Evening star., 1901-06-29
THEIR NARROW ESCAPE

on terra f1rma," said young naval off,
Ger recently detached from his ship and or
dered to departmental duty here ANY
how, few of us had to take the maxim
that way little while ago. I'll tell you
the story, at any rate, and permit you to
decide.
Our ship, one Of the cruisers, was lying
at navy yard. 1 won't have to go into
details as to just how far that navy yard
Is from New York. A few of US of the
ward room had, in the natural course of
events. become acquainted with a certain
well-known party Of stage women at the
city adjoining the navy yard The reason
why this party Of stage women happened
to be so Well known is because they have
been singing and dancing and acting to-
gether for a long season, and the group
made pretty sizable hit. They were
pretty nice sort of girls, all of them, and
presentable and well educated. the major
ity of them. and they were mighty anxious
they told us. to spend a pleasant after
noon looking over the decks of q man-o'-
war.
OF course we invited them of to our
snip for luncheon in the mess room, and
a chat and a glance over the vessel. There
was nothing wrong about that, you are to
understand. Naval officers don't go out
side the pale of good form on board the
ships to which they are attached, or any
other ships. or anywhere else. for the mat
ter of that, and it was perfectly all right
Tor US to entertain these young women of
the stage.
I'VE did entertain them We gave them
a mighty tasty luncheon, with just enough
OF the appropriate moist things to get us
all in good feather and chatty. They were
scrumptuously got up, and. of course, We
had to present them to the skipper, who
gave us SLY looks and all that sort Of
thlng. Then we took the young women
over the snip and gave them cap ribbons,
ana big knives, and plugs of sailors to-
bacco and all that sort of thing. Then we
returned to the mess room to continue the
chat.
We were chatting away pretty merrily,
wnen one Of the ward room attendants, an
old timer, who knew a thing or two and
whose discretion was highly valued aboard
the ship, appeared in the entrance to the
mess room and pretended to be mighty busy
doing nothing His pretense didn't go with
me, however when 1 caught his eye. His
eye told me that he wanted to see me on
deck. I made my excuses and went for'ard
to the entrance to the mess room. Here
the ward room attendant grinned.
"'Well? said I.
Well. SIR said he. Tn only telling
you because think you and the other gen.
tlemen OF the ward room ought to know it.
The steam cutter is on its way to the gang
way-pretty close by now-and In it, as I
made out, are your two sisters from the
west that came on to visit you last week
and party of other ladies, kin OF some
OlucE SeHtIcIucIl OI Luo WdTu TOUIH OHIy
thought I'd tell you. sir; that's ALL con-
cluded this mighty wise mess room attend
ant, casting humorous eye in the direction
Of the mess room.
have told me- I said to him. and then l
performed the hardest two minutes think
ing of my life.
"'Well. here goes for a big one.' was my
final conclusion but there's no help for 1t,
and it's got to be DONE
Now, you see, it wouldn't have done very
well for our women folks to had to meet
that party of young women OF the stage
I don't think I'll have to define just why.
There was. at any rate, nothing snobbish
about the thing. theoretically, we had no
right to entertain any young women IN the
mess room whom we did not consider exact
ly right enough to meet our own women
folks-but there are lot OF finer shades
and meanings to these things that can't be
gone over in a general talk.
Il pranced into the mess room, with as
much of a concerned expression of counte-
nance as 1 could possibly scare up, and
said simply to my messmates, Orders-sud-
den orders-gentlemen.'
''They hoped up at once. Some OF them
knew that it was a put-up job but others
fancied from the expression OF concern that
I wore that really had some fresh orders
to communicate. We all made our excuses
to the young women, who were quite de-
lighted with the little tableau and exclaim-
ed, How deightful-perhaps a war! Then
I got my messmates outside, and l told
them of the predicament
"''The ship has been ordered Immediately
to sea- you know-within the next ten min
utes,' said I. looking them over out Of the
tail Of my eye, and our guests must. with
our assurances Of bereavement and regret.
be sent ashore In the No. 2 steam cutter d.
rectIy. Do you perceive"
.'Of course they perceived-especially the
chaps who, like myself. had women folks
almost ready to pop over the side to greet
them.
$50 we all returned to the mess room
with grave faces, and had to take up the
horrid part of spokesman.
Ladies' said I, you thoroughly under
stand how we are grieved, but there are
occasions-uh-er-the ship. you know, Is to
be almost instantly put to sea-some COM
plication somewhere. Of which we are not
informed-but inside Of ten minutes we
shall be under way, and under these cir
cumstances-
"They were already on their feet.
Goodness gracious sakes alive! they
exclaimed almost In one breath. and we
shall be carried away in the old ship to
some nasty war; and we shall lose our en-
gagements and-mercy on u.s. please let us
get off at once! they pleaded in unison.
did we let them off at once? Well
don't suppose such short adieux were ever
made before on man-o'-war or anywhere
else. The No. steam launch was already
waiting at the gangway opposite to that at
which our women folks were due to arrive,
and the young women of the stage stepped
into it so quickly that it was plain they
feared that they were liable to be pressed
into service as gunners mates some
thing and carried off to the raging main
for battle with pirates and folks.
with sad countenances We waved them
ou- respects from the side. and saw their
launch quickly disappear-I had told the
cox'un of that launch how quickly I want
ed him to have that craft disappear.
Then we turned to meet our women
folks coming up the other gangway ladder
and we were saved. OF course, the con-
sequences of discovery wouldn't have been
so very deadly but all Of the members Of
that particular party of young stage wo-
men had been SO frequently photographed
for the papers that our own women folks
would assuredly have recognized at least
some Of them, and-well, did you ever ex-
perience the difficulty of explaining any,
thing to woman?
II don't know whether those nice ac-
tresses have found out yet that our ship
didn't go off to deep water on any sudden
orders of any sort. but you can gamble
that none Of US ever raised the nerve to 90
and tell them that the orders for heavy
whether service had been revoked as soon
as they had left the ship in such haste"
His Unlucky Day.
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