The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-13

You don't look like one of these New
York toughs or loafers-larrikins, we
used to call 'em in Australia-but rather
like good man gone astray. Can 1 do
anything for you, shipmate?'
l told him in a few words just how I
was situated, and he clapped me on the
back, crying, Don get down in the
mouth over little thing like that. my
boy. I've been on the rocks myself
,many's a time. It's nothing when you
get used to it. You see this packet?'
he continued pointing at the ship before
which we We're standing. well, I'm
alone aboard of her watching her till
i she's loaded and ships a crew, and I'd
/ be glad of little company Come
aboard; you're as welcome as the flowers
/; in May
| | followed him up the Jacobs ladder,
which he hauled aboard after us, and aft
into the Captains cabin. There was a
good fire in the stove and on top of it
4 was a water kettle, from which steam
was Hospitality kissing. 1t did not take
my new acquaintance long to make two
/ stiff glasses of hot toody, and while we
were slipping it and my host was volubly
bidding me to make myself at home and
to keep stiff upper lip, I had leisure to
study his personal appearance. As 1 said
lbefore, he was small and wiry, with a
lyery swarthy complexion, as became a
man who had spent most of his life un-
! der the scorching sun of the tropics. His
eyes were very small and gray, and
sunk deeper into his head than the eyes
of any man l have ever seen before or
since. A deep scar extended from over
his left eye to away back of his left ear,
(which he told me he had received in a
Bowery dive during the Civil War for
singing Rule Britannia" He added,
though, with a smile which left me con-
Iyinced of the truth of his words, that
the wielder of the bottle never had any
more use for bottles in tais world. He
was Sc years of age, as tough and wiry
las sapling, and without gray hair
| in his head, although a rather spare,
dark mustache was slightly grizzled. His
name was Pat Curtis, and after he had
! furnished me with good meal, and re-
iplenished the glasses, he entertained me
flor several hours with the strange and
varied story of his life.
| There are some men who impress you
| by their manner of speech, and person
lality, that they are speaking the truth
without making any attempt to SO inn
press you. You involuntarily feel that
such men are incapable of lying, or even
of exaggeration. Curtis was one of these
men. Born in Ireland, his parents had
migrated to Portsmouth, England, while
he was a mere child. Brought UP in this
he developed a passionate desire for the
sea. AS his parents, like all Irish cou-
pies, had a houseful of children beside
himself, he had little trouble in persuad-
ing them to allow him to ship as an ap-
prentice in the Royal Navy when he was
twelve years of age. 1t so happened that
the ship Curtis was assigned to was or
,dered to Australia and arrived there
lshortly before the discovery of gold.
when the news of the gold discovery
reached the ship, Curtis and another ap-
prentice deserted and made their way to
the mines. On account of their youth
Curtis and his companion were greatly
favored by the miners, and, though he
spent freely and went a pretty rapid gait
as he grew older, he nevertheless left
the mines in 1857 with e15,000 and settled
in Melbourne. Here he married a bar
maid fresh from London and with her
opened a public house.
/ For three years they prospered and
made money, when Curtis suddenly dis
covered that his wife was deceiving him.
Always a man of fiery temper, this dis
,covery drove him for the time being in
sane. He watched his opportunity
killed the man, and thought he had also
killed the woman, but she survived. Some
of Curtis friends slowed him away or