The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-08

even terms with the enlisted men isn't
a first-class master-at-arms.
THE Legs has an easy enough time
of il keeping on an even keel while
his ship is at sea. or even when the
vessel is in port in which no shore
liberty is granted to the enlisted men.
1t is with the returning shore liberty
parties that he has to get busy if he
has any regard for the tenure of his
job, not to say anything Of the consid-
GRAFTON which he is naturally bound
TO have for the Wilderness of his skull.
A half-jagged bluejacket, returning to
his ship in that condition, doesn't care
much for the eagle on the watch arm
Of a maSter-at-arns. Neither, for the
matter Of that, does the rummed-up
tar bother to any great extent over
the stripes and stars on the sleeve
cuffs Of the officers. A properly picked
American man-o'-war's man Will go
up against a whole flock of grizzly
bears without any thought whatever
as TO how he's going to emerge from
such melee, and it is for this reason
that the Legs has many troubles Of
his own in handling returning and re-
turned shore liberty parties Of blue
Jackets. When he grabs hold of a tar
whom he spots, as the man lumbers
over the gangway, as jag, for the
purpose of hUstIing him up TO the stick
to be looked over by the officer of the
deck, he's got TO have his eyes wide
open and both hands decidedly ready
for a repertoire of swift punches and
jabs straight from the shoulder, and
there are plenty of cases on record
wherein a dozen or more oE crazed lib
erty tars have jumped the Legs stimuli
Tac
marines at hand TO help a master-at-
arms out in such emergencies, but, all
the same. when anything of this sort
occurs the Legs has got to fight, and,
may add. he has got to know how
to fight No matter how great the
odds against him when a Legs fails
to kin out in a scrap Of this sort and
energies from the mix-up in poor con-
dition, his usefulness as a master-at-
arms on board that particular ship is
virtually at an end The men have
no further use for his busted prOwess
as rough-and-tumble proposition
and in cases of this sort a command
ing officer usually finds it desirable 10
request the transfer Of the whipped
Legs
4 served one cruise on board a ship
that was notorious throughout the out
fit for having the toughest lot of tars
in the American navy. They were all
rafting good sailor men, at that. but
a great many of them had Joined the
navy from the merchant service, and
they were fighters from away back.
II seemed as if all hands of them,
whether they were drunk or sober,
would rather fight than eat. That
cruise was in Asiatic waters, and with
in no = flor the shin had
left the states there wasn't any more
discipline left on board than there is
/ in a monkey cage. Three successive
masters-at-arms, big and competent
men, too, had gone by the board, pun
meled to smithereens by various
mighty fighters in the crew. Half the
ships company forward were going
I about all the time with a black eye OF
so and broken heads were as common
on that man-O'-war as the spreading
of mess gear,
''rnen the skipper-he's now an adj
miral-did a very unusual but a very
wise thing. For some time he had had
/ his eye upon a coal passer Of very
/ quiet demeaEOT. who, upon enlisting
/ had given his occupation as that of d
pugilist. This coal passer had never
/ taken a hand in a solitary fight or
/ SnlpDOdEQ or On SuuIG SluCE JOAlluB ALAr
! service, being, as I say, a quiet in
/ dividual whose one desire seemed e
/ be TO be let alone. But the command
{ ing officer shrewdly saw the POSSIBLE
/ tiles latent in that coal passer.- and
\ ne made him chief master-at-aTms OF
I the ship. From the hour that the Goa
! HEAVIER got that rate discipline was re-
/ stored. The way he walked through
! the buckos on board that man-o'-wal
was something lovely TO contemplate
He never asked the marines 70 hell
| him out in these battles but went il
1 entirely alone. II was just pie tol
4 him to bang together the heads Of
three or four rum-crazed giants. his
| science as a prize fighter being some
/ thing remarkable, and by the time the
/ ship returned to the United States The
/ docility and utter tameness Of tha'
crew OF bad propositions was almOs
| Iaughable. It just about takes a pugi
list to make a good Legs.