The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-10-13

en- broke the last restraint, and had no;
bystanders interfered, he would have
spent his remaining days in the queens
service. As ii was he cut the mate with
MS sheath knife so severely that next
trip there was new mate.
THE ONE WORD THAT HURTS
MOST.
1t is well known how fond ships off,
GERS are Of swearing. Life at sea seems
TO breed in men a genius for creative
profanity. In the sailors vocabulary OF
swear words there are terms never
heard ashore. But occasionally a mate
feels that even extra ordinary profanity
VIII not adequately express the state
OF his feelings toward some one whom
ne particularly wishes to wound ver-
Daily. He turns red and blue in the
face with suppressed rage, then, with
relief, finds the one word that will ram
kle:
You blasted soldier!''
The sailor thus termed is pretty apt
to fight, even though his opponent is
his superior officer.
called a soldier is hard to explain. 1t
probably originated in the olden times
when soldiers We're transported in sail
ing ships. They usually incurred the
contempt of sailors by their frightened
behavior during storms, as all lands
men are apt to do at first, and thus
the word may have come to be synon-
ymous with coward. Anyhow, sailors
in time Of peace-are the most con-
tempuble creatures on earth.
1 knew of mate once who punished
by ordering men to pace the deck with
capstan bars on their shoulders, as
though they were troops on parade.
He carried that on until he caused a
desperate mutiny wherein several men
were killed.
WHEN JACK WAS CALLED A
FARMER
In spite of the fact that many Cape
Cod sailors are also farmers, Jack con-
siders tilling the soil in the light of a
disgrace. 1 was once walking a coun-
try road in England with a shipmate,
a typical sailor who had been to sea
all his life. Outside a small village
farmer on his way to market with a
wagon load of potatoes. He invited
us to ride with him, and we accepted
his invitation.
The countryman did not observe that
we were sailors, so began speaking OF
the crops and various other things in
cidental to farming life in a way that
inferred a thorough knowledge of the
subjects on our part. Jack shifted
contemptuously. as though considering
it quite condescension that an able
seaman should choose to converse with
a common farmer.
What dye think of the early drum
head cabba ge-about time to plant it
now, isn't it?" suggested the country
man.
Jack answered very shortly that he
didn't know.
BENT We in the farmin' line yerself p"
asked our companion.
I almost thought I saw tears in
Jacks eyes. He looked himself over,
and then me, saying in a highly ag-
grieved tone:
Say, mate, do we look like farmers?
For heavens sake, don't tell this when
We get aboard"
THE DISGRACE OF DIRT.
In spite of the rough life they lead,
sailors are undoubtedly cleaner and
heater of dress aboard ship than any
other workmen of their class. A SLOW
emily man in a forecastle never had a
pleasant time with his mates. To be
called dirty is a keen disgrace. This
is especially impressed on young boys
on their first trips.
On an American bark that traded
between San Francisco and Honolulu
there was once a green fellow from
the Seattle coal trade, where the men
can't keep clean. He had learned all
he knew of sea life there, and, conse-
quently, was under the impression that
he could SLOUGH about deck on a deep
water vessel in the manner he had
been accustomed to aboard the coast
ing collier.
At first his shipmates intfmated by
hints that his ways did not suit them,
and when he disregarded them they
told him plainly that he was filthy
cub. But he was not sailor enough
to take this as an insult.
One early NJ 0rning watch they
dragged him out of his bunk and
scrubbed him down with the deck
brooms, and thereafter he was barred
from social intercourse during the ev-
ening dog watches. A man whom it
had been necessary to treat in that
manner was considered disgraced for
life. Never again was he treated on
terms of equality in any forecaistle he
afterwards went in, the story having
spread all over the coast. On this ac-