The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1910-03-30
THE SKIPPER'S WHITE LIE.
What Happened at Night and What
the Passenger Was Told.

the Passenger Was Told.
1t was a dirty night. TO use sailors
phrase and the talk In one corner Of
the smoking room drifted to events at
sea and the childIike faith that passen-
gers repose in nayigators.
Said the scientist who had been col
lecting specimens on coral reef:
i've often heard men and women
say they felt so safe with Captain So
and-so, and I've wondered, too, Wheth-
er their sense of security would still
be retained If these favored travellers
knew exactly what happened on ship
board during a voyage. For my own
part. l have more confidence than ever
| In a captain of my acquaintance since
learned that he could tell a white lie
when it was necessary to calm the
fears of a nervous traveller. 1t so hap
pened that one foggy night | was
awakened by the sudden stoppage and
reversal of the engines. jumped out
Of nv bunk, went on deck and was
told by the second officer that we had
had a narrow squeeze. 1t appeared
that we had nearly run down schoon-
er as she silently crossed our bows and
disappeared into the haze.
''Next morning woman passenger
who sat at the captains table asked
him whether the engines had been
stopped and reversed, and he replied:
Yes; we sometimes do this to test the
engineers watch and see If our ma
chinery is in proper order. We do 1t
at night so as to create no excitement
Then he got the woman to describe
what she had heard and asked her,
Did you find much time between the
stopping and reYersingY
/ ".No,' she replied.
"Then,' said the skipper, that show
ed how well everything was working
did 1t not?'
when / got the shippers ear told
him confidentially that didn't think
the schooner's engines had worked as
well as ours. and he remarked that II
might have been worse. Whether ht
meant the lie or the incident didn't
inquire, but l suspect 1t wasn't thu
lie."-New York Post.
Red, Blue and Orange HaiIstones.
Humboldt, an authority on atmos
pheric phenomena never disputed, tolC
of heavy hailstorm which passed
over Tuscany on March IA, 1913, ev
cry ice globule of the entire fall bein,
Of beautiful orange color. Five year
prior to this extraordinary event CaI
niola, Germany, was treated to a fal
of five feet Of blood red snow, follow
ed by slight fall of blue hail, whic
is said to have given "the whole fac
Of the earth an exceedingly curiou
aspect" Red hailstones fell at An
sterdam in 1926, at London in 1876
during the time of the great plague
and at divers places in Ireland an
France in the early part of the pas
century.
} Tennyson's Early Poems.
Tennyson was only eight years OIL
when he covered both sides of hi
] brothers slate with poem on "Flov
ers," done in unimpeachable mete
! His brother had said to him, "See
OO Soth HlAI0 pOCLLy, anu w ACA III
: read the verse on the slate he merel
! said, you've done it," Between til
} ages of eleven and twelve the youn
; poet wrote an epic of over 1000 line
) in Scott's octosyllabics mingled wit
} heroics. These were the only fnishe
poems of Tennyson's boyhood, bu
when about fourteen or fifteen year
old he commenced a drama in iambi
! meter which still survives. Thus b
practiced himself in three differen
meters before he began seriously t
write or publish
Negligence.
Negligence is the rust of the sou
that corrodes through all her best IL
solVes.-Feltham