The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-08
HE WANTED TO GO TO SEA.
All the Arguments Used to Dissuade
Him Worked the Other Way.
From Captain Bluitt."

From Captain Bluitt.'
Now they tell me you want to be a
sailor, my son, is that SOP"
"Yessir."
Very well. then: going to become a
sailor. 1 was that way once. 1 wanted to
be a sailor and as l had no sense l went to
thought I'd have lots of fun. That's what
you think, isn't it, Sammy"
"Yessir."
"WelI, my son, you take my advice and
drop it! L followed the sea twenty years
and more, boy and man. and maybe had
more luck thar most sailors, but do you
know, Sammy, what else l had?"
"A bully time, sir"
mo, my son; there's where you're mis-
taken. l had a hard time. It's a life not fit
for a dog. let alone a human being. How'll
you like standing watch on a wet deck in
the dead of night with the ship rolling and
pitching and you wet TO the skin or taking
a turn at the wheel in the black darkness
of the blind fog when you can't see a
hands length in front of you. or running
up the rigging when every lurch you think
she'll send you overheard? How'll you like
that, Sammy"
"Fus' rate, sir
You're mistaken. my boy. You think you
will. You let your imagination play with 1t.
But you won't like the cold fact. There's
no cooked things to eat. Only a bunk to
roll about in without any mattress, and
fat pork and crackers and things like
that"
81 always liked pork. sir"
And then, Samuel. it's dreadful to think
of a fine boy like you sailing about in those
things, and the first thing the cannibals
will swoop down on you and catch you,
and there you'll be, with savages skewer-
ing you up and cooking you for dinner
when you might have been at home, If you
had been a good boy. eating your own din
ner with your mothers love around you.
Be warned in time, my SON.
I'D like to see a real %cannibal, sir"
Yes. and SAMMY. a live CannlDal would
like to see you, a stout. well-favored boy,
with fat on him. But suppOsing you escape
the cannibals and the feverS, still there's
the sharks always following the ship and
hungry for boys. The chances are two to
one you'll fall overheard and then they'll
snap you in half before you can get your
breath"
Real sharks"
yes. terrible fellows. with teeth like a
rip-saw. and never eat anything else when
they can get bows. And even If the sharks
don't get you, you're almost certain TO be
wrecked some time and cast on a desert
island with no clothes on YOU, and nothing
or next TO nothing to eat. and only rain
water to drink. And maybe there you'll
live and live and live. perhaps for years.
and never see the face of a human being
and wishing you were safe in your dear
mothers arms. Keep away from IL, my
SON. Keep away from it,
I'D have Friday with me-"
Friday? What Friday How do you
mean?'
"Just like Robinson Crusoe."
Now, Samuel. that is just fiction. No
shipwrecked mariner ever had such luck as
that man. It's against reason. It's wicked
TO deceive boys with books like that. A
sailors life, my son, Is always hard.
There's no poetry in IL. even If he does go
about seeing foreign countries and London
and Bombay where the turbaned Hindoos
are, and Naples. All, Sammy. there's a
place! Naplesi Why. my son. 1 judge the