Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1905-06-07
The SAILOR SENATOR
EARLY ADVENTURES OF HON.
GEORGE C. PERKINS, GOLDEN
GATE STATESMAN.
Relates First Successes-Pivotal De-
cisions Which Launched Him
on the Floodtide of
Fortune.
By George c. Perkins.

By George C. Perkins.
Omitted States Senator from California;
MO ONE, and least of all a sailor
lin man, can look back over his life
| and fail to realize the truth of Shakes
peare's wise and famous words:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
| Which. taken at the flood, leads on to for
| tune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shadows and in miseries."
In glancing back over the log of my
| own voyage of life | see in my minds
| eye again many threatening tempest
and recall more than one treacherous
| current that seemed to bear me toward
the rocks, and l remember fair gales
and smiling seas that stretched like
| royal road to my haven. Many a lucky
and timely turn of the wheel shifted
buffeting winds into hearty helpmates.
Tides ebbed and flowed, bearing good
and ill-seeming good that was in reali-
ty i'll, and i'll that long afterward found
was good. But the momentous step of
my life, the flood tide that led to my
modest share of good fortune, happened
when was not yet II years of age. The
tide led me to California and left me on
that happy shore, where so many years
of my life have been spent, and where
the ties were knitted that will not part
while life lasts.
Experiences at Sea.
had been to sea for a number of
years before l took fortunes foodtide
| q NJ,
eral ships, with good and bad masters
and mates Some few shipmates l had
| found who carried in their breasts hearts
of gold; and it was one Of these bear
| ing the suspicious name of Harry Fair
brother, who caused me to go to Cali
fornia.
We were shipmates in the new ship
Lizzie Thompson, Capt. Oliver Smith.
She sailed from my native village,
! Kennebunkport, for St Johns, N. B.,
to load lumber for Dublin. She was
new ship, finished in winter, and after
sailing her seams warped, she "split
the oakum" and sprung leak. Some
OF the men mutinied. They declared the
ship would never reach Dublin, and de-
manded that she be put about The
mate-a powerful, clustering fellow
knocked half dozen of them into the
scuppers, but SO many of them mutinied
that the skipper was forced to put back
to st. Johns. The obstreperous sailors
were sent ashore. On board were three
young fellows who were already heartily
sick of the sea. They begged me to set
them ashore. One night we slid down
rope to the dingy and went ashore, and
never saw them again-that is, not
Tor 81 years or more, when one of them
came into my Office in the capitol at Sac
ramento, where 1 was serving as gov
ernor, and wanted to know if 1 was the
Glenn Perkins who had helped to put him
! ashore. l was.
Getting new cargo, we sailed again,
| discharged at Dublin and went to Liver
pool, where we took on a cargo of salt
for New Orleans. All this time Fair
brother, who was much older than /,
was telling me stories of California He
had been on the American river and had
picked up gold he said, in 49 and 80,
and wanted to return The ambition
of my life was to own schooner and
| 81 IldUluS III lue OOuIu seas.
why, lad he said, you come with
me to California and in six months We'll
get enough gold in the mines to buy
schooner"
Gradually | made up my mind to 60
Reaching New Orleans, we shipped on a
little bark called the Cotton Planter for
New York. l can remember as we'll as
yesterday the old sailors boarding
house in Cherry street where / left my
shipmate while l made brief visit to
my mother down in Maine My mother
and sisters would not listen to my GO
ing to California. 1t was the end of the
world, and l was only Is. But was
bound to go. Tearing myself away, re-
turned to New York
Sailed for California.
There occurred perhaps the trifiing in
cident that determined the course of my
life. found Fairbrother, who had
shipped in the clipper ship Gaiatea,
Capt. Barbour. for San Francisco, and
the ship was ready to sail. They had
80 men and seven boys-all the hands
they wanted. Fairbrother said he was
sorry | had been too late, went to the
wharf and stepped aboard the Galatea
The mate glowered upon me.
DO you want another boy?" asked
NO" he replied. I'VE don't want
any more id boys. You get over the
rail"
, | hung about the wharf all day.
made up my mind to go on that ship ii
} had to stow away. Finally the mas.
ter went aboard, and l stepped after
him.
DO you want another boy?" asked
! did not realize that my LIES Who'll,
destiny depended upon his answer, bu
l could not have been more in earnes
if had known.
, The skipper-he was Russian. ami
l one of the finest sailors ever knew