The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-28

Up Quite as Red Headed as Ever.
 The old diver was putting a rubbe
 patch on one of his sons suits.
 Tt ain't what you could call a right
 handsome piece of tailoring is it?" he
 said. ''The waists just a trife toe
 much like sea cows, and as for the
 trousers, an elephants ain'e much bag
 gler. l don't wonder that when a mar
 gets into clothing like this, and then
 crowns 1t with a head piece like wall
 eyed lookout lamp. shark never takes
 him for anything human and eatable.
 No, a shark won't touch a man in
 'armor.' And they're not so mighty
 fierce after human flesh out of it. On a
 black coast the natives Il tell you
 they can run the surf and dive for coins
 without much danger, because sea ti-
 gers hardly ever touch any but white
 men; and almost all whites in shark
 waters have a firm belief that dark
 meat Is the only sort the brutes care
 about
 "As for their cruelty-though I've got
 q. shuddering, vivid recollection of the
 fury of one of them when wounded-I
 don't believe much in that, either
 When they make kill they tear 1t to pieces and down it the quickest they
 can, which isn't more brutal than na-
 ture. Indeed what's made me sick
 hundred times has been the cruelty of
 sailors and fishermen toward them. I
 like fish in a pan just little better than like them in the water. But it's
 worse animal than I've ever run across that deserves torture. And sea beasts are, as rule, the most harmless, easy going, good natured tribe imagin- able.
 My only adventure with a shark was in the spring when I hired with q regular wrecking company, and had my first job south of Cuba. That was the raising of the famous Georgia Belle, which was about the unluckiest and costliest yacht that ever kept million aire from worrying lest he'd die rich.
 ''On this occasion she'd run on one of those saw-tooth reefs off Cayo Largo in the Jardinillos; and after giving her owner and his friends just time enough to get away int he boats she'd backed off and took to the bottom first bow and then stern. When T climbed down to look at her I found thirty feet of her forward sheathing from keel to eutwa- ter riddled and torn like biscuit-tin target. And the first part of my job was to sling myself over her side, like a house painter from a roof, and put a sticking plaster of concrete and can vas over every one of those thousand odd holes. It was a months contract, and promised to be mighty tedious one, too.
 "But up above we had considerable diversion. Not only were there the crews of the tug, the derrick and supply boat, but there was Batabano spong- 1 ing sloop raking off the reef, and her | officers used to come over evenings and | entertain us with music. They had | only a cranky mouth organ and | broken guitar, but we all used to join in | the choruses.
 "Whether it was the racket or the re- fuse from the cooks galley, we brought | ourselves a visitor. The third day I was down a heavy shadow suddenly swung over my head At first I thought the tug had warped round; but when I looked ID I saw a fish that seemed as big as a torpedo boat. It 1ung above me there in the undersea slowly furling and unfurling ts tail like propeller standing up against tideway.
 I knew what it was. My whole inner machinery seemed cold and heavy as mercury and I clutched at my sling ca- lies to keep myself from falling. What d heard of a man in armor being safe rom sharks went out of my head like he bubbles from my helmet; and when t last the sea tiger slowed around and lid quietly off through the black blue vail of ocean behind me I caught at the ignal line as if I were drowning.
 up on the tug, though, they only bought 1t was great joke. They had cen the man-eater. The mate said he eemed to him about the length of the Ireat Eastern, and the mouth on him ,oked like a church door hung with ,icles. Tivey, the engineer, declared it 'as true that sharks had the power of ( 1rowing off electricity, for at first it I 'as as if they had a galvanized jump lg jack at the end of the life line.
 Tt ended with my going down again, c joking silly, and feeling mighty quaky a bout the middle But l wasn't trou- V e again that day. il "Yet next morning the shark was d round and off and on through that O eek He was always alone. It was t le small fish, though, that always gave c e the first warning. As I scraped the c elle's sheathing, dozen or more little were all the time at my elbows r the watch for broken shellfish and h ,rnacles, like chickens after worms h hen you're spadlng a garden; and all q sudden they'd whip away and next le oment the shadow would swoop in if Ter me. I'd work myselfaround side a se on the slings, turning slow as the st lnds of a clock, for fear he'd notice D e-though I knew his eyes were II aced so he could only see level and ! le ,ward-and then I'd grip myself tight 1 el Id watch him through the ghost sun st Int. u Yet for all my fright, I couldn't help ing fairly fascinated by the way he fe ndled himself. No fish seen from 1 If der water seems able to make an un- q, aceful moce and that great eighteen m 1ter threw off curves like 8 show pen a, Tn doing decorative birds. I suppose S, 5 because 2 shark has kind of elas- ! "