The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-03-12

Bittinger q Carroll Proprietors.
Il. Il. Carroll, Business Manager.
J. III. Benjamin, Editor.
POINTS PICKED UP ON
THE WAY TO PALATKA
When the Star man went to the Sea-
board station Sunday morning. to take
the Ocx1a Northern train for Palatka,
he found there some sixty Ocala citf-
Gems bound for a voyage down Silver
Springs run on the "City of Ocala-"
First and foremost among them was
Commodore Albert Arson Graham Al
bert had put ON his summer yachting
suit that morning. but when he came
out OF the house and faced the un-
gentle zephyr coming from the object
in dispute of Peary and Cook, he came
about on the main tack and hung in
stays until he could wrap his upper
spars In his overcoat The editor
doesn't know whether his nautical
language Is technically correct or not,
but II 1t isn't, nobody In town will
know, except the business manager OF
this paper, and he won't give us away.
Speaking OF nautical matters. Mr..
Carroll was a sailor when he was
boy, but as he grew older and more
careless about his salvation. he be-
came a pirate, that is to say a news
paper man, and there does not now
seem to be much chance OF his refor-'
nation. His seafaring career was
mostly on the Gulf coast, where he
served at various times as the mid
ship mite and the bos'n tight, and the
crew of the captains boat, and the
who got everybody's goat. He voyag-
ed. more or less, on the little fishing
and sponging schooners. which haven't
had Longfellow to poetize or Kipling
to prose of their voyages, but which
nevertheless have their Captains Cour-
ageous, and do some OF as daring
stunts In sailing as any of the other
scourers Of the seven seas. Once upon
q time, when Bob was about the age OF
some Of these city kids, who think
they are playing the deuce II they go
on a camphunt and sleep In the woods
Of a night, he started out one morning
to sail fishing boat from some point
down the coast to Cedar Keys. The
boat was not much bigger than a
good. big automobile, but 1t was plenty
big enough for a fourteen-year-o1d
boy to handle, by himself out IN the
open sea. 1t was a nice day when he
left port and headed his craft across
the blight that bights into the Florida
coast line between Chessahowitzka
and Cedar Keys. But about the time
he lost sight of land the wind chang
ed. and down came sone Of those trop-
ica1 twisters that the Gulf is famous
for. They hadn't any weather signals
In those days, so he wasn't expecting
anything more than a squa1l But 1t
took all the remainder Of that day and
night and next day and night and
most of the next day for the tempest
to blow itself out. There is no going
In, IN a gale ON that coast, so the little
fishing boat and its one-boy crew had
to ride il out. Bob hadn't read
Shakspere in those days. nor since
either. not so you could notice 1t, but
he knows what the bard was talking
about when he spoke OF the ship "bor-
ing the moon with its mafnmast." All
the remainder of the day. and all the
following night. the little boat went
up and up the watery mountains &c
meet the scow1ing clouds and thu
blaspheming thunder, and then slid
down and down into the floor OF the
ocean,. till he could see the Stats in the
bed of the sea. while the foaming Al
pine crests above threatened to hug
each other In their catclysmal waltz OF
destruction over one small boy in ONE
little boat Music for the dance wasn't
lacking. for the storm king is a skilled
fiddler. and as he draws his cyclone
hnxr BE- nd mil a Lane
strings. the tune will turn fearsomt
heart into water far weaker than tina
which foams for leagues in every di
rection around 1t. Some OF US know
what a terror a storm-1ashed sea 1.
from the deck OF an ocean liner. bu
not many know what it is when view.
ed from a fve-ton boat when one i.
alone, and has to hang to the helm
hour after hour, knowing that a frac
ton Of q seconds negligence or mis-
calculation will turn his frai1 Graf
into a capsized mass Of splinters. Aftel
more than twenty-fo four hours battl,
with the gale, the sea fell SO Boil
could sail his tiny ship near enough
shore to anchor, and there he stayet
another night and part OF another day
before he could resume his voyage t,
Cedar Key. where he arrived owe
Sl1ty hOurS dIteT ne expected Ourint
this time. he had enough to eat t,
make one square meal, and plenty o
water. only for more than night an,
. day he couldn't leave the til1er Ion,
enough to take drink. When he ar
rived in Cedar Key he didn't know
that he had done anything extra. blu
was sore because his cargo of fish wa
spoiled.
The business manager didn't tell TIN
editor of this little pleasure trip o
his, and will call him names 70
printing It. We heard 1t from som
OF his neighbors on the Gulf coast
who were some sailors themselves.
However. this isn't going to Palatka
AS aforesaid. there was big bunch a
the station, about to remember tn
Sabbath day by tearing holes In II
Wonder where the idea started that |
displeases God to see people enjo
themselves on Sunday And where cal
they enjoy themselves more cleanl
and healthily than in the woods an
fields and on the rivers and lakes tina
our common religion teaches II
created. And how can the city toiler
reach them without engines and car
and boats
The newspaper man hoped to hav
his Sunnyjim pals, namely. Williams
Thompson and Blesch. accompany hir
TO Palatka, and they had promised t
go. but when the time came the