The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-07-04
SAILOR LiFE NOT ALL THAT
FANCY PICTURES.
MEAN MAN TAKES ADVICE
Positive Proof Furnished That. Fa-
nous Irish Bard Never Lived
at Coulson.
From Tuesdays Daily Gazette.


who babe farewell to the plains and
mountains for the purpose Of be-
coming rovers of the bounding deep
under the fatherly care of Uncle Sam,
according to all reports are wishing
they had not done so. At least some
of them are wishing that way. They
find that to- a certain extent they have
been gold bricked and that the real
thing is somewhat different than it
is shown in the pictures portraying
life on the ocean wave.
One youth, who enlisted at Butte,
has deserted and is now a fugitive,
trying to conceal his identity and es-
cape arrest. He has forfeited his
right to citizenship and must always
remain to a certain extent an outcast.
Before deserving he wrote a pathetic
letter to his parents in which he de-
scribed some of the hardships of ap-
prentice life on a training ship. Just
because he so far forgot himself as
to expectorate on the deck he was
compelled to wear a cuspidor hung
from his neck and walk about for the
convenience of those of his mates
who wished to spit. This he was fore
ed to do for two days. Then, he
claimed, they did not get enough to
eat, especially at breakfast time,
when they were obliged to rush by a
table on which food was placed and
grab whatever came within reach.
Some of those a little slower than the
others got nothing and had to fast un-
til dinner time. He thought any kind
pf life was better than that and de-
serted.
The story of the paralyitic who in
northern Montana committed suicide
because he said he was half dead
anyway and nature was too slow in
completing what she had begun was
the subject of discussion by a group
of men in pne of the hotels this morn
ing. Some thought the unfortunate
creature had been justified and 9th
ers were of the opinion that no mat
ter what the circumstances or con
ditions in which a man found him
self he had no right to- take his own
life. At best it was an exhibition OF
cowardice. Very naturally the con-
%versation took the form of stories of
suicides and the slight cause that
prompted men into the commission of
self-murder. a
One of the party was a man who has
spent much of his life in the mining
camps of the west and he told the
story of a suicide that occurred some
years g in Nevada. The man who
killed himself was one of those un-
fortunate fellows who never seem to
have anyfr because OF their mean
ness of temper and disposition. He
had been hanging about the camp a
long time and the longer he remained
the more he became disliked until
even the dogs growled whenever he
passed. One day he was %deploring his
hard luck to a man with whom he
still maintained speaking relations.
I'LL tell you what the trouble is;
you'e just too id mean for any
body to have any use for you," re-
piled the one to whom he had appeal
ed. IF / were you I'd get a stick of
giant powder and go somewhere into
the hills and naturally blow my darn
head Off" This concluded the con
v%ersation between the two and the
Ishmaelite left. He was not seen for
a number of days afterward, but this
was nothing unusual, as he frequently
disappeared and remained absent for
weeks. About a week or so after
ward some men were coming into town
from a distant camp. They had fol-
lowed a trail that was not much trav-
eled and a few miles from their jour
neys' end found the trunk of a man.
The head had apparently been blown
off by some terrific force. Pinned to
the coat of the body was a note. 1t
was short, but to the point. Hank:
l took your advice. l held the stick
in my mouth" was all it contained.
The man to- whom it was addressed
understood.
Their fund of stories had become
exhausted and argument of various
kinds and on many subjects followed.
One of them in the course of his end
of a rather warm discussion made
use of a quotation from one of the
poets. Say, where did you learn
that?" asked the other. THAT? Why
that is from Tom Moore, a man, I'll
hot raNo~ Nry~ $500 -