The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-23
HOW CAPTAIN KEPT COOL.
The Hotter IL Got the More Flannel
Shirts He'd Wear.
washington Post.)

There used to be an old fellow down
IN Onancock, way down on the eastern
shore OF Virginia" said a man who was
born and lived the greater part of his
life in that salt water region, who knew
now TO keep cool in the very hottest
weather. Yes, even when the mercury
was boiling and tumbling about the CEN
fury mark, just as it has been doing UP
here this summer, old Capt'n Billy VIII
Hams was always as cool as a cucum-
Der When everybody else in the country
was stretched out in the shade some
where gasping for air, Capt'n Billy would
be moving about his truck farm and talk
ing about the laziness of some people.
NO, sir; he didn't make any secret
about his method of keeping cool. II
was just the opposite. He was a kind
hearted man and wanted to see every
body comfortable. His plan was to wear
always a thick red flannel undershirt,
and every time the weather became what
you might call distressingly hot Capt n
Billy would put on an extra undershirt.
He had an idea that it was lucky to wear
red flannel, and l have seen the capt n
working around the wharf for he was
the captain of a fine packet, as well as a
truck farmer) with four red flannel under
shirts on.
THE old man didn't often get ried, for
he was an even-tempered sort of fellow
He did mix up things, though, when he
did get mad and if curses and anathemas
would consign a man to eternal torment,
when Captn Billy opened up on him he
was a doomed man, sure enough.
Around about Onancock and the ad-
jacent waters tributary to the Chesa-
peake, about the time l am talking about.
the folks never saw a steamboat, at least
in that section of Virginia; but one day
there came putting and blowing up the
river a concern with smokestack and
sending out smoke that was blacker than
any thunder cloud that I ever saw. Some
of the country people who had gathered
In great numbers to see the stranger got
a. w her
he saw that niger foot In the sand. They
were afraid it might blow up and Kill
somebody
'Capt'n Billy didn't share this appre-
hension. He had seen such boats in Bal
timOre. He got mad, though, because he
could see in it some mean Yankee trick
to interfere with his packet trade. The
boat was called the Maria something, and
as her hull was painted black, the packet
captain named her the Black Maria and
said SO many things about her captain
and mate and all the crew that some of
the pious Methodists cane very near TO
talking to him in the meeting mouse on
the next Sunday.
There wasn't an evil wish that the old
man didn't wish for the strange boat,
but after he got through cusSln, he went
to work and gathered a whole cargo OF
truck to carry to Baltimore. The steam
boat man got busy himself and got lot
also, promising to get ii to market quicker
than the sailboat could.
''Ihey sailed the same Jay Oh d very hob
morning. The newcomers captain was
tortured with the heat and as nervous and
fidgety as a pea on gr1ddle. captain
Billy had on two extra red flannel UNDER
shirts. and was as calm as any one could
be- He took along two extra underShlrts
for luck. The steamer got away two hours
ahead of the Onancock skipper and the
church members gathered and prayed that
Captain Billy might be forgotten for MS
sins and win the race to Baltimore.
'Tn about ten days Captain Billy's boat
doomed up in the distance. She was COM
ing up wing and wing and before long
she was tied up at the wharf.
Where's the Black Maria?'" was
about the first question that met the cap
tain. 4 beat her u Baltimore about
eight hours, but she's coming back for
another cargo he said, and he started
out to give her another vOlley of bad
wishes, but he saw the preacher in the
crowd, and sheered off into mild Ian
guage. But his i'll wishes came true. The
Steamboat stuck her nose into mud bank
coming up the river, and she died there;
So the old fellows maledictions worked
ali right. and the red flannel undershirts
gave him luck as was surely proven by
his sailing packet beating the steamboat
to Baltimore.