took
no time at all for the ships company,
especially that part of II composed OF
Mullgans, and most Of the Columbia's
crew was made up Of Mulligans, to
rate the recruits for just what they
were Mostly they were of that de
gree OF ineXpcrenCc which Classcd
them as farmers" and n farmer
aboard ship is the rookie of the
ranks OF the army, n thing TO dcspisc
and be picked on and generally NAL
treated by the rest of the OUTFIT, and
especially the Mulligan part of 1t, un-
ill after great humiliation of spirit and
countless hard knocks they have been
battered into n scmblancc Of real sail
ors.
Jerry Robinson, as ! have said, had
learned enough of the sea on the hook
crs TO distinguish port from starboard;
he could coil down a rope as neatly
and snugly MS the chief lo'sun's mate
himself, and he cou.d splice hawser
until L took an expert To tell where
the work had been done; and still he
was wOcfully ignorant of n whole lot
of things that Lad TO be done on Il
warship and of the tenets Of the cti-
quctte which prevailed on the bcr.h
deck.
One Of the unwritten rules forward
is that recruit aboard ship can never
have good standing with his ship
mates until he has whipped the first
one Of them who tries TO give him or
ders, or, failing in that, has given him
as desperate a fight as his strength
and science will allow.
1t is equally as important that new
man shall refuse to obey orders given
by any member of the crew who Is
not warrant officer or who has not
"A rating, because the old shellbacks
have from time immcmorial. and
doubtless will always continue it, had
Il habit of Issuing orders to new men,
and making them do the extra work
which falls TO the part of the old
hands.
1t being n time of war, and every
body being keyed up TO the lighting
pitch when the draft came aboard the
Columbia, made no porcCptiblc diff
ference in the treatment of the new
crowd received.
Some OF them, of course, refused TO
obey the orders OF their equals in rank,
and fought them down i'm coal bunk
ers with so much willingness and ,n-
thusiasm that they speedily cstab-
lished themselves in good and regular
standing with their shipmates, al
though they did not know enough
about the ship TO hurt them any. Prac-
tically every one of the draft except
Jerry Robinson, had had his fight or
maybe, several fights, before the end
of month, and had been assigned To
his special class; but Robinson had not
fought
He was n close mouthed quiet fel-
low who had nothing TO say out of
the way 10 any one and not much To
say at all, and Mike Brady, one of the
most obstreperous of the A. B.'s gave
it out one night that he had made
Robinson polish his share Of the brass
work that morning, and that there
after le, Brady, was going To take life
easy and let his hired man do his
work.
That was an invitation to go down
In. &,
out '-lth fists, for Robinson heard 1t,
and he knew what Il meant; but he
wouldn't fight.
IL don't want any trouble with you"
he said, as he looked out TO sea; and so
Mike Brady told him that he was
coward, and the rest II the mess set
Robinson down rs gutter and avoid.
ed and looked down en- him accord
ingly.
Thereafter he was :voidcd. and
though he attended TO his duties faith
fully, and improved his usefulness
80 that he was rated IN able seaman
at the end of year, he had no friends
aboard.
The Columbia saw no fighting during
the war. and when Dewey. at Manila
and Sampson. at Santiago. had sent
the Spanish warships TO join the sub
marine feet Of war vessels. and the
crews OF our OWE vessels began 10
get shore leave. there was no one In
the beach parties 20 chum with Robin.
son, and he was left alone when he
hit the beach TO look on for himself
Long confinement aboard ship had
made the crews feel like making pret-
~ free with themselves when they