The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16

through the knot of the curious. The new conner was a member of the crew. and off duty he had fallen back on liquor to settle his nerves, torn by the narrowing memories of his awful fight with the storm.
 He was bibulously determined to have a hand in the story making. He showed a slender. dark bottle between his quieter, better behaved mate and the interrogative newspaper man. "Aw, have a drink?'
 | He was waved aside and the ques4 tioning proceeded. But he was genial l ly persistent in his purpose of figuring in what was going on. Leaning back and swaying unsteadily he essayed to tell the story as he saw if. and to do 1t his way he broke right in the mid- dle of 1t:
 T sez to the Cap'n. sez, Cap, better watch the wind and cut the line when she rights. sez to the women and children In the boats and they wuz that skeered that the crew of 'em was moaning and crying, I sez to them wc- men and children. Aw. take a drink, and his story broke off that the flask might be showed forward.
 T sez to the women. Don't be skeered. me and the Cap'n will see you through"
 We were rescued from our bibulously insistent friend by square should cred bystander who had been idlya watching the scene. He was beyond doubt seafaring person and one ac- customed to handling men. He caught the open bottle of the bibulously in- clined one with one hand and with the other he got a nice strong grip on the lapel of his coat The new conner had no other apology for his technical as- sault upon the inebriated sailor, be- yond saying:
 d0 think this Is, Dutch picnic or an Irish wake? Here's nice soft log here in the shade. Take a nap on it." The new comer's action in It's as- surance seemed reminiscent of accus- | toned authority. He moved the inebri- ated one out of the knot of men as easily and as quickly as though the act was of daily occurrence. The act bespoke his familiarity with the man. agement of men. When the story telling was over I found this paeiheator standing in the sunlight idly gazing over the wreck strewn bay. Tn answer to my nod of recognition he asked.
 What paper?"
 I told him
 "Rig story herew he said, reflectively.
 Yes. replied, "a big story and a bit hard for me to handle You see marine stuff is new to me-
 I'll help you then"
 And he did effectively and intelli- gently. He pointed out the track of the storm. He discussed It's origin in the Yucatap Channel. together with the meteorological conditions that gave 1t birth. No word had been received at that hour from the outside world, and no man there knew if the hurrl- cane had destroyed. maimed and kill ed in other places. but this capable stranger. out of his knowledge of the sea and the air, accurately foretold the path of the hurricane, and the death and devastation that lay in it's wake as long as it followed the coast line of the Gulf of Mexico.
 He knew the shipping in the bay before us and his trained eye gauged the damage. each helpless vessel had suffered. To my layman's eye, a wrecked vessel was wrecked vessel, but to him. 1t was only out of place or slightly, hurt, or out of commits sion forever. He ran over the names of the wrecks, their location, their damage and their probable experience in the storm. There Ras meat and drink in his. talk for | hews hungry reporter who wanted to do good job with that story.
 He described the main travelled channel of the harbor. and put each harhor light in its proper place
 bSAWeeh Hoke tdNlnB sald suggest lively, You seem familiar with the harbor."
 Why not" he replied. T came in here twepty-five years ago in com mand of a United States cruiser And off and on I've known the harbor ever since.
 What were you doing then? Work ing with q wrecking company" ask ed.
 No I came in on the bridge Of the vessel and commanding her, l was an ensign then. but serving d lieutenant's assignment I brought her in to have a little work done on her down at the navy yard, was just back from the Arctic. too. when came in on that trip. I went out with the party the United States gov ernment sent out to rescue the DeLonS Expedition that was lost in the Arc tic ice. You have probably heard of that expedition and it's rescue by a naval expedition, l had the enslgn's assignment on that trip.
 "On that trip I got cut off from the main party and with boatload of men. I was lost on the Arctic for twenty-six days. There's an experi- ence for gou, twenty-sx days in an open whale boat in the Arctic ocean. But I got back and I landed every man of my crew safe and sound. A lot of printers ink was spilled about that adventure. You were too young to know anything about it then. though"
 l slipped my pencil back into my pocket discouraged and disappointed. Here was the man who lad given me such great grist for typewrlter--- here was the. man who had supplied the deficiencies of my own inexperience, ! developing into a sea side Munehau~ sen. The man who talks much and | talks wildly is the bane of the news gatherer's life for the reporter must stand sponsor for what he writes. and if he be reasonably intelligent he must | analyze the springs of his information.
 Wherefore the card house of the story I had already begun to erect in my mind was all but ready to tumble. Tn the wish to shift him from romantic subjects and preserve the integrity of my store of information. I said:
 You have had sea gong experience. What do you think of the storm that broke over this place yesterday"
 Tt was the worst ever saw" he an- swered with confidence" I've seen | many a blow but that hurricane yes | terday morning overtopped them all I l was caught in a typhoon off the Bra