The sun., 1902-01-12
OUR TARS AS FIST FIGHTERS.
THEY'RE TERRORS TO THE MEN
OF ALL OTHER NAVIES.
Some OF Their Famous Scraps Ashore
Recalled by the Recent News OF Their
ClsSh with the Russians In Northern
China a-Hun-ins With the British.

sntna-hun-hs WIN ue brithn'
That scrap between American sailors
and Russian soldiers at Newchwang, China,
was exceptional only in one of its conse-
quences, namely. that 1t was deemed worthy
Of representation to our State Depart
ment by the Russian Government. II may
be assumed with perfect safety from this
fact that the Russian soldiers took a mighty
sound licking at the hands of the United
States tars. II. on the contrary. the Rus
SLAMS had won out, there would assuredly
have been no complaint from the American
bluejackets In that case the affair wouldn't
have taken shape as matter for official
action at all.
The American sailors would have made
their way to their ship as best they knew
how. reported to the surgeon OF the apothe-
cary to have their wounds bound up, ac-
counting for the wounds by solemnly stat
ing that they'd -butted into a stanchion"
or -tumbled down a ladder and that
would have been the end OF IL. There's
not q case on record Of an American man
o'-war's man reporting on board his ship
with a countenance mashed TO pulp and
a tale OF woe Of having been whaled by n
foreign man-o'-war's man or a gang OF
them. Plenty Of them have crawled over
the gangway with the bunged-up faces
inseparable from such scraps, but none Of
them has gone blubbering aft about 1t.
American tars are Incompatible at keeping
their tongues In irons in such cases.
Moreover, there's not a case on record
OF an American warship's company getting
the worst of a free-for-all shore fracas
with a foreign man-o'-war's crew. This
may not sound reasonable but II Is a simple
fact. Nor Is there any recorded case In
which a gang Of United States bluejackets
on shore liberty failed TO land on top In
mix-ups with foreign soldiers, although
such battles have been frequent in our
naval history. Sixty tars from one Of the
wooden tubs of the old American navy
once licked several hundred red-coats on
the Rock OF Gibraltar to such a complete
standstill that when the next big liberty
party from the American ship went ashore
on the Rock the admiring English soldiers
couldn't do enough for the bluejackets in
the matter of buying them ale and in blow
ing them of generally.
II Is only fair 20 say that United States
bluejackets on shore liberty in foreign
ports rarely start these melees. They are,
for the most part, a much quieter and more
peaceable lot of men, even when drinking,
than the men % wars men of other coun-
tries, and they will sheer of with a shrug
TO avoid a clash with uniformed men In
foreign lands if the point at issue strikes
them as being too silly to be worth CHANGING
a broken head But when real trouble
comes their way at the hands of quarrel
some foreigners they give IL the closest
kind OF a hug, and then it's a case OF Stand
by!" with a vengeance on the part of the
aggressors II they value their pelts.
While the American tars scrupulously
refrain from carrying chips on their shoul-
ders in any foreign port, II is nevertheless
true that they are just a leetle bit more
on the lookout for possible mix-ups when
thrown into shore contact with the lime
juicers and the square-heads than when
they meet up with other men-o'-war's
men. The lime-juices are British men
o'-war's men. Our men call them lime
iuicers because In tropical waters lime
Juice Is served out to the crews Of British
warships to guard against sickness. The
square-heads are Ge man tan. They're
called square-heads because Of the ira
ditional fiction in the American Navy among
the enlisted men that the heads Of Teutons
are necessarily box shaped.
About twelve years ago big liberty
party, comprising the whole starboard
watch Of about 100 men, went ashore at
Hlo, Hawaii. from an American gunboat
hat was returning to the Mare Island
Navy Yard from a three-yoar cruise on
the Asiatc station One Of the members
of this liberty party Waz the crows mascot.
a jap dog that had boen picked up. starving.
A. the streets of Nagasaki 10y one of the
men. who brought the animal aboard the
.hip. fed him up aud taught him many
dlvrTting tricks, such AZ walt zlng on his
front fcat. pretending 90 die of grief when
ar ousrot= drill wac announced, threaten
ing and bulldoznR the amused skipper on
all possible occasions, and so on. The dog
deyeI,psd into al amiable and tagacious
animal and the blue riacketr, sailor-like,
O..am. nightly attached tu th" brute,
uari.u.ahy because the dog utterly de
,lr.d to lave biy trIck ur duugs What -
ever with tho onirrrs Df th" rnip, Nhirh
rrat struck ths ENLISTED men as hring poS'r-
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