Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-16

day and night, under the same watch OH
Ger. You are allowed to smoke at the
Wheel and also thfs is truth) allowed
stool to sit upon when your legs are tired.
Yet the time passes slowly In the pinot
house, and it is fair to presume that II
passes as slowly out on the bridge. where
the officer in charge is supposed to pace
up and down, intent only upon his duty.
But on fine nights duty is easy OF per-
Torrance. There may be word through
the pilot house window from the off1cer.
tentatively jocular answer, joke or good
humored comment In return. and demo-
cratic relations pro tenn. are established.
Thus 1t was that old Dutch Pete (ofhcially
Mr. Becker. chief mate of the Sunderland
first borrowing my chewing tobacco, began
talking with me as we steamed up Lake
Erie, and reeled off the yarn which follows
He was an old, wise man, who had seen
all lands and all men, and he was a sea-
man and an officer whom I esteemed and
respected, while l was a 'wheelman' whose
steering he tolerated. We had so assured
each other. Yet there was one subject on
which we could not agree-the place and
value of womenkind. While not being
woman hater, the old man was certainly
unjust to the sex in some of his allega-
lions, and was young, with warm recoi-
lection of a brown-eyed, dimpled, pink
checked young woman, with fluffy hair ana
sweet smile, whom but never MIND
her.
'Joost think of the poor fellers," re-
marked Pete, as he handed in my plug.
married men. who can't chew, nor smoke
nor drink, nor have any fun, just cause
woman says they moosn't. Why. terbaccy
is one Of life's blessings, and if weemen
folks only knew it they'd use it same as
men, but they haven't sense enoof."
Yes, sir" 1 answered, but it's a dirty
habit after all. It's all right for men, but
not for women"
WHAT" he said in scornful surprise
why? Are weemen any better than men?
Are they any more p'ticular about what
they dof Does woman wash her face
any more than a man? Hey? She don't
She puts vaseline on it or glycerine or that
cold cream stuff, and then she swabs it
off with towel and calls it a job She
don't chew terbaccy. No, makes bad
breath, she says, but she eats candy and
cake and sweet things till her teeth are
bad and her stomach's out of plumb and
her mouth smells like a slaver's main
hatch, and if you offer her chew of good
navy plug to freshen IT oop she's insoolted.
Yah-weemen folks me =" The old man
stamped down the bridge, peered ahead and
astern, sang out something to the lookout
and returned to the window.
Does a woman know anything, anyhow,
he continued. She thinks she knows 1t all.
ana banks on 1t, and when things don't so
right she blames some man who didn't do
what she told him. And she's always ready
to tell him what to do, and how to do it,
and when to do it-joost as il she knew.
Did you ever notice a leetle girl joost old
enoof to go out and play-how she tells her
leetle brother that he moost do this and
he moost not do that, and this was wrong,
and that was not right? She don't know
anything about it any more than the leetIe
boy. It's an instinct-jOost the same as
makes a leetle kitten growl and spit over a
bone. Now, nobody wants that bone but
the kitten, but it takes her back to the will
derness-she thinks the whole wide world
1nr ,In hir,ly
she is soaring other animals away. Same
way with the leetle girl. She gets it from
the time-way back-when weemen were
bosses and men sawed wood mean they
said nothing. And so she begins preaching
when she learns to speak, and she never
stops-no, never. She never stops. Young
man, don't you get married. When man
gets married he not only binds himself to
support another person, but to consult that
person about everything-aS to what he
does what he wears. where he goes, whom
he knows and what money he spends. Yah
men are - fools to get married"
l thought of brown-eyes-and-dimpIe and
smiled-pityingly. He saw the smile in the
light from the pinnacle and fastened to
speak.
Must have had hard time, sir IN your
INV married life? Oh, no. I've had most
kinds of hard luck, not that. Still.
came near it-bout your age. too. or a
leetle Older"
I was interested and expressed my In
terest He visited both ends of the bridge,
looked at the compass amldshlps to see that
l was on my course ana leaned MS ELBOW
on the sash.
about your age. l went to sea with
full crew of married men and their wives
along with them. That cured me. had d
girl at the time-daughter of a Liverpool
grocer-good girl, too as girls go-and she
was to wait joost one voyage till had
saved enough to stock a leetle home Tor
her. I had a masters certificate, but had
never commanded a ship; all / hoped for
was a chief mates berth, and was goin'
to save my money and marry that girl and
learned that the ship Hyderabad. loading
for Singapore, wanted skipper, and l
struck for the job. Then l knew why she
wanted skipper-Wasnted him bad and
SINNERS Iookin' for ships to sail. and I
was the only man who was willing to try
that ship That's because l was young and
goin' to be married.
too. and religious; and he read his Bible
steady: and that Bible told him that it
was not good for man to be alone. and he
a woman long with him; so what does he
do but put a new forrard house in the first
of his ships that come home, and sink 1t
down tn the 'tween-deck. That made two
stories, with a winding stairway. Down
below was dining room with a table and
chairs, and pantry. and laundry room
where the weemen could wash clothes and
folks. or he wouldn't have thought Of the
laundry Above was the TO castle proper
just two strings o two-bunk rooms with
door and a window to each. Oh. that was
a fine fo'castle. Then that man gave out
that only married sailors could sign in his
ships, and their wives must go to sea with
them. thought that was all right for me.
too, and after I'd got the berth, 1 wanted
to splice my girl and take her along; but
her old dad wouldn't hear Of it. He said to
wait until the floating asylum got back.
and ifoI was still alive and not crazy I
could have her: SO So my my CIR, girl stayed home
Now. l WASH so 1ar gone that l didn't
buckos of the worst kind; Know what a
Yankee bucko is? No? Sign out o New
York this fall and you'll know He's a
cross between prize fighter and locono-
tive. l got those two mates aboard in the
dock fore the crew came One was Black
Dunkherst O. Cape Cod. I shipped him
chief mate T'other was Mister Johnson
o. Boston Mister was his first name. he
said, and he never had any other Both
had bad records and regulations and
neither had conscience, as far AS could
see But they were the men / needed in