The Savannah morning news., 1901-08-24
0'HARA'S PROGRESSIVE JAG.
Exploits of a Marine still Talked OF
at Acapulco.
From the New York Sun.

on the porch of a Sound club house,
was assuredly the most mighty. mas
sive, mammoth, mastodonic, none
lithic-"
why wax wroth with worthless
wax" quoted the others, cutting in.
Just forget about apt alterations
artful aid. OHara, you say?"
yes. OHara," said the naval Off
Ger, trying to fashion a figure-of eight
knot out of one of the straws from his
1ulep. Jim O'Hara, buck marine and
mail orderly on my third ship. O'Hara
frowned upon the stuff during four and
half years of service. O'Hara was
a Boston harp, just little under seven
feet high. and when he had but six
months yet to do to complete his en-
listment ne was looked upon as the
bright and shining light of the ship,
for ard"
with his pat six months ahead of
him and $1'100 of his savings in the
hands of the paymaster, o'Hara wen.
ashore one February morning, just at
ter we'd dropped the mudhook in the
harbor of Acapulco, Mexico to get the
mail. On his way back TO the launch
with his bag stuffed with mail, O'Hara
stopped and asked a half breed woman
sitting in front of a 'dobe for a drink.
He meant water. of course. But when
uniformed gringo asks for a drink
in any OF the Americas the other side
OF the Rio Grande they don't take it
that he means water.
The half-breed woman disappeared
within the bode for a minute and when
she returned she handed O'Hara a
gourd filled with mescal. The Mexican
mescal is brownish looking fluid like
NHNtF Il II
twice as much action to 1t as there is
to rye or Scotch. 1t was a very hot
day. The temperature in the shade was
about 100. O'Hara was very dry He
tossed off the gourd of mescal. An ex-
preston of great amazement, they tell
me, crossed his face. He held the
gourd out at arms length and sur
veyed 1t. Then he asked the woman
for another gourdful and got it.
From that moment it was about all
off with O'Hara. He made all haste to
catch the launch. There was a glad
smile on his features, as of one who
has discovered something, when he
brought the mail abroad He swung
his bag from his shoulder in the skip
pers' cabin, and then he went right be-
low to the pay office and told the pay
master that he thought he could use
those S1,400. The paymaster sized
O'Hara up shrewdly, but O'Hara was
all right, except that glad smile and
the money was OHaras on demand.
He got 1t in a canvas sack-all eagles
and double eagles. Then he went ashore
With his bag to get the mail brought
down by the Panama steamer that had
just got in.
when he had been gone some three
hours, greaser Brought back the mail,
but there was no sign of O'Hara. The
master alarms went sent ashore
to fetch O'Hara back to
the ship dear or alive. Four
hours later the master at-arms came
gloomily back to the ship and reported
to the officer of the deck-your obliged
servant-that there was neither hide
nor hair of O'Hara within or without
the precincts of Acapulco. Nor, said
he had any of tine natives, men, wo-
men, children or dogs clapped so much
as an eye on Commandant OHara.
That's what they say added the
legs, in an aside to me. But 1 seen
two or three 'dobes RACED to the
ground, and O'Haras cap was in the
ruins of one of 'em. But they swore
that 1t was an earthquake that leveled
the 'dobes'
Il conveyed the news of the legs
fruitles quest to the commanding Off
Ger. He was just after eating lunch
con and consequently in a philosophical
frame of mind.
Have the sergeant of marines pick
me out another mail orderly he said
Perhaps he went on, regarding me
with a slow smile-'perhaps this was
coming to O'Hara, anyhow. Man with
a spotless record. But the whelp might
have asked for liberty However, well
let him alone. I'll have a little heart
4,If~ a. l. -
back
II saw O'Hara on the following
night. / was strolling through the
narrow 'dobe line streets to the east
of the town, when the sound of some
rather sweet music coming from a palm
grove directly ahead reached my ear.
walked to the rubble fence that in
closed the grove and looked in. There
was O'Hara. rolling around in the seat
of a grapevine swing, with torch at
either side of him. Two violinists were
squatted on the ground in front of him
saving away plaintiyely, while a cello
player stood beside them, executing
arpeggios with much grace and effect
There were many bottles of mescal on
the stumps of cluster of felled palms.
when the music ceased, q par of
guitar players, accompanied by an old
man with a book in his hand, emerged
from the darkness that was visible
outside of the lighted radius of the
torches. The guitar players struck up
some moving chords, and the old man
with the book began to recite to O'Hara
with many eloquent wavlngs of the
arms. The book he held was a volume
of Emilio Castelar's verse, and he read
from 1t. OHara lolled in his grapevine
swing and listened to the chant and
the harmonious monotone of guitar
chords with a grin. O'Hara's knowl-
edge of Spanish stopped with mamma, |
fully sober. Well, here was Caesar in |
the garden of Maecenas, a Horace !
drumming the Tyre. 1t was very af- |
fecting. / remained at the fence as
long as / could without shrieking and |
thus destroying the charm of the occas-
ion, and then / came away.
"One of the ensigns ashore the fol- |
lowing morning saw O'Hara too |
O'Hara, with no coat on, but with |
serape of brilliant hue thrown over one |
shoulder, "A poncho thrown over the |
other shoulder ard a three denied SOM |
brero trimmed with silver and with |
many bells hanging. from the rim of IT, |
was walking by church, when a dozen |
little girls, all in white, and with |
wreaths of flowers on their heads, |
from the church. conveyed by a |
white-robed nun. The little children |
had just been making their first com |
munion. AS they passed by him |
O'Hara's hand went into his trousers |
pocket and he pulled out a handful of |
gold. TO each of the little girls he gave |