Evening star., 1905-11-11
K|NSH|P Of LANGUAGE
Causes British and American
Jack.eS to Join Forces
AGAINST "FURRINERS"
WHEN THE TARS OF THE TWO Ma
TIoNs FIGHT EACH OTHER.
Some of the Scraps" in Which Yankee
and English Sailors Have Fought
Common Enemy.

The English tars who came TO Washing-
ton in the wake OF the British admiral
prince were taken in tow and treated In
pretty chummy manner by the American
biuejackets serving on the ships at the
navy yard here. In Annapolis. where huge
I liberty parties of enlisted men from both
the British and American fleets swarmed
over the town for several days, the Ameri-
can boys in the bell-bottoms We'd with each
other in blowing" the lime ULCERS to a
good time. The British jackies found that
their money was counterfeit, so to speak,
while they were on American soil and in
convoy of the American ''hatfeet." and fun
many acute case of foc'sle katzenjam-
mer must have been the result.
In Washington lot of surprise was eN-
pressed by strolling citizens over the fra
ternlzng of the British and the American
sailors.
Il always have understood they We're
pizen to each other" was the way one
Washington man expressed It. Thought The
American bluejackets looked upon the Brit
ish men-o-warS S men as their traditional
enemies and mixed 1t up with en- on sight.
And yet here they're prowling around
Washington together, thickern thieves.
Part of the festive game in connection with
the visit of the British feet at New York Is
going to be dinner OF the American blue
at which 5000 heavy weather men of both
fleets will sit down, and then the British
sailors are going to be given peek at all
of the Coney Island shows by their United
States biuejacket entertainers, Isn't all this
a switch from the feeling that's always
been supposed to exist between American
and British men-o'-war's men? And II So
what's the answer"
There isn't any answer in particular, ex-
cept that the American memo wars men,
being possessed of the sense of appreciation.
are merely getting back" at the Britishers
for the really swell time that London gave
a big body OF American buejackets last
year, including, a dinner at which the lord
mayor of London presided. and lot OF
other clever and enjoyable doings.
The answer certainly is not that the ira
ditional feeling between American and Brit
ish sailors has by any means been worn
down by the emery wheel of old time The
traditional soreness remains, all right, in
eradicabie If dormant.
"Scrap" Only on Neutral Soil.
But British and American men-o'-war' s
men never scrap" with each other on their
respective soils. They reserve their mutual
melees for foreign strands. In neutral ports
they'll nearly always come together with a
| rattle and a bang, If conditions are in the
least favorable and the aftermath of brok-
en- heads following a battle between British
and American liberty parties in foreign
ports is the despair of the surgeons OF the
two ships or the two fleets.
But the kinship of language unquestion-
ably accounts for a curious thing in connec-
tion with the impromptu fighting between
men-o'-war's men of different nationalties
ashore. The curious thing Is that, when
men-o-wars men of any other nationality
are ashore on liberty, the British jackies
and the American memo wars men will
invariably join hands against the common
and mutual enemy, the "furriner." II only
American and British sailors are ashore on
fhn flnr d1r- &, T,-
they'll come together and smash each other
with all the enjoyment and hilarity in life.
But If. on that same day, bunch OF French
or German or Italian or Spanish memo
wars men happen to be ashore, too, then
the Britishers and the Americans unite by
a perfectly spontaneous impulse and pro-
ceed to chase the deep-water fellows who
don't speak English to the mountains be-
hind OF the waters edge and beyond.
Comparatively recent advices from Corea
contained the news that q combination of
100 American and British bluejackets had
licked seven bells out OF an impromptu
alliance of 400 French. German and Span
ish men-o'-war's men in the streets Of
Seoul, Corea.
This scrap began. as usual, by a fight
between q couple of tars of different ma
tionalities-in this case between an Ameri
car and a German. Tho German was
slugged to a wobbly standstill. According
to the report, he didn. take his medicine
gamely, but made whimper over it, He
ndITdttQ HIS ldic vi STltl uIlO inc SYM
pathetic ears of the other men OF his fleet
ashore and these in turn sought the aid
of body of French and Spanish tars en-
gagged in hitting the beach" at the same
time.
English-Speaking Tars United Forces.
There were 400 OF them altogether and
they declared war upon the Yankee race.
There were about seventy-five representa-
tives OF the Yankee race visiting Seoul that
day, and they were engaged in minding
their business while the triple alliance of
bluejackets from the foreign ships were
working themselves up into a state OF
proper rage. The 400 tackled the 75 In
body. They were being properly stood off.
with considerably less damage on the side
OF the minority than ON that of the ma
jority, when seventy-fve British tars came
a-iopng up to the scene OF the melee. The
''lime-juicers" promptly arrayed themselves
on the side of the Americans, and then
there was trouble for the other bunch and
a whole lot of 1t. The batch of 80 English
speaking men went tnrough their 400 daZed
opponents like a boarding party OF Papuan
pirates and chased them to the swamp
lands in something briefer than jig-time.
The writer hereof. in the course OF q
considerable experience In impromptu
scraps between mea-o'war's men of differ
ent nationalities on shore liberty has never
met up with an instance wherein the tars
of the two English-speaking countries did
ilot get loStNHei til OppcslllOn 10 the enc
my OF one or both.
The American and the British bluejack-
cts If their ships happen to be In the
same neutral harbor alongside each other
and warships of no other nation anywhere
about will bite their thumbs at each other
from rail to rail. and when liberty parties
from the two ships make the beach there
is almost invariably a mix-up of more or
less seriousness. The Americans and the
Britlshers in the bluejacket rig pound
each other impartially, and often until
they are toe tired to keep the scrap going
any longer, and then call quits and take
drink or two over the armistice.
This is the way the game Is opened. as
a rule, but after a few liberty parties from
both ships have been ashore the scrapping
gra dualiy ceases, the men of the two ma
tions begin to sort of snuggle up to each
other and by the time the ships are ready
to up-anchor and pull out the men are on
pretty good terms.
Don't Like 'sFurriners."
Blu. no fact Is more certain than that
neither the British nor the American men,
o'-war's men ever by any chance have any
thing to do with the naval tars of other
countries when they are all on shore lib
...x. q, ,e,,tral norris except than 70 more