Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-05
A DEAE IN 0PIU M

-
IT was once siapmates with bluejacket
who wasta business man proper" said an
ex-petty officer Tof the navy. He was a
fireman. detaiiedsas engineers storeheeper.
on a cruiser attached to the Pacific station.
He was American born and bred. away
back, but because of his low stature, swart
skin and black hair and eyes he was nick
named the HotteAtot
'-DurinGthe regime of the p. G.-the pro-
visional government. that Is to say-down
on the Hawaiian Islands our ship was or
dered to Honolulu. We were in dry dock
orders came. The Hottentot only had two
months to serve Of his second enlistment
at the time.
"on the day following the arrival OF the
Honolulu orders the Hottentot put In for q
three-day liberty and went down to San
Francisco He astonished all hands by re-
turning Clean and sober and on time. Be-
sides. the Hottentot wore thoughtful look
when he came over the side. !.
On the day before we up-anchored for
Honolulu the engineers yeoman was cut on
the dock checking off, with the aid Of the
Hottentot, acting IN his storekeeper's ca
pacity. the engineers supplies that were
being taken aboard for the cruise down to
Hawaii.
Two boxes too many of cleaning paste
said the yeoman. looking puzzledly at his
list. I wonder how that happensr
Well said the Hottentot. scratching
his chin. wen need all of 1t. The old
hooker is always shy of cleaning paste. and
then the muckers bawl at me for it. What's
the matter with taking the two extra boxes
and fixing 1t up with the yard storekeeper"
All right, said the yeoman. and the two
extra boxes went on board
1.-The Hottentot took those two boxes on
board and slowed them himself He slowed
them very carefully. Each of those boxes,
Nrn AZ
Of opium. each tin holding one pound Of the
dope. 1t was No dope at that-no blends
or seconds. The Hottentot had gone to
San Francisco especially to get 1t. He
knew that at that time there was a pro-
hibitive duty imposed upon opium by the
provisional governmental duty that was
about three times the value of the hop. and
opium costs something a. pound. The opium
had arrived at Vallejo, across the creek
from Mare. Island on the night before,
when the Hottentot happened to be ashore.
He loaded 1t into an easy-going sannpan
with creased oarlucks. and under cover of
the darkness he crossed the creek with the
two boxes and unloaded them on the dock
where the engineers stores had been
dumped. The marine walking post along
that dock and whose instructions were, of
course, not to allow any shore boats to
land, happened to be away from the spot
at the time. The Hottentot knew how big
80 gold disk looked to a marine, and he
had made previous arrangements with that
sentry. The Hottentot slowed those two
boxes of Cleaning paste in locker with
out a lock, careless like, so as not to at
tract attention by slowing them with too
much pains. This studious carelessness
came near running the scheme.
"0ne morning, three days out the Hot
/. tentot was up on deck, taking smoke.
when one of the oilers needed some clean
Ing pastesto- tidy up his bright work. He
was too lazy to hunt up the storekeeper.
and so he went to the locker where he
broke as b paste as dS ea ro
hopping 7itk Ratchet and grabbed the
first tin nat fal out, Then he stuffed the
broken bot back into the locker and start
ed in to clean his bright work with opium
worth it's weight In silver. He didn't notice
the queer, look and the queer smell of the
stuff until he had daubed up some of the
brass. and then ne let out snort and
was dishing nutand expecting men to keep
their bright Wprk spiek and span with.
The Hottentots got along while the oiler
was still epssing, he took the tin from the
oilers hands ann smell It %iSi . ~
q why rs that condemned paste you've
got hold of. Said the Hottentot to the
oiler without thrnipg a hair Keep your
Internal fins out Of my lockers That paste
ago and It's going to be turned In as soon
1.-THE. Hettentsi,s idea, in, taking the stuff
dc wn. waste make an arrangement with
the dope asheFs, 4 fsw tins af 4 lime ' On
the third ievenfng afteEothe arrival Oh the
ship I'M Honolulu harbor: the Hottentat
came aboard from shore liberty. prepared
to get the cutters eeX,un Off Into corner
to submit a business. proposition to him.
The cutter came along from, the beach and
the Hottentot noticeds that dignffiei-
locking manr.fn white duck uniform step
ped out of 1t. and. raced neryously up the
IL oder and asked the officer of the deck to
see the skipper; The man in the white
duck uniform was the head of the Ha-
waiian board of health He had come on
board to notify the skipper that cholera
had broken out in Honolulu, in the Cid.
nese quarter, and to ask the skipper for
all of the disinfecting material that hap
pened to be on board the ship. Five, MN
utes after the health officer went ashore
the news was all over the ship that cholera
had broken out ashore. and a force was
Immediately put to- work loading the sur
geon's supplies of disinfectants into tine
long boat, to be taken ashore on the fol-
lowing morning to help the Hawaiian med
ical authorities out. 1t was this news that
caused the Hottentet to make other ar
rangements. He Cancelled his scheme of
getting the cox'un of the cutter into a cor
ner for business consultation.
when the lOngboat was all slowed, and
swinging alongside, to be taken over to the
dock on the following morning the Hotten-
tot took the first long breath he had in
dulged in since-making that liberty in San
Francisco. The two boxes of opium were
In the bottom of the longboat, neatly COW
cred over with a tarpaulin. The boxes had
been re-labeled Chloride of Lime'-the Hot
tentot was Arst-rate Ietterer. He had
made little arrangement with the bay
mantle ships nurse. that is-who had
been in charge of the Job Of loading the
longboat with the disinfectants. The bay
man had seen to 1t that the two boxes had
got into the longboat all right-it was
nightfall when the slowing was begun. and
after the Hottentot got the stuff up to the
grating of the engine room hatch from
down below the bayman didn't have much
of job in accomplishing his end Of 1t.
1.-The lOngf,oat reached the beach on the
following morning. and there were half a
dozen Cinnamon with push carts waiting to
hike the disinfectants to the Chinese quar-
ter. under the direction of a young member
of the board of health. Before the de-
parture of the longboat from the ship the
bumboatman had hurriedly left to take
message from the Hottentot to a king
bee Chinaman In the Chinese quarter.
That's how It happened that the right
Chinaman, with his push cart, was on the
dock awaiting the arrival of the longboat
load of disinfectants. The right Chinaman
made 1t his scrupulous business to dump
just those two particular boxes into his
push cart for his load, and when the Chinks
trotted into the Chinese quarter with their