Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-04-03

The master diver was turning over
some of his old helmets. Long and
corrupting acquaintance with salt wa
ter had left the tinned-over copper
bulbs a rusty, greenish gray.
why don't | keep them polished
up?" he said. because they're great
deal better the way they are. A shiny
new helmet Is one eternal nuisance;
you never get any peace till it's coated
over. When I'm wearing one, l al
ways feel as if my head was a sort of
trolling spoon; anyhow, most fish re-
gard it that way. And | must say they
do certainly seem to be trying their
level best to be caught.
Il often think that with the ma
jority of seabeasts life must be one
long struggle between a natural wari-
ness and more than natural curios-
ity. They've all been brought up to
give wide ofIing to things they. don't
understand; but it's bred in their
bone to want to see and keep up with
everything that's new. And when it's
something that's got a glitter or polish
to it, all that their parents and guar
dians have taught them from the be-
ginning of time isn't going to hold
them back.
And no one has such opportunities
to find that out as the diver. At first,
when you're being lowered, there's
nothing but flicker of tails disap-
pearing in every direction; but after
while, and very soon if you're wear
ing new headpiece, you begin to
make out big pairs of google eyes
staring at you from the under-sea
twilight, and they gradually move in
closer and closer. In a few minutes
probably they'll be making little darts
at your fingers and swiShing their tails
across your face.
And yet in some cases they may
not be at all hesitating about introduc-
ing themselves. Down in the West
Indies there's a fish of the forward
sort. That's the BOBBY. Did you ever
see a skate when fishman's tied a
cord around his neck, bent his silly
face forward, and set him up on a
table to keep things gay and humor-
Gus in the market? Well, a BOBBY
looks something like that
But with all his amazing ugliness,
it isn't the booby's looks SO much as
his overwhelming suddenness that
makes him unpopular with deep
sea men. A diver goes down, and along
with the other fish the BOBBY hears
of it. But is he shy and timid about
coming forward? The minute he hears
of a miraculous stranger in his midst,
my, but he does more than want to
wait for the extrys.' as you might
say; he's got to rush straight down
town to see the bulletins!
The first thing the unsuspecting
diver knows, he's hit plump in the
forward face-plate; and between his
being Jared like ship in a bow-on
collision, and his being given the firm
belief that he's had visit from the
very old grinning demon OF the under
sea himself, he's ready TO put for
the surface like stampeded derrick
hoist, and do his recovering slow and
at leisure He's lucky if the BOBBY
hasn't tried the thickness of both his
side-plates, too, before he's safe over
the gunwale!
There's another sea beast that has
his own peculiar curiosity, and that's
the giant squid but there's nothing
so very humorous ABOUT their little
prying inquisitiveness. Once in the
Mediterranean one gave me a half
hour which l thought would leave me
gray-headed. Just how near it was tc
being my last dive I'll never know.
'It happened in the end of the sum-
mer, when I'd been on that job near
Shanghai, and | was coming home by
way of Suez when l got wire at
Port Said from headquarters direct
ing me to take my gear and side
track myself direct to Palermo, Sicily.
When l got there-and | didn't lose
any time making connect!ons-l found
that a badly moored liner had pinched
a big lighter between herself and the
mole-the long stone wharf and break
water the Palermese are so proud Of
anu, smashing it abeam, had sent it
W luc DOltOlu. WiS d
lighter, and it's cargo was an unusually
valuable one-would run $4,000 or
$4,000 in our money-and / was to do
what | could toward hosting a good
fat salvage out of it.
ut was simple, easy work. There
were two or three hundred medium
sized cases to derrick up, and for me it
wasn't much more than snap-to the
chain-hooks and give the word to haul
away.
"In fact, there was only one thing
which kept the job from being exactly
the kind | like | couldn't seem to
make good tenders of the Italian sea-
men they'd given me to work with
They would pump steadily enough,
but had no head at ell for signal TAX
ing; and before long l was practically
regulating my air supply, and timing
my descents for myself.
Il never got too little wind, and
when l got too much | simply opened