The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-10
YEARS OLD,
STILL A SAILOR
Queer Character a Seaman on
the Italian Ship Wal
lacetOWn.

Yes. sir, yer bet cher life. l
am a regular American citizen, sixty
years old. l can speak ten lang
uages, and MARBLE a bit in lots
Of others. I've been rich; I've been
poor. I've lived a sort o. sky-piloting
life at times and then again I've set a
/ straight course for hi, and sailed it,
too. Yep, l was born at Sitka. My
mother was an Eskimo. The old man
was a Russian. I'm naturalized,
though, and jest IS good citizen as any
Yankee. Say-but say, this-afl of
this-don't make any difference to a
man when the skipper shouts: Blast
my weather eye, Seth, why in the name
of Pelee don't you go with the rest?
Up you go and help. stow skys'l.'
That's the time that 0 know that a
%feller's nationality doesn't matter a
whoop in the ships rain barrel. Does
it?"
The time was Sunday. A white
bearded, squatty looking old man was
spinning yarns of the forty years he
had spent on the sea. He was a typ
ical sailor. On the Italian ship Wal
lacetown his lame is down as
Brown" But that's not my name;
I'm not telling it. It's spelled Russian
like, though" he said.
The old man got a post on the Wal
lacetown at Callao, while the vessel
was there for repairs. before proceed
ing to Honolulu. He is a fine linguist
and quite a humorist.
Eyer been in Manila?" he queried.
YES" was a b%ystander's reply.
WELL said the sailor, 1 was there.
I served in the Sixth Artillery. ! had
a lot of boys under me"
What were you, an offlcer?"
well, in a way 1 was-I was the
cook. You see / kind % monkeyed
and Observation-Disclosures cans, pots, {,
kettles, and soap and dish rags. /,
Well, everything was all right until L,
got full. Then I went to the Palace.
I said: Otis, you Injun. you impostor,
come out and meet a regular American.
You old bamboozler, don't you be feed,
in those Filipinos and having my poor
boys killed. You auto-you see / use
that lev kind without horses word
until it breaks down-'come out. I'll
show you what your mother should
have showed you before you got any
hair
Well" continued the old man, "Otis
stuck his head out of a window. Of
fcer of the guahd, arrest that man. he
shouted. They courtmartialed me and
give NE ten years for insulting an Of
ficer. Blast met wasn't me that did
the insulting, for it was the booze.
They should have courtmartialed the
key I got it from and ordered it
placed in the Palace, where soldiers
couldn't get it.
"But when 1 got to Washington I
kicked the bucket right off'n Otis work
and they let me go. I've been tramp
ing since all over the sea. / was eight
months on the beach in Callao, and
some of the time 1 lived on seven cents
a day. Hard luck? Well, $3.50. But
I've seen a Chinaman live on ten penny
nails and grow fat on 'em.
Say; the skipper said | was sick and
wanted to discharge me. He took me
to a doctor. 1 told him I'd be all right,
and that it would cost him more money
to try and get me out. The doctor
said l was as spry as a Sheepshead Bay
oyster, and by way of paying his re-
spects to the skipper gave me a small
bottle of stuff that looks like whiskey
VIII you have some?-No, Tank
all right, that much more for me.
Well doctor said 81; skipper paid, and
I'm 70 stay aboard. Well, t~ra-la-la,
old boys
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