The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-02-17

1.-THE sailors trunk" said an old salt.
s'is canvas bag cylindrical in form and
about four feet long and eighteen inches
in diameter, and when he got that pag
bag and all, constitutes his kit He
couldn't carry regular trunk even II
he wanted to. for there would be no
place for 1t in a ships forecastle. But a
dunnage bag takes up only so much room
as the stun inside of II takes up-that IS
to. say, If it's only half full you can fold
II down to half its space, and then II the
bag Is full you can press It and you
can bend and twist It you can make good
stowage with It In the place where II mas
70 go, and so you can get 1t, with as
much stuff in it as a trunk would hold.
into space where you couldn't get q
trunk at all.
And then this bag is a mighty sight
handler to carry than trunk would be
when the sailor man goes ashore. or
when he goes from his boarding house TO
a vessel when he ships for new voyage.
He can just pick that bag up and sling
1t over his shoulder and it's flexible
enough to fit there easily, and sag down
a little forward and aft. making It easy
to carry.
ships We're commonly used. before the
day Of steam kettles in the old days
when the jibbooms OF ships along the
waterfront used to stick out across the
street In long rows fer block after block.
you could see a ship captain walking
down South street with dozen men
trailing after him, his new crew. each
man with his canvas trunk, or dunnage
bag, his kit, on his shoulder, making for
vessel lying at a wharf, or for tug to
take the men to some vessel lying out In
the stream ready to sail.
you can't see such professions much
nowadays, for the day Of the square rig
! ger is more and more waning. but still
/ you can even now occasionally meet a
man walking along South street with his
/ dunnage bag over his shoulder; There
/ are still some ships, and the sailor man
hasn't quite gone. out yet.
You can buy dunnage bags in any OF
the sailors Quitting stores, and YOU can
= also buy them second hand, just as you
I can anything else in the world that
I know Of. And then some sailors make
their own dunnage bags, many sailors be-
y ing mighty handy with the needle, and
every sailor carrying in his bag house
/ wife, with needles and thread and buttons
and such things. just as every soldier
everywhere carries one in his knapsack.
III the sailor man makes this bag at
sea he gets the material for 1t Of new
canvas from the ships canvas supplies
in charge of the sailmaker, or maybe the
captain gives him for II a piece out of an
old wornout skysail-one that perhaps
the sailor has more than once furled him-
self-the canvas from the bigger lower
sails being too heavy for 1t.
The bag is made H,.h q shirring string
at the open end. by which it can be
closed there. Sometimes if his bag is
packed so plumb full that he can't close
the end the sailor puts over his stuff. on
top. a canvas disk Tor stopper ana
then draws the shirring string on that.
Sometimes the sailor carries his dun
mage bag always just as it was made.
4 in the plain canvas. and then sometimes
he paints 1t to make 1t waterproof. And
sometimes they ornament 'eIn.
"A common way of doing this is to
paint on the butt or closed end of the
bag q star. maybe a double star. one in
side of the other and in differere colors,
the inner star in a ring. and outside tie
ring the rays Of another star running
round like the points of compass.
Sometimes they paint pictures on them,
maybe pictures of ships.
"A sailor might paint on his dunnage
bag a picture OF his, favorite ship. just
as he might have such, picture tattooed
on himself. Or If he couldn't do 1t him
self and he wanted such a picture he
might find somebody In the forecastle
who could do 1t for him, and paint q very
pretty ship. too; how he came by his art
nobody knows.
"But whatever they may do about sucf
details as these. the sailors of whatever
country use a dunnage bag in which Z
carry their personal belongings. The
world over, in the ships of every nation
a dunnage bag serves as the sailors
trunk. New York Sun.