The sun., 1908-09-13
A BREAK IN THE MONOTONY

kicking that umpire from here to Bally-
hack and back again, the sphalpeenl'
A BREAK IN THE MONOTONY.
Happy Experience OF Man Forced to
Lave Three Months on Cocoanuts.
did You notice that man going up the
wharff"
The speaker was grizzled old salt
sitting on the stringpiece and with his
back comfortably settled against an
uprising spile down at the end Of wharf
In South street; and inasmuch as the per-
son referred to was man OF unusual
height and extraordinary leanness who
would have fixed attention anywhere
the man addressed. who had just come
down the wharf. could truthfully say
that he had.
@Well,' said the old salt, that man
Ii about the most singular man ever
met.
"He was with us once In q shipwreck
in, the South Seas. He isn't O californian
You understand; he lives on the land
but he likes the water and he had always
wanted to make long voyage at sea
and he knew our old man, and this TRIP
he came along with US on voyage from
New York to Shanghai.
Coming home we were struck by @
typhoon that all but twisted US in two
but when the vessel foundered we 60,
away In the boats, and finally we made
land on one Of those coral islands that
you find around down in those waters
just big ring Of coral built up out Of
the water by the coral insects, with q
lagoon In the middle and the Pacific
Ocean beating up around on the outside.
And there wasn't blessed thing or
this island but few coooanut trees
that's all, just those cocoanut trees; an6
that didn't make q very pleasant pros.
poet for us, because by this time we had
eaten up all the provisions we had brough,
away in the boats, and now all we had tc
eat was coooanuts.
We had coooanuts for breakfast
supper. and all we had to drink was cocoa.
nut milk; and after we'd been living thai
way for about month 1t got downright
trying to us. 1t certainly did. A sailor.
man don't get such an everlasting lot OF
variety In his grub at sea, salt horse
or salt pork and pilot bread month after
month at a time; but that salt horse ano
pilot bread would have tasted like turkey
and stuflng to us II we could have 60,
1t now; and 30 living on cocoanuts like
that day after day and week after weel
naturally got to be very trying to US
that 10, to all OF us but one; and that one
was the tall thin man you just saw walking
up the wharf.
on it and grew fat. Said it was the mos
years. Said he didn't know as he'd eve
get tired Of ooooanuts and he could liv'
| on 'em for months anyway and enjoy i
all the time; 1t was the biggest change
the biggest something different. he said
that he'd had In a long. long time: Ane
that was hard to understand, but he ex
.Hs said he'd lived for many years ii
boarding house. he was q bachelor anc
a man Of fxed habits. and when he go
settled anywhere he didn't like to change
and he'd lived for many years in thii
same boarding house. and there, he said
the monotony Of the meals was something
terrible to think OF; They had variety h
said. in a way-theyd have beefsteal
mutton the next, and so on. something
different every day-but the weeks sohed
ule was always the same, and so weel
after week and month after month ane
year after year they always had the sam'
thing on the same day; and so, while they
did have what you might call a variety
still the effect. as he put 1t. was OF no vari
ETY. whatever but Of q great unendinl
monotony.
And the tall man said that this usec
to grind on him 30 that sometimes hi
didn't know what to do The regular re-
currenoe. that's what he said. Of certain
things always on the same day was like
the torture n s% drSPs Se S Gase
were coming and you couldn't get away
from them; It was that monotonous.
-He knew what he was going to have fol
dinner when he went home tonight, fol
instance, and he knew what he'd have
tomorrow. and the next day. and the next
He knew what they were going to have
month, or II you tell him what day oi
the week it came on he could tell you
what they'd have for dinner April II next
year, or July "A the year after that; and
he said that sometimes the strain on him
Of this monotony was something awful.
Il asked him. why he didn't move
change his boarding ho1sei si, but n ne said said
you get to know the schedule it would run
with the same monotony wherever you
went, the same constant dropping of those
drops of water. And 30 he stood II as long
as he could and then he came on this
voyage with us.
dAnd how he did enjoy the coooanuts
The rest Of us got 80 tired OF them that
We didn't know what to do. but he'd strip
a oocoanut and punch the eyes out and
drink the milk and then he'd burst the
cocoanut and eat the meat and laugh and
say:
ITS mutton night in the. boarding
house, and those fellers up. there are eat
ing mutton and wishing they could ge,
something different. and here we are eat
ing fresh ooooanuts.
1You see II We did have nothing to ca,
but cocoanuts. for pretty near three
months. still that was q change to him
compared with the previous monotony
Of yeare 1t was great change, as he
looked at It. 1t was the same every day
but still IL was all very different-to him
and he thrived on 1t, and l don't think
he was overly glad when We were finally
taken Oh by O passing ship after wee
been two months and twenty three days
on the island; and by the time we got &c
San Francisco he was feeling quite dowr
because he'd got to 60 back to the monot.
ony Of the boarding house-he said he'c
have to 70. there was no escape for him.
And suppose that's what makes him
no thin now; what he calls the same ole
grinding monotony. He comes down to
see us whenever we're in port. and asl
him sometimes why he didn't make an
other trip with US, but he says no. he'i
settled again, and he supposes he'll have
to stick to IL, and stick to his work, anc