The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-26
ON H. MS. H.
BREAIHTNG SPELLS AMID THE
 MANOEUYRE

trate the Humorous Side of thu
 "Nhite Man's Burden"
 All Adimarl Noels energy cannot pre- l vent the officers and men of the fleet
 from snatching a few moments of re-
 taxation, and as the Howe's company
 seems to me all that sailors should be-
 genial, and yet steadfast to duty-we ! on this ship have some pleasant times. Il There is deal of chafIing among the junior officers, but nothing to hurt any, body's feelings, and as for the seniors, | they look on indulgently, remembering, their own early days. We have mod ] est, youthful-looking chaplain, whom I
 have heard spoken of as the sky pilot | by the very men who said to me, You ought to hear him preach. He knows \ how to get hold Of you" These hon. est souls combine touching simplicity 1 with their light heartedness. They bow their heads unaffected when grace | Is said before and after meat. MT | Vice" says the Chairman in the ward | room every evening, the King" Gen
 tlemen," says MT. Vice, ''the King;
 and we all drink the toast without an- ether word being uttered. The singu-
 !arity of the ceremony is that every one remains seated. Why this departure navy. Capt. Fleet makes present of
 the story to the correspondent, whose
 darkness all are anxious to Tighten.
 The captain sets the excellent exam
 pie of dining with his officers in the
 ward-room, never taking the chair or
 even sitting in one of the top corner
 seats, sacred to the Commanders
 Moubray and Roddle. It is a plan
 which promotes good feeling. Even
 when the captain has given a "wiggilg"
 ro one of his subordinates, as I hay,
 seen him do, they meet at dinner on the
 best of terms. After some comparison
 of mental notes with other officers, .c
 explains that George IV., when Prince
 Regent. granted to the navy the priv
 ilege of remaining seated while drink
 ing tie King's health. Dining on board
 a man-of war, he noticed that some of
 the officers bumped their heads against
 the beams of the dock above when rls-
 ing to toast the sovereign Thereupon,
 the first gentleman in Europe vowed
 
 fcers Of his ships should suffer the in-
 convenience no longer, and he kept his
 promise. The captain of the Howe cheers us at intervals with tales of the time when he was gay junior. On one occasion he, with q band of comrades, visited chief whose civilization was as scanty as his clothing. The potentate entertained them in a singular way, or dering several hundred native women to dance before them in a ring. Were you inside that ring. sir?" says First Lieut. Bruen, who resembles the pie ture of Nelson. The captain laughs as heartily as anybody, only defending himself with the question, Would you have been inslde?"
 Yarns of the Western Pacific are a strong point of the Engineer second to the gentleman who has the distinction of calling himself Fleet Engineer The | former has served some time in that | region, the Ringdove, which | one night, when exercising her search l lights, directed them on a native village | ir the island of Savo. of the Solomon Group. The inhabitants were delighted, | for they had got it into their heads | tIluL tfit llEII WONlu 5tuiG dWoy iVNiis. | So for all was well, but on the next day | but one the ship was surprised by the | appearance of several war canoes, each | carr. ing thirty or forty men. They | had rowed all around the island with gentleman who explained that h, was the boss chief, that the big light ought to have been directed on bis village. | that ''plenty devil, devil,' were there, and the Ringdove must go round at | once to exercise them. The Ringdove lid not see 1t. She had some difficulty | n pocifying the boss chief but at last succeeded with present of such trum- perry goods as traders in that region send to the natives. By the way, the teller of the yarn declared that Bishop Patterson lost his life through unwit- .ingly giving a larger present to an in- 'erior chief than to his lord paramount, he latter feeling insulted. and assert ng his dignity by means of murder.
 Finding his first story relished, the Engineer relates another. His ship vas vcarrying Sir John Thurston high of the Western Pacific, ound the Solomon Islands. She was off one, when a hideous hula- JhlOO WAS hlStu dioISSlhc III tHc tuliy | It came from long war anoe, the principal parsonage in which declared that he was the big chief of he place, and he wanted to see the gov rnor. As he would take no refusal, an ,f1cer went to Sir Johns cabin. The nigh commissioner was asleep, but the loise had awakened him, "Wns,3 on arth is this uproar?" he asked. Tho explanation made him angry. In forci- ,le language he declared that he would lot grant the desired interview, but the natives were more persistent than he, ll md at last he dressed and went on eek "You governor?" asked the chief. Yes.' replied Sir John. You all amee pleeceman?" the police, of whom here are some at Fiji and more in Australia where the Pacific islanders ometimes go to work. being mighty II 'otentates in the eyes of these people. Yes, the high commissioner was "all Il amee pleeceman." You big fellow
 eeceman." Sir John was all that. Then" said the savage to the man with power of life and death, at the anne time showing huge door-key, ,hich he had got from some trader, you give mo bokkus (box) for this" he high commissioners indignation ! truggled with amusement at this ridic- lous climax. He had probably never