The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-10-06


York. Having in mind the newspaper
man of tradition, ferded with the
hybrid bunch who sip absinthe to keep
awake nights, and foregather in cafes
after the paper goes to press instead
OF going to bed. The answer? | am
now Hunger" lettering through the
thin airs of the Western foothills, full
filing the law of the love of life.
In police court, one morning of
my cubhocd, / heard a magistrate of
medieval mentality give pugilistical-
ly inclined boy of the East Side the
alternative of six months on Black
wells Island or four years in the Uni
ted States Navy. The culprit, q true
barbarian of the brick jungle, had
steel-blue, unafraid eyes, and trick
of keeping his geometrical jaw lifted,
that caused me to like him. When the
sentence was pronounced, his square
chin dropped with cluck and came
up again with click.
'T'm to git off the cart, eh?" he
queried plaintively. Say, judge, I'm
hummer, I'm a hummer; I'm rum
dunn mummer-"
shut up!" The Justices bewhiskered
face, pushed far forward over the fiat
desk in front of him, was distorted
into stone-age ugliness. Officer,
take him away"
A blue-clad monster extended a ten
tacle and caught Patrick Kehoe by the
coat collar, but the potential pugilist
had a hand on the court railing, and
remained stationary.
Judge, I'll j'ine," he announced
ecowlingly. I'm pug and can't help
1t. II I'm to be tanked for fightin' I'll
be In stew most all the time. That
navy is frst-class fightin' outfit, and
mebby can git my face punched there
when the gnawin' comes on"
Then see that you do, Kehoe," ad-
monished the Modified magistrate.
It'll probably make a man of you;
you need discipline. You may CO."
More than eight years later I was
tramping through valley below the
Coast Range. In the heat of noon
stopped at ranch house. After din
ner the rancher and sat out on the
porch. Rancher and latter-day cliff
dweller, we interested each other. He
had leased the ranch, depending on
his wife and father-in-law to teach him
how to run 1t. When he told me that
he had spent eight years in the Navy,
/ looked at him with a new interest.
He had mannerism Of holding his
head high; his chin was heavy and
square. and he had steel-blue eyes of a
steadfast regard. Reminiscently | re-
lated the police court incident, glanc-
ing at him furtively at the finish, to
discover him doing the same by me,
and our two pairs of eyes twinkled
simultaneously.
"See here, Kehoe," I broke out bold
ly, I'm poor one-Iunger who has to
write stuff for his bread and Western
ozone. | smell loaves and sunshine.
Tell me about It,"
Sure" he assented. 'T'll have to
give you my end of it before turn to,
and Jennie here can sew on the trim
mings afterwards"
He referred to his wife, a typical
young Venus of the valleys, who had
come out on the porch and stood, with
an arm about a vine-clad box-post,
listening to us. And from the piece
meal talk of these two l cleaned what
follows.
On the day that the misguided mag
tstrate sentenced him to the service of
his country, Kehoe crossed over the
old bridge to Brooklyn, and after sun
dry stirrup cups with cronies on Sands
Street, passed through the Navy Yard
gate and was shut out by 1t forever
from the only world he thus far knew.
Say. mate, what's discipline?" he
inquired of the master-at-arms who
was instructing him in the mysteries
OF lashed hammocks and slowed ditty-
boxes and clothing bags.
"Discipline?" unused the seasoned
mariner. Discipline, | should say,
was bein' trained to do what you're
told, or what you already know you
ought to do, without ashin' questions
or stoppin' to think how. It's dom
the right thing at the right time. nat
ural-iike-gettin' right out of sleep and
dom it I've knowed a man ragin' with
fever In the sickbay to slip out of bed
when general quarters was sounded
and be at his gun-station in paiamas
before anybody got wise to his bug
Disciplines making clockwork out of
yourself, and if there's a little brains
goes with it, you'll be a C.P.O.P.DQ.
Sayvy?"
Patrick was meditatively inspecting
q Turks head on a rope. "Uh-huh,'
he commented
Assigned to vessel of the Atlantic
fleet, Kehoe consistently dissipated his
wages in strange, hot, palm-girdled
lands; and on dazzling torrid seas that
sloped upward, over and down to the
edge OF things. built up a reputation
as a bruiser, and was acknowledged as
the feet champion with his fists. He
was no fool, however The craft of the
sea came readily to him, and within
two years he was sufficiently the sea.
man to be rated as such and assigned
to draft of men going overland to the
Pacific coast to man a training ship,
in which every member of the ships
company must be an instructor in sea.
manship.
About the time that Kehoe was sent
West, one James Colmer, a fifteen
year-old ne'erdo-well, whose parents
abode, happily but for him, in a sub
urb of Seattle. Washington, came Out
of reform school. and after a strenu
Gus home-life of three days. ran away
Driven back by hunger, Jimmie
thrashed neighbor boy for "snitch
ing" slapped his sister Jennie's fact
for upbraiding him. kissed his mother
and was carried of by his father Il
the Puget Sound Navy Yard at Brem