The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1904-07-31

~-N less than week after sight
MI Z ing Amsterdam island the
lAl Il weather grew milder. the mei,
& y4dTs,1 threw off their heavy cloth
VAeVsSJ ing, shaved, cut tllei,. hair, and
V Waslieu themselves. physically. the re-
II tlief was great. But, delicious as warmth
Y III the sun was. 1t could not dispel a
# isnawins discomfort i'll our hearts, a deep
depression Of spirit. For two months
tpast our nerves had been under cons
sstant strainf and the passage, already
an unusually long one, was little over
half done When you have not seen
Z t1and for four months only wa ter-wnter
: S!->---water-waves and horizon, quite un-
consciously the feeling comes over YOU
THAT there is no land, there never was
\ fany land and there never will be any
land, that the world is one globe of WA,
y tter, and that for ever and forever YOU
Il will sail on and on around In a circle.
3fSVith5 this feeling comes an utter hope
Z. iessness and a savage discomfort with
Il your surroundings, principally your ship
q mates. fierce hate comes into yOu,.
you hate them, because YOU see so much
an OF them, you 60 to sleep with their
- voices in. your ears, wake up and henr
&. hem again-those same, same voices
3t hat you heard a week 9 go. a. month
q 30, many months ago. sf 543ss ,tSS s5g
ig And then the slackncss about the
n stomach, the belly hunger, the disgust
with the rotten meat and hard Biscuit
81 stinks in your nostrils while you eat.
II Then our reading matter gave out. The
+ ship had no library, and the few books
slS and II magazines aboard were b read
through by all hands. This K gave us
( tine 10 think and brood. Qulrress in
s. the forecustle we're becoming daily oc-;
turrences. One was started by an 2argu-t
z n1ent as to whether queen Victoria had a
/. mole on her chin. anothersby tile pres
q ence Of q fly in the soup. Had these
chickering's Terminated in actual fighting
A It might have been better, but they SIM
e ply created bitter feeling.
Liverpool Bob was especially ggressive
Il and became aflersa time almost unbear-3
able. 1eS iad all opinion on everything
he knew anything about and on a few
Il things Of which hc knew nothing. Poll
X tics was his speciality FL Bob and l We're
the Two Sslnccrest friends on the ship,
9but$ats lines we came near smuggling each
4 other, Neither o Us. was Very patriotic,.s
3 neither of lis thought our respective
country the only thing in--the way OF
national greatness. but our patriotic zeal 4
suddenly warmed up and we argued IL
out on extremely iingoistic lines: This
spread among the others. The 4lrishmlnf
took my side and we held stormy de-
h bates w0r,hE$ofGan# Irish parliament. One
Rlction damned England; the other
manned the United States With an ardor
That sometimes brought us to the. verge
lf open hosIilitics. The Revolutionary
war was especially rich in material, nor
did We bind ourselves to historical nccu-
Siacy. w We got to manufacturing history;t
we the American faction icreatcd huge
x British armies gave accounts OF fierce
q battles. in which the Americans never
exceeded half the number Of British, and
always beat them, ina manner that
WOULD have made Mr.. Bancroft's eyes
blink. The British faction showed no less
\! inventive genius, and transported tre-
i,nendous armies of tFrenchnen into Amer
#tca under LafaM and IA score of other
if1French generals ID haze never heard of
iiDefore or since. Then, not satisfied with
lpast history, we went into future history,
Rnd argued oYersa war which hadn't been
fought yet. Mike. at the head of an
Il American army, was ooting London
Z chops; Bob, with a British fleet, bonn
,barded every American city worthy Of
snention. Jack raised an insurrection in
ireland and chopped off tho heads of all
4 alle English statesmen who opposed home
4 rule. Cockney gathered together a mag
fljficent fleet of prvatecrs, and simply
iwore himself out hauling down flags from
3. S,ankee ships, substituting British Jacks
ln their places.
N Thus the debate wore on, day aftcN day.
lit was highly humorous, Of course. but
Not to lis--sge We're all In dead earnest
Ave spoke sarcastically, ironically and
iscynically. but not humorously We felt
dust as bad over those wars as If we per-
Eunally had conducted them and we're re-
f; sponsible for all the actions of the par
Elephants,
The officers, too, showed like symptoms.
sl'hey soured on each other and on us;
1jad us pull ropes that needed no pulling.
and trim sails that needed no trimming
ii there IS one thing that sinks deeper
anto sailors soul than being made TO
do unnecessary work don't know what
ii is.
We responded with growls--low at first,
nut louder afterward, Then We dropped
nue sirs" which custom requires seamcn
10 tack AT The end Of NIL their responses
10 official commands. II fell from ''ayc.
Aye. SIR 10 faye, aye and later 10
X simply a logged FAYE, unconsciously
-,oth sides were lieaplng tow on the snold-
rIing fire. And what made II worse was
,lle knowledge that only two-thirds four
passage was over. GlA##
l8 In such state We're We when once
more the ship approached the tropics.
5l'he atmosphere aboard WAS dark with
brewing trouble; itneeded hut a spark
81 a critical moment, and hell would be
loose. And one day that spark feI-a
u. spark In metaphor but IN reality only II
niserable1 vulgar little ten cent bottle
81 tam.
The steward had among Ills provisions
some Jars OF fruit jelly which only APP
,eared on the cabin Table. II may be
lhe owners supplied this for cabin use,
they supplied little enough otherwise, or
it may be that the captain and mates
pad clnhbed together and bought il pri-
*ately. Our minds, however, were In
tio condition TO consider these plobabli-
Y Hies, Our stomaehs we're in II chrunc
I iGtate Of emptiness we knew that
rs One day Tim sa. some If these lam
Jars through q port hole- in tho cabin
mess roolsl with n4easy reach, SO ii,
e did what he considered his boundet
5dpty-Treacled in, took one and slppet
lit into lie breast Of his wopllenr shirt
Just then the kateh Was JAILED az
10 take q puil pti tile spRnker sheet. Thu
Il brought US al up en- the poop Having
} ! e Z