Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1904-01-20
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y nix By.
MORGAN ROBERTSON
MORGAN ROBERTSON
4 Copyright, 1905, bv Morgan Robertson {
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

n TRICK at the wheel on the
~ great lake steamers lasts six
hours = that is, the whole
watch. Hence you steer the
same trick each day and night under
The same watch officer. You are allow
ed 10 smoke ut the wheel, and also
this is truth-allowed q stool to sit
upon when your legs ere tired. Yet
the time passes slowly in the pilot
house. and 1t is fair to presume that 1t
passes as slowly out on the bridge,
where the officer in charge is supposed
TO pace up and down, intent only upon
his duty. But on fine nights duty is
easy of performance. There may be a
word through the pilot house window
from the officer, tentatively jocular
answer, a joke or good humored COM
ment In return. and democratic rela-
tons pro TEN. are established. Thus it
was that old Dutch Pete. officially Mr..
Becker, chief mate of the Sunderland,
first borrowing my chewing tobacco,
began talking with me as we steamed
up Lake Erie and reeled off the yarn
that follows. He was an old, wise
man, who had seen all lands and all
men, and he was II seaman and an off,
Ger whom esteemed and respected,
Willie was a "wlleelmnn' whose steer
Ing he tolerated. We had SO assured
each other. Yet there was one subject
on which we could not agree--tlle place
and value of womankind While not
being II woman hater. the old man was
certainly unjust TO the sex in some of
his allegations. and ] was young, with
warm recollection of brown eyed,
dimplcd, pink checked young woman,
with fluffy hair and sweet smile,
whom l. But never mind her.
"Joost think OF the poor fellers," re-
marked Pete as he handed in my plug,
married men, who can't chew nor
smoke nor drink nor have any fun
joost cause a woman says they
moosn't. Why. terbaccy is one of life's
blessin's. and il weemen folks only
knew it they'd use it same us men, but
they haven't sense enoof."
Eyes, sir" l answered, "but it's a
dirty habit after ALL It's all right for
men, but not for women"
"WhatY" he said in scornful surprise.
why? Are wcemen any better than
men? Are they any more p'ticular
about what they do? Does a woman
wash her face any more than man?
Hey? She don't. She puts vaseline on
1t or glycerin or that cold cream stuff,
and then she swabs it off with towel
and calls 1t job She don't chew ter
baccy. No; 1t makes bad breath, she
says. But she eats candy and cake and
sweet things till her teeth are bad and
her stomach's out of plumb, and If you
offer her chew of good navy plug to
freshen oop her breath she's insoolted.
faf, weemen folks be --!' The old
man st.sMped down the bridge, peered
ahead and ustern, .sang oLt --sotastA:ag
to the lookout and returned to the win
dow.
'Does woman know anything,
anyhow" he continued. "She thinks
she knows it all and banks on 1t, and
when things don't go right she blames
some man who didn't do what she told
him. And she's always ready to tell
him what to do, and how to do it and
when to do 1t, joost as if she knew. Did
you ever notice q leetle girl joost old
enoof to go out and play-how she tells
her leetle brother that he moost do
this, and he moost not do that, and this
was wrong, and that was not right?
She don't know anything about it any
more than the leetle boy. It's an in
istinct, joost the same as makes a leetle
kitten growl and spit over bone.
Now, nobody wants that bone but the
kitten, but it takes her back to the
wilderness. She thinks the whole wide
world is conspirin'to rob her of It,, and
she thinks she is scarin' other animals
away. Same way with the leetle girl.
She gets 1t from the time, way back,
when weemen were bosses and men
sawed wood-I mean they said moth
In. And SO she begins preachin' when
she learns to speak, and she never
'stops-no, never. She never stops.
Young man. don't you get married.
When a man gets married he not only
binds himself to support another per-
son, but to consult that person about
everything to what he does, what
he wears, where he goes, who he knows
and what money he spends. Yah, men
are fools to get married"
Thought Of the brown eyes and dim
pies and smiled pityingly. He saw
the smile in the light from the binna-
Gle, and I FASTENED to speak.
"Must have had hard time, sir, in
your married life."
any married life? Oh, no! I've had
most kinds of hard luck, but not that.
Still. came near it-'bout your age,
too, or a leetle older"
was interested and expressed my
interest. He visited both ends of the
bridge, looked at the compass amid
ships to, see that | was on my course
and leaned his elbow on the sash.
4 "About your age went to sea with
Ia full crew of married wen and their
wives long with them. That cured
me. had a girl at the time, daughter
of Liverpool grocer-good girl. too.
as girls go-and she was to wait joost
one voyage till had saved enoof to
stock leetle home for her. had a
masters certificate. but had never
commanded ship. All hoped for
was chief mates berth, and 1 was
goln' to save my money and marry,
that-girl and be happy man. I did
not know, but learned that the ship
Haidarabad, loadin' for Singapore.
wanted a skipper, and struck for the
job. Then knew why she wanted a
,skipper-wanted him bad and couldn't
get him. Liverpool was full of skip
ipers lookin' for ships to sail, and
was the only man who was willin' to
try that ship. That's because l was
young and goin' to be married. You
see her owner was a young man, too,
and religious. and he read his Bible
steady, and that Bible told him that
iitiwas not good for man to be alone,