The Western news., 1903-08-12
A STORY OF WATSON.
AN OCCASION WHEN THE OLD SEA
DOG WANTED TO SWEAR,
Not Being . Profane Man, However, He
Gave the Job Which Reused His Wrath
to FAller, the Bos'n's Mate, and Then
Let Events Take Their Course.

AnP0
Let Events Take Their Course.
John Crittenden Watson does not be-
long to the list of "cussing officers
yet-as a man-o'-war skipper he never
had man of his ships company aft for
swearing. He was singularly indulgent
of the hard swearers forward.
Hard language helps a man along
occasionally, he has been known to
say to one of his deck officers upon over
hearing a stream of maledictions from
:he lips Of some old fat foot working at
stubborn job forward, "and it is bet
Ter for the men to work off their wrath
aver fouled anchor chains in cuss words
than to take it out of each others
hide"
Aboard one Of the ships under Wat.
SON. command there was an old bos ms
mate lsamed Fuller, who had the call
throughoutthew whole navy as the cham
pion profane man Of the governments
line Of packets. Fuller never raised his
voice when he swore. He would simply
stand back and quietly regard the inan-
innate object of his wrath--a bent be-
laying pin perhaps or slack ridge rope
and then he would open up in an or
dinary conversational tone. But the ut
terances he gave vent to were sulphur
Gus. 1t always took Fuller good five
minutes, to work off what he considered
the necessary number Of remarks on
such occasions, and it always seemed,
when he was through, that he had quit6
exhausted the whole vocabulary of pro-
family. But this was mistake. The
very next time anything went wrong
with Il bit of Fuller's gear he would
start in on a new line that would con-
tain absolutely not a single,1epdtition
CT any of his previous performances 1t
was always source Of wonder to Full
| lcrs shipmates, even the old timers,
where he picked up the new ones, all
Il which were. Of startling originality
and force.
These shipmates related only one in
stance in which he found himself at
loss for words. He wasswith a landing
party from his ship, marching on the
outskirts of Chemulpo, Korea. He stub
bed his toe ON a loose bowlder in the
road and fell on his face in the dust
He picked himself up and looked at the
! noad, He opened his mouth to say some
thing, but he had no words. He was
dumb with wrath. Two or three times
he attempted to begin, but it was no
go. He was stuck for once, SO he pulled
out pistol and deliberately fired it into
the air five times. He had to express his
! feel;ngs in some way. >,
(! When Fuller was serving aboard
Watson's ship, he was in 'good shape,
and his frequent quiet outbursts kept
the forward part Of the ship keyed up
with wonder as to what. was coming
next. One morning at big gun drill
Captain Watson himself was superin-
tending the exercise. One Of the wooden
cartridges became jammed in the breech
of the inch rifle to which he was de-
voting most Of his attention. He
wouldn't permit any of the gunner's
mates around him to attempt to loosen
The cartridge, but essayed the job him
self. He tugged at the jammed cartridge
and broke his finger nails over it, and
still it wouldn't come out. It was a
pretty hot morning on deck and the
perspiration began to roll off his face in
streams but he persisted in trying to
as if he would like to fay a heap were
he q swearing nsan. but he, wasn't a
swearing man. When he 'had been
working for five minutes over the jam
med cartridge Mithlno success, he look
ed pretty helpless and miserable. He
gave one final tug, but the stuck caEs
fridge remained in the guns breech.
The skipper gathered himself together,
mopped his forehead and looked at the
gun.
'Confound it ALL" he broke out,
"where's Fuller? Send me Fuller, some.
body"
Fuller was ON hand directly. i He
wasn't a gunner's mate, and he had
nothing to do with the guRs,ah hut Wat
son wanted Fuller to tackls1He iamIhed
cartridge all the same.
Fuller" said Watson; try aud get
that dummy out of thataghn.''a
Fuller looked at the stuck. cartridge,
and Watson retreat0l to the starhoard
side of the quarter deck '--Ftflrer made
two or three clawAat, the wooden car
fridge, but it Jkdpldnsts come out. "A
gunner's mate gould have got it out in
a jiffy, but FRller wasn't in that line
of the service AHe tagged away, but it
was no goa Watson stood regarding the
horizon on3 the 3ktarboard side of the
quarter de6k. Fuller spat ON his hands
and made one moro try. The dummy
didn't move a tenth of an inch. Then
Fuller mopped his forehead with his
n@ckerchief, clapped his cap on the back
Of his head and opened up. 1t was great
work, this performance of Fuller's, and
! no mistake. He eclipsed all of his for.
} iner efforts. He stood with his hands on
his sides, looking at the gun breech and
: saying things at it that no Morgan OF
Kidd or Teach or other heaven defying
pirate could ever have equaled. The
) men stood around, just looking at Full.
: ler in open mouthed amazement. They
: couldn't make out where he got them