The Washington herald., 1908-02-05

trance TO the building, II VIII ne con-
suucted of limestone. with the hand
below. where not even an unofficial
knowledge of high 1inks could reach his
ears.
Then procession started for the quar-
terdeck. and leaning far over the rails on
the starboard side with the stiff trade
wind blowing the sound from the mega
phoned threats OF the singers. happy New
Years greetings were sung To the Geor-
gia, 900 yards back and to starb0ard, that
ship heard it easily.
sailors in Hammocks SerenHded.
Then came a procession through the
Louisiana. The members of the crew were
sung IN their hammOCks. but numerous
noises of catcalls and horns and shouts
told that no one was asleep. At every
section of every division on every deck
the sailors were greeted with song. They
sat up and cheered. 1t was fine 10 have
a party of officers come around and wish
YOU Happy New Year. Every mess OF
the ship received a call. When the war
rant officers mess was reached there
was a brilliant display OF pajamas and
we'll ia print one mustn't go into partc-
ulars too fully Regulations must bee
obeyed strictly even when you're having
"a good time. All the regulations were
obeyed- several times, and then some
in that big roundup
Didn't the bo'sn sing;
Bad buck to The dsy
] wandered away.
And then go into the forty-seven
sIa
Didn't tho electrical gunner join with the
chef engineer in giving down the twenty
seven bells song? Dndn't the carpenter
dance highland f1ingc Didn't the sCho-
larry warrant machinist who can boast
q Boston Tech. diploma, tWang a banjo
and set the pace for the "Old New York
and Dear old Broadway songs And
then didn't some one remark that dear
old KIM hadn't been seen i'm all the
parading that nght2 A rush was made
for Kims room but it was baricaied.
Come out, kimt' was the order
Not on your life was the response
Special Song for Kim.
And then. for revenge. didn't the crowd
sing a song about Kim2 Every man who
! knows anything about the United States
navy knows KIM the genial paymaster $
clerk, who sits in the Junior officers mess
to keep the youngsters In proper submits
/ sion. and who has trained a generation Of
officers in things naval; Kim. who has
sailed the high seas in the United States
navy for a quarter Of century and
knows so much about the ships and Off
/ GERS that he wouldn't dare to tell It all
and ought to be made an admiral for his
knowledge and mis- discretion; Kim, who
/ has TO salute many man with a star on
/ his sleeve and some Of them with no
stars. the minute he sees them and then
can call them Bin and Jim and Tom in
private, Kim. the hest beloved. all around
good fellow on tile ship; yes. everybody
/ Knows Kim. It lent necessary to print
/ the full name Of this obliging, hard-work-
/ irg aut0Crat Of tie paymaster's office
/ This is the song that greeted him.
| Everybody works but dear old Kim,
lie sits round al day.
Feet uuon the table,
Smoking his Henry Clay
Young Pay paws OIt money,
Old Pay takes Il in.
EVERYBODY works on this ship
But dear old Kim.
! Howls Of glee from warrant officers.
/ from petty officers. from hundreds Of
J hammOcks greeted the song. Kim chuck
/ led but wouldn't come out Finally the
/ siege could be resisted no longer and out
/ came Kim in fun regulation pajamas and
/ the din was terrific. Il was "a dance all
/ around and some more strictly regulation
/ things to drink, Happy New Years was
/ sung for the 273d time and then came a
/ further inspection of the ship. Wasn't It
! time for the dinner for New Years Day
/ 10 be tested in the cooks galley? Wasn't
/ there as fine a specimen Of the genus tur-
! key as graced any board Of the States all
/ ready to be tested2 And wasn't II tested
until nothing but the rack was left?
/ JubiIatiOn on All the ships.
Every ship was having a celebration
| something like that. It's impossible to
! give the details because when a big fleet
/ is going along at the rate Of ten knots
and hour and fighting a mean Amazon
current as well. and the semaphores and
! other signals are being kept busy with
! official messages, II isn't exactly good
/ form for newspaper landlubbers TO ask te
/ be allowed to inquire what was done on
/ the other ships, matters which, even II
/ told unofficially, would not look exactly
/ attractive all written out in a signal book
! because you can't put much fun in sig
nal book entry. There must have been a
good deal of the happy go lucky spirit
on some Of the ships, for on two or three
/ of them the rollickers got at the siren
whistles and blew them. That is some
/ thing that might prove serious to a fleet
/ sailing as this is, because the blowing
! Of siren whistles, except al certain
/ hour Of the day. when all the whistles
/ are tested-they call the noise the loosen
/ Ing of the dogs of war-means grave dan
/ ger and IL is time 10 act at once. Bu;
/ New Years came in happily all around
and when the fun was over the one
/ thought of the rOllickers was that within