Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1913-02-14

Az horse, the white figure Of
slender girl was siIhouetted
against the vivid blue of the Pacific
sky. Beneath her around her were
all the paraphernalia of war. Sail
ors polishing brass on the warship's
deck looked up at her adoringly. Off
GERS in blue and gold uniforms linger-
ed at her side. The gray-haired ad-
miral We'd with the callow smooth
checked lieutenants in homage to her.
She seemed as much at home on
board the lead-colored cruiser as she
would have been in a rose drawing
room
A girl on a warship in midoceani
Was ever a ships crew so privileged
before? Mascots there have been
aplenty, and few are the cruisers that
cannot boast goat, a cat or dog.
But girl! A real, live, fuffy-haired,
blue-eyed girl In a white lawn tfrock,
to go and come as she pleased all
over the floating fortress, to loll in
a steamer chair in the shadow of the
turrets, to use the big guns as a
perch! Those gallant sailormen look
ed on the cannon as the throne of
their princess.
1t Is true there was another WON
an on board, but the other was differ
ent In q way-ao less charming, no
less entitled to a sailors alteration,
but just little more remote. The
other woman was Mrs. Philander
Knox, wife of the secretary of state,
and those sailors looked upon her
with certain amount OF awe; the
girl was Miss Priscilla Ellicott, the
eighteen-year-old daughter of Capt.
John Morris Ellicott, commander of
the U. 8. S. Maryland, and there was
not man on that ship who would
not have gone overheard in full uni
form to pick up her glove.
True Daughter of the Navy.
For Miss Priscilla was in way
one of themselves. A daughter of
the navy, many of these officers had
known her from childhood. She had
come on board her fathers ship at
almost every port of the Pacific ocean
from Panama to Behring straits. But
this was the first time in the mem
oryof anyof them that she or any other
girl had actually liSed ON board, dining
in the admiral's cabin, sleeping in a
white stateroom of her own dancing
on the quarterback under the moon
light, darning stockings on her perch
upon the long barrel of a cannon
one of the ships company. Truly,
they were privileged crew, and well
they knew it!
And when some wag of a sailor, in
bos'ns chair, painting over the side,
would lift his voice and sing the
song from "Pinafore" about gallant
captains daughter a ripple of girlish
laughter would be waited out to. the
dolphins playing leap-frog under the
bows.
How it happened that the armored
cruiser Maryland had girl on board
on her voyage from Honolulu to Sc
attic last fall is a charming story
of how woman's scissors may be
more potent than a sailors cutIass
to cut a Gordian knot Of naval red
tape.
Take me home with you. father"
pleaded Miss Priscilla ElIicott to Capt.
Ellicott of the Maryland at Homo
lulu in the first days of October.
Navy Regulations Explicit.
I cannot, my girl" replied the cap
tain, 1T Is contrary to the rules
~Oh. bother the old rules!" cried
his daughter. Here you are with
your ship and all this party on board
just going to sail back home; why
can't you take me with you instead OF
leaving me to sail on a passenger
steamer alone?"
Captain Ellicott smiled at the out
burst Of rebellion on the part Of
his pet daughter. He pulled the
Navy Regulations out OF his desk.