The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-05
THE CHINESE SAILOR.
Their Proof Against Either Cold or
Heat.
From the New York Post.


From the New York Post.
The boatswain of the Kencleuch, a
squarely-built Swede, blue-eyed and
m-jawed, stood on the rail, as the
morning mists blew up the river. and
whistled cheerily between his teeth,
over sides, on sloppy, half-submerged
raft, that rose and fell heavily in the
cold, dirty water Antonio the Greek
Carlo Cknown as Charlie in the fore
castle) the Austrian, and two Norwe-
gian lads were scraping down the
sides of the ship, knocking off the sea-
growth of the warm China seas Seven
little Cinnamon, wearing sleeveless un-
dershirts, blue canvas trousers. and
with stocNngless feet stuck in flap
ping, needless slippers, were washing
down the iron doors of the house.
In response to hail the bos'un ran
lightly along the rail and swung him
self onto the bridge deck. He said that
his name was Yonson, and to prevent
any mistake, spelt it out carefully
JOHNSON. He has been fourteen
years in the company's service and has
had vast experience in the handling
of men. At one time or another all the
nations of the earth have contributed
to the restless, shifting atoms over
whom he has held authority. He has
fought with knives and iron buckets,
Mop handles, and iron Delaying pins
but mostly with his two great, hairy,
red-knuckled fists. Moved to slow
speech, he spoke of many things.
"Chinamen is most extraordinary
creatures; not like human folks like
you and me. Look at 'em now, workin'
In the cold without proper clothin.
Ihey can stand the heat down in the
fire-room that makes the chief engineer
lie down and swear: they can stand
the cold, an they don't eat nothin'
much but rice. We don't carry China
men on deck in this ship all of 'em be-
long in the fire-room SQUAD and don't
have any dealin's with 'em.
Il had trouble in my last ship with
some of en- 1t was in Leith, that's in
Scotland, sir one Saturday afternoon.
Both the mates was ashore, and | was
IN charge of the ship The Chinese
was loafin'. l ordered the donkey-man
to get some steam on deck, but he said:
You no belong my boss and went
and crawled into his bunk / went in
and hauled him out by his pigtail. and
me an him grappled in the port aIlev-
way. He nearly bit a piece out of NV
le1t hand before | pulled him off; then
l hit him a punch in the mouth and
knocked out his four front teeth. He
them-thats how queer they are-be-
fore he began to yell. All the others
come pilin' in, but me and the lamp
trimmer beat their heads together and
kept 'em off till the constables come
aboard. That row cost me three pounds
in the police court but the old man
stood by me, and paid the fine. We
carried that lot out to Hong Kong. and
they were as soft as silk: they only
wanted to be shown who was boss.
THE donkey man on this shin is a
| China boy, and if I may say so, is a
regular polyglot. He can talk a little
| Norwegian an French an English. Its
| more than queer when a Chinaman
| talks Norwegian. None of the Others
can talk English, except number one
man and the number two man of the
| fire-room squad.
Men at sea is just the same as men
ashore, some is swine and some is not
Some you've got to drive. and some YOU
| got to lead You can't hit man on
an English ship like these Yankee
mates do. May be you'll have heard
of Bully Jones of the old Black Bal
Line. They do say he was a terror. They
used to tell a tale about him that
when he turned out a watch he would
sing out down the fo'k'sle hatch and