Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-28
ON HIS LAST CRUISE
Sea Shell Gatherer Is Worn,
Sick and Lonesome.
VETERAN OF CIVIL WAR
Famous Skipper Known in Every In
land Waterway.
WOUNDS GIVE HIM TROUBLE
Marine Peddler Decides to Go Into
Soldiers Home to End
Days
WOUNDS GIVE HIM TROUBLE

NEW YORK, August 27.-On her last
trip along the Erie canal a battered old
barge has reached Utica. For years the
old barge has been furrowing the inland
waters Of the continent. distributing in
cities hundreds of miles from the ocean
wonderful pink and white sea shells such
as the inland dweller has never seen.
Her captain. F.. B. Hendrick, is a civil
war veteran. with three scars won In fight
with the Connecticut Volunteers, but for
years ne has lived tho life OF a water
gypsy.
His craft is driven by a three-and-a-half
horsepower gasoline engine Helped when
the wind sets right by q rag Of a square
sail. he has worked his way steadily along
Tor thousands of miles.
Last Cruise Is Made.
It is his last trip now. he declares. and
when once more he reaches the warm
waters Of the Gulf OF Mexico tho Cres-
cent will be sold for what she will bring
and he will seek the Soldiers Home at
Dayton. Ohio. to end his days In comfort,
for 1t Is a bit cramped on the barge for q
man of sixty-five.
In his little cabin. six BY twelve feet.
there Is not room for much more than
q SIHdu COOAiuS Stove ana tH6 SHELVES on
which are ranged the shells OF the sea-
AS the damp weather comes cough
racks the old veteran, and a few rugs
seem a poor bed for q man touched with
rheumatism.
But 1t is a long trip yet that Capt Hen
drick plans to make before he lays up
for the last time. He Is going to work
along to Rochester, and there ship his old
craft by rail to Pittsburg.
There he will launch her again in the
~, to -
drift till he finds himself in the Missis-
sippi. Down the Father OF Waters he
will go till he emerges in the gulf.
His Quest for Shells.
1t is here that for years he has found
the shells. Some of them he values as
high as ST.. for they are perfect speci-
mems of rare species. Others he will let
go for 10 cents. and some are 50 small
that they are only fit to stick In patterns
on boxes.
But all alike are wonderful to those
who have never seen the ocean, and they
find their way into farmhouses for parlor
ornaments. or give endless pleasure to
children, as they press them against their
ears to hear the waves"
But OF late the captain has felt lonely,
and only last week he dropped into a
newspaper Office at Utica to ask for the
insertion of an advertisement for a wife.
He could offer her. he said. q berth on
oil cans and spare ropes and stands bad
ly in need of a coat of paint, and he
could take her for the most wonderful
cruise. sometimes along canals or rivers,
sometimes skirting the shores Of the
great lakes. and again Drawing tho waves
Of the open sea.
But the newspaper declared that It never
went In for supply matrimonial wants.
about the necessity Of going to q hospital.
Lonesome All Alone.
You see." he explained. I'm getting
a bit rheumatic. all on account of those
wounds I got in the war, and it's lone
some always going about alone. It's
nigh on thirty years since my wife died.
in 81, and I've just been knocking about
ever since.
But I've got q bit OF money put by. l
don't drink and I don't smoke and IL
could find a good woman willing to take
me just as i am I'd use her right. It's
my old wounds that trouble me most
How did ! get them? Well. I've got
three scars which tell the tale pretty
well. One was q bullet in the hip; then
I've got q five-inch cash on the shoulder
blade. and the thirds a bayonet stab in
the thigh-just one for each Of the three
regiments / served in.
Il know where the fellow who got his
bayonet in my thigh is buried. all right.
l drove my own bayonet clean through
him. He made a shot at my heart, but
knocked his bayonet down with my rifle
and his point just ripped open my thigh.
AS 1t struck me I let him have his. right
through his heart.
Il don't like to think about 1t much
nowadays, but / was a bloodthirsty
youngster in those days, and / reckon
a Sioux Indian we read about was over a
paleface scalp"
It's long time, however. since the end
OF the war, and in spite OF his white mus
tache the old shell collector has not much |
Of the soldier about him now. But he
and Us weather-beaten craft, with the |
little bowsprit and it's flag grown white |
in the sunlight. form one Of the pictur- |
esQue features Of the Erie canal