The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-27
CUSTOMS IN ROYAL NAVY.
FROM THE FORK IN THE BEAM
 JUNIOR MIDDIES FLEF.

Ships Kept Clean With the Help of the
 Scrap Bag-Fines of Inches of Soap
 -The Quarterback Sacred Place.
 In the British navy to say that thing is a custom of the service is to say that 1t must be done that way and no other.
 It is nowhere laid down, for instance that the senior officer shall always en- ter a boat last and leave it first; but the expression on a certain Captains face might have led one to belive that one of the laws of the Medes and Per sians had been brlken when, on talk ing the newly joined chaplain ashore with him one ocasion, he said, Now then, padre, jump in." and the re- vorend gentleman politely replied. After you, sir
 This custom is one of the oldest in the service, says the Grand Magazine. It doubtless dates from before the days of Drake, if not indeed, from those of N ah himself, probably the last to enter the Ark after all his junior and proteges had been safe I.i embarked.
 The gunroom mess consists of the sub-lieutenants, all5ther commissioned officers of equivalent rank and all nidshipmen and cadets Midshipmen are divided into two lots, 'Eenior' and junior" The former are over eighteen years of age and are allowed many privileges. such as smoking and so on, denied to the juniors
 As a specimen of the customs which remind the juniors that they are still in bondage, the one known as Fork in the Beam" is worth notice. It may be sprung upon its victim at any time during or after dinner,
 When the president of the mess sticks a table fork into one of the beams overhead it is signal for all juniors to clear out of the mess as fast as legs, arms of anything else can carry them The last out receives several good whacks with dirk scab- bard on the most convenient part of his body as he disappears through the door. The scramble that results would disturb the equilibrium of most older a1d more sedate diners than those usually found in q gunroom.
 One of the most important and best known institutions in the service is the scan bag. It is we'll known that the allowance of paint and materials for keepinging a ship clean as laid down by the British Admiralty, is quite inadequate for that purpose. My Lords are much more generous nowa- days than they used to be, but the First Lieutenant or Commander has still to put his hand in his pocket if he wishes his ship to look really smart.
 The small supply of these necessities which the Admiralty provides for cleaning brasswork, &c,, is augmented from the takings of the scran bag A ship must be spick and span and tidy as any housewife could wish to see Ter home.
 Nothing must be out of place, and nothing must be left lying about; but sailors, like other mortals, are only human, and, consequently, leave artic- les of clothing and personal property in places where they ought not to-. This is an offence for which they are liable to disciplinary punishment; but brilliant, though unknown officer many years ago devised a scheme by which all the articles thus found are promptly seized by the ships police and placed in the scran bag.
 There remain until the next Thurs day afternoon, which is the time set aside for men to make and mend clothes The bag is the opened by the master-at-a and the owners may redeem their lost property by paying a fine of an inch of yellow soap for each article
 The price of this soap in peny an rich, and the fine is usually paid in cash, not in kind. Should man have something confiscated without he can not manage to get on till the next Thursday he can redeem it at once by paying double. Not even officers are exempt from these penalties. Several quaint rules are enforced in the officers messes, the origins of which are lost in the oblivon of an- tiquity For instance, one rule lays down that no officer may place his feet 1 on the table unless he has sailed both capes- i. e., Cape of Good Hope and
 he Horn Any one not eligible found n this elegant attitude is fined drinks 1 around by all the members who hap pen to be in the mass
 1 The same penalty is enforced if an officer happens to unsheath his sword in the mess It is very difficult to see 1 why this should be regarded as an offence, unless that in olden days, when times were harder and men rougher, swords were sometimes drawn in earnest among officers.
 One sometimes hears one officer re- mark to another: T say, So-and-so, your sword looked pretty rusty at di- visions" There upon, perhaps, the unsuspeeting victim draws the malgned weapon to prove it's cleanli- ress, only to be greeted with shout for drinks.
 Most men at some time in their life have known the unpleasantness on discovering that they were walking about without necktie It somehow seems to be an article of apparel that is most easily overlooked when dress ing in a hurry. In the navy if one officer nets another going into the