The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1910-05-08

They are settled only with the flow Of
blood or IN violent orgies Of one ma
ture or another. During the winter
months the men are never in their
best temper. On stormy days the net is
likely to break and to sink into the sea
with its precious burden If the most
expert care is not exercised in winch
ing 1t up after the trawl-the one real
tragedy to the steam trawler; the mate
himself under the general depression of
weather, and his patience ,sorely tried
with the arduouS detail of his duties,
is apt to blame hfs men for faults OF
which they do not feel themselves
guilty; the skipper has trouble in max
ing his craft obey his will. and every
savage instinct in every mans breast
swells strong. Trouble follows OF
certainty.
The second drag of the seine had
been complexion the day 1 visited
brakes bay At o'clock the great
bag had been emptied and the tug
had begun her race home. Below deck
in their respective crates squivered
thousands upon thousands of selected
fish, rock cod, sea bass, sturgeon, bar
racouta, halibut. smelt, tomcod, founder,
sake, sole, shad, sanddab. herring and
whatnot of edible sea food. 1 stood
at the bins watching the last end of
the sorting; to me the catch seemed
prodigious. The mate came below
deck and looked critically at the re-
suit of the days work. In his eyes
the take seemed miserably short and
insufficient; very near the. minimum
he could afford to take to the city
His face clouded with frown and he
climbed slowly up through the hatch
to the deck. where he stood gloomily
regarding the water. For the last
week the daily hauls had hardly been
sufficient to keep the fish stalls in even
moderate supply. He turned once and
looked into the engine room. AS he
did so / saw his face go purple with
some unexplained rage. and L heard
him curse horribly. He went below
presently. and 1 did not again see him
until I had climbed the dock after we
had landed at the city. At intervals
on the run home found myself specu-
lating about that bloated hate I had
seen upon the Sicilian's face. That it
foreboded some tangible evil was
certain.
1 was climbing the spiling Of the
Vallejo street wharf some minutes after
we had made fast, just behind the
engineer. AS lifted myself up to the
dock and saw the rSicilian standing I'M
der the lighted area of an arc light and
looking intently at the engineer,
who had just gained his feet
uPOu iio d HASH knew
that the mates curses and venom d.
rected at the engine room on the home
ward trip were to be at least In part
explained within the next few min
utes: that they were to be supple
mented and brought to climax by
violence.
There were no preliminaries. The
two men rushed at each other in =
frenzy of passion, inspired by I know
not what misunderstanding over their
days toll. Back and forth along the
slippery dock they staggered, graphing
for advantage, punching, biting and
kicking, fairly sobbing with the in
tensity of their anger. Blood began
to flow. None of us who looked on felt
warranted to interfere in this battle
We did not understand. Presently the
engineer began to weaken perceptibly.
and as his big antagonist increased the
fury of the assault, he broke away and
fed into the shadows beyond the wharf.
The big Sicilian, spent and bloody, sat
down upon handy fish box and nursed
his wounds I noted with surprise
that his bloody. discolored features
had almost Immediately upon the cessa-
ton of hostilities settled into a mask
of peaceful repoSe. He had rid his
soul of the black feud he had har-
bored there. Presently he laughed
hearty. unrestrained guffaw; an ex-
preston of the mans inordinate pride
in his strength and invincibllity. Then