The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-05

the result is that all hands are living
/ infinitely better than the majority ever
thought of living ashore. You find.
| therefore, a happy, contented lot of
men. 1t little matters that they are
new to the boat or that a goodly por-
ton of them are new to the sea. jeff
ries has enlisted his own crew since the
republic was Matched, and while he has
no uniforms for them except soldier
caps, he is winning their affections and
promoting their loyalty to the new gov
eminent by looking closely after their
interests and satisfying their animal de-
sires.
Here. as in the army, the utter lack
of discipline is noticeable. When the
Admiral went aboard the other morn
ing, after having been some little time
ashore, the only mark of respect paid
him was by a little coalblack fellow,
evidently the officer of the deck for the
watch, who came bustling up to the
head of the gangway. Over this fell
lows right shoulder was slung a broad
strap, supporting a two-edged sword,
hanging at the left hip. Jerking the
sword from it's sheath. the officer sa-
luted as Jeffries stepped aboard, and
them hurried away, the Admiral
threading his way aft, past groups of
poorly clad and bare-footed sailors,
none of whom took any notice of his
arrival. They were too deeply i'm
mersed in their several games of cards
and dominoes-played on the hatch
covers-to notice the arrival of their
commanding officer, and the command
er-in-chief of the Panamaian naval
forces.
Don't WaI<en the sentry.
This happy go lucky way of running
af- wa fanfipaa hln every
hand. Those, officers or men, who had
occasion to speak to the Admiral would
saunter into his presence and speak al
most as Familiarity as did Charlie
Ross in the conversation l have quoted.
The Admiral takes all this as a matter
of course; his enforcement of rigid dis
cipline extending only to one thing.
and that is to keeping all the rifles and
small arms aboard the boat tightly
locked in the armory small iron
deckhouse just aft of the pilothouse.
That Jeffries does not believe in being
too hard on his men was well illustrat-
ed when we clambered up to the bridge.
The hour was about noon, the sun was
shining with true tropical torridity, ana
the sailor who had the watch on the
bridge Law stretched out at full length
on a narrow bench, sound asleep, with
his cap pulled well down over his face.
Following Jeffries example, we stepped
lightly so as not to waken the man,
and. our inspection from the bridge fin
ished, we went softly down the ladder,
while the man slept peacefully on.
But it is to be remembered that it
is of the navy of Panama we are writ
ing, and such little things as the watch
asleep at his post are of no moment
Going aft from the bridge, the chief
engineer, a rotund, full-bearder English
man. came to the quarterback to speak
with Jeffries. In his hands he carried
the broken part of one of the pumps.
The accident was one which had to be
remedied. OF machine shops in Pana-
ma there are none, so after looking at
the broken pieces Jeffries quietly told
the man:
IF you are going ashore this after
noon slip down to La Boca and see If
you can't find something aboard one of
those old French canal dredges or
scows that you can use in place Of this.
IL you don't find what you want there,
70 out to some of the ships anchored