Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-09

run upon a schooner lying in the channel
crowd of lean, brown men lined up along
the rail- and led by the captain, sent out
three roaring cheers for the car, ana then
three more for the cruiser and then three
more for the cruisers captain, who giared
from tine bridge. crimson, in the face
1t was the captured" schooner. adding IN
suit to injury.
Scarcely had the cruiser come to anchor
when a sampan left the schooners side and
made for the cruiser. The grinning natlve
boatmen delivered to the captain his ten
men, with the compliments of the American
.oacher- tt
The ten men were happy to tearfulness.
They were damned full of good American
whisky.
1t was not the first whisky that they had
tasted In the course of their examina ton
the furious captain learned that they had
been enjoying a glorious time, ana nau
Jared rather better on the American scnoon-
er than they had ever Jared in the RUSSIAN
navy They even seemed bit homeslck
for the poacher.
They reported that they had been sitting
quietly on the deck that night in the cove
when suddenly each of them got terrieie
whack on the head. and before man could
cry out the whole ten were gagged and tieo
and thrown down into the hold ON top OF
the skins Then the schooner slipped out
Under her jib alone. and stole softly along
the coast to another cove not more than
mile away. Here the captain hid his craft
for two days, till the cruiser had started
southwark. Then he steered out boldly
went calmly back to the sealing GROUNDS.
filled his hold, and sailed to NagaSakl
There he was just about landing the Rus
sian prize crew. when the cruiser came H.
and it struck him at once that it would De
pleasant courtesy to send the men pack "
the ship with his regards
The Last Straw.
That was the last straw that broke the
Russian back. The Russian officers swore
that they would get that schooner the
moment she stuck her nose out of the har-
bor They stayed and stayed. and so did
the schooner.
After a week, however. an American
cruiser came in: and when she went out
the schooner sailed along under her BEAM
and it was observed that, although the
cruiser could easily have outsailed the
schooner, the two seemed to go at Just
about the same rate of speed The Russian
came slowly astern. wondering, but conf
dent that before long the American cruiser
would draw ahead. and then.-Siberia.
But. strange to say. the American cruiser
did not draw ahead of the schooner at all;
and a last the Russian went back to Nlad-
ivostok. and that is why a certain Russian
cruisers ward-room mess prays every night
to meet a certain American poacher just
once more.
There is another American sealing schooner
in Nladivostok at present whose captain
and crew were not so lucky. This craft IS
acting now as coal carrier LOT the Whaling
ships of Baltic nobleman. Count keyser-
Ing, whose company has the government
monopoly of the salmon and sea fishing of
the mouth of the Amur and the whaling
throughout the Sea of Okhotsk and along
the Siberian coast to VladivoStok.
This sealer was once one of the swiftest
ra cling yachts of the American Pacific coast
She was owned by a San Francisco man,
who built her to beat the yacht owned by
a rival sportsman. She was constructed
without regard to expense, and great sums
of money were wagered on her.
: When it came to the test she outstripped
cher rival with such ease that the owner
w.o had been drinking generously to her
success suddenly took it into his head that
he desired the honor of steering her across
the finish line himself. His captain and
friends tried to dissuade him. as he was not
a good yachtsman, but he insisted, and
sailed her SO badly that she was hopeiessly
defeated
The resulting jibes and jokes so Disguised
him that he had the expensive fittings torn
out of the racer and sold her to a sealer-
Her new owner took her into the Okhotsk
sea- filled her industrousy with seal skins
and then got caught by the Russians. They
sent him and his crew to a Siberian prison,
and now the beautiful. expensive racing
yacht is being used tender to whale
ships, and the count pays the government
a monthly charter price of 50 rubles for her.