Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-04-07

enough among men OF THIS class, so
common that 1t would hardly justify a
murder, would hardly explain an I'M
warranted intrusion on those who en-
ployed me. How would 1t look for
me to go to them with these words in
my mouth:
1.-THE captain has taken to drinking
to dull the monotony. The crew think
you are an alchemlst and are making
diamonds. Their interest in this fact
seemed to me excessive, SO killed
one of them, and here am"
"And who are you?" they could ask.
II am reporter" would be my only
truthful reply.
my position. do not defend my at
titude. Undoubtedly born leader of
men, like Captain Selover Mt his best,
would have known how to act with
the proper decision both now and in
the Inception Of the first mutiny. AT
heart l never doubted the reality of
the crisis.
/
Illness of the mems attitudes and with
his usual good sense OWNED the cause
"You chaps are getting lazy" said
he. "Why don't you do something?
Where's the captain?"
They growled something about there
being nothing to do and explained that
the captain preferred to live aboard.
| Don't blame him." said barrow,
"but he might give us little of his
squeaky company occasionally. Boys,
I'll tell you something about seals
The old bull seals have long. stiff
whiskers-a foot long Do you know
there's a market for those whiskers
Well, there is. The Chinese mount
them in gold and use them for clean.
ers for their long pipes. Each whisker
Is worth from six bits to dollar and
a quarter. Why don't you kill few
bull seals for the trimmingsP"
"Nothin' to do with voodoo?'
grunted Handy Solomon.
barrow laughed amusedly mo, this
is the TRUTH" he assured. .'I'il tell yor
what: I'll give you boys six bits apiece
for the whisker hairs and four bits fol
the gals. expect to sell them at Q
profit"
| Next morning they shook off thei,
lethargy and went seal hunting.
/ was practically commanded to Mt
tend. This attitude had been growing
of late. Now 1t began to take def
mite form.
"Mr Eagen, don't you want to &c
hunting?" or "Nlr. Eagen, guess II
just go along with you to stretch my
legs had given way to, We're going
fishing. You'd better come along"
i had known for long time that
had lost any real control of them
and that perhaps Inundated me lit
tie. However, my ineXperience a
handling such men and the anomalous
character of my position to some ex
tent consoled me. In the filament.
brushed across the face of my under
standing l could discover none 81
strong as to support an overt act OF
my part. I cannot doubt that had the
affair come to focus should have
warned the scientists even at the risk
OF my life. In fact, as shall have oc
casion to show you. did my best
But at the moment in all policy coult
see my way to little besides acquies
cence.
| We killed seals by sequestrating the
bulls, surrounding them and clubbing
them at u certain point Of the fore
head. 1t was surprising to see how
hard they fought and how quickl,
they succumbed to blow properly dl
rected. Then we stripped the masl
| with Its bristle of long whiskers, tool
the gall and dragged the carcass int
the surf, where 1t was devoured by
fish. At first the men, pleased by thu
novelty, stripped the skins. The blub
Der, often two or three inches in thick
ness, had then to be cut away from
the pelt, cube by cube. 1t was long
an oily and odoriferous job. We stunt
nightly of seal oil. Our garment.
were shiny with It. The very pore.
of our skins seemed to ooze it. An(
even after the pelt was fairly wei
cleared it had still to be tanned. Perc,
Il barrow suggested the method. but til,
process was long and generally unsat
isfactory. With the acquisition of til,
fifth greasy, heavy and i'll smellin,
piece of fur the mems interest in pelt
ries waned. They confined themselve
in all strictness to the trimmings"
II Percy barrow showed us how t
clean the whiskers. The process wa
: evil. The masks were quite simply t,
be advanced so far in the way of pu
trefaction that the bristles would par
readily from their sockets. The frs