The Forrest City times., 1905-05-12
IHE SAILOR SENATOR
EARLY ADVENTURES OF HON. GEORGE c. PERKINS, GOLDEN i.
 GATE STATESMAN.
Relates First Suceesses-PivotalD De- cisions Which Launched Him on the Floodtide of
 Fortune.
By George c. Perkins.

By George c. Perkins.
 eehited States Senator from California; M O ONE, and least of all a sailor IN man, can look back over his life and fail to realize the truth of Shakes peares wise and famous words:
 There is tide in inc affairs of men Winch taken at the flood. leads on U for 1 tune;
 omitted, all the voyage of their life ls t1und in stallo.s and in miser.as
 k fia:2-t2. a8ek over the log of my own voyage of life see in my minds eye again many threatening tempest ahd recall more than one treacherous current that seemed to bear me toward the rocks, and ] remember fair gales and smiling seas that stretched like q royal read to my haven Many a lucky ehd timely turn of the wheel shifted DuhetIns winds iuto hearty helpmates IlGes ebbed and flowed, bearing good efd IlI-seemlns good that was in reali- l ty i'll, and ill that long afterward found Was good. But the momentous step of my life, the flood tide that led 10 my modest share of good fortune. happened when was not yet IT years of age. The sIde ied me tOsCalifornia and left me on that happy shore, where so many years l ni my life have been spent. and where the tes were knitted that will not part Hhlie .sfc iasis.
 Experiences at Sea.
 had been Co sea for a number of years before ! took fortunes foodtide afGdnd Cape Horn I had been in sev- efal ships, with soot and bad masters md mates. Some few shipmates I had foGu6 who earned in their breasts hearts of gold, aht it was one of these. bear inG tte suspicious name of Harry Fair brother, who caused me to go to Cali lornia
 We were shipmates in the new shin Lizzie Thompson, Capt. Oliver Smith. She sailed from my native village. kenhebrnkport, for St. Johns. N. B. to iead lumber for Dublin. She was new ship, finished in winter. and after sailing her seams warped she split the oakum" and sprung a leak Some of the men mutinisd They declared the sup would never reach Dublin. and de- manGed 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 a rope to the dingy and went ashore. and ] never saw them again-that is. not ioi 30 years or more, when ore of them came into my office in the capitol at Sac ramento, where I was serving as gov trnor, and wanted to know if was the Clem 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 cargo of salt fer New Orleans. All this time Fair brother, who was much older than l. was telling me stories of California He had been on the American river and had picked up gold, he said, in '49 and 50 and wanted to return. The ambition of my life was to own a schooner and go trading in the South 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 l made up my mind to go l npI t 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 I left my shipmate while I made a brief visit to my mother down in Maine My mother and sisters would not listen to my go- ing 10 California IL was the end of the world. and was only 16. 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 Gaatea, Capt. Barbour for San Francisco, and the ship was ready to sail. They had 32 men and seven boys-all the hands they wanted Fairbrother said he was sorry l 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. We don't want any more d-d boys. You get over the rail 5
 hung about the wharf all day made up my mind to go on that ship ii had to stow away, Finally the mas ter sent aboard, and I stepped after him
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