The Garland City globe. (Garland, Utah) 191?-1925, 1918-11-21

bYhucatol
Il
In New York Public School No. rs
had three chums, "Blll' Meek, Jim"
Fleming. and "Charlle" Unger.
Bill was full Of wild ideas and
schemes. He had the "get-rich-quiclx"
manla. About every two weeks he
would call us aside and In mystic
rious and important manner carefully
unfold some daring scheme to get rich
quick, giving his personal guarantee
that IL could not fail. At first we
were very enthusiastic over his
scheme and wanted to go in "with
both feet" and would carefully work
out the details Of how to proceed,
when, bangl Bin would Introduce an
other project absolutely different from
the preceding one. when we asked
him what became Of his wonderful
proposition of two weeks ago, he UNI
blushingly told us that unforeseen cir
cumstnnces which no one could pre-
vent had lnterfered. Then he would
unroll another wild dream OF fortune.
And so II went on; one scheme after
another vanishing In smoke, until we
became very skeptlcnl. Personally.
had no faith In any OF Bills day
drenms, but I admired. and perhaps
envled, his spirit OF adventure; so Mt
last / decided that i would take a
chance, success or no success.
One night Bill came around TO the
house with four tickets for n blood
and thunder war play entitled "Cuba's
Vow" His brother was playing the
villain. This play greatly impressed
me; In fact, from the first act to the
last the footllghts were gushing blood.
love and adventure-and rotten act
Ing. Bills brother was awful.
Bin was pretty good judge Of
human nature. He had taken us to
this play to get us worked up TO
pitch OF enthusiasm. and thus getting
us In the proper frame OF mind. he
could unroll his latest scheme.
That night. after the show. he pro-
posed Il trip 10 South America. which
took our breaths away. We were TO
run away and ship on tramp stenm.
err, for passage of about nine
months. With the money thus earned
we were 10 equip ourselves and start
out for Port Limon. Costa Rlca, and
20 into the coffee plantation business.
We all fell for this and took solemn
vow 10 stick. The scheme especially
appealed 10 me because here was my
chance 10 follow Dana In his "Two
Years Before the Mast" The next
day, after sleeping Il over. Charlie and
Jim decided that there was more
money In New York, and refused to
20. admit / had sinking sensa-
tlon I'm the pit OF my stomach when
viewed the proposition In the sun
light, but ! stuck. Then BIN and !
made tour of the docks In New
York, trying to find the ship we
wanted. We fell In with several
"boardIng masters" These men In
fest the water fronts of large cities
md are nothing but bloodsuckers
preylng on sailors. One of these
parasites took us on board an old
tramp steamer, lying In Erie basin.
called the Cushko. Here we met
the steward, cline julcer," John
Royal Minis, with the emphasis on
the hyphen. The wonderful tale OF
ease, luxury and 'gettlng paid for see
ing the world" stun that the steward
end the boarding master unrolled be-
fore our eager eyes carried us into
the seventh heaven of expectation.
This was five o'clock In the afternoon.
The ship was 20 sail at three-ten the
following morning, but they did not
tell us this. The steward said that
we were just the two that he wanted
there being vacancies on the ship for
second steward and second cook. He
suggested that we sleep on the ship
that night, and then In the morning,
after seeing what It was like, we could
go home and decide whether we want
ed TO ship or not. / demurred Mt
this, because I had to go home first,
so he gave Bill and me permission to
20, but said we had to get back at
midnight. We hurried home and on
the sly packed my grip with my be-
longlngs.
That night I exploded a bombshell
IN the family. After dessert had been
served, pulled up with Importance,
declared: "Well, I'm going to South
America" A barrage of laughter
ilppled around the table. This got
Inc sore, and / shut up like clam.
1t was February, and very cold.
About seven o'clock that night greas
storm came up and the streets were
soon covered with sleety Ice. / turned
into bed with my clothes on. BIZ was.
10 notify me at ten o'clock by throw
Ing pebbles against the window pane
In my room. Every time l looked
out into the street and saw that howl
ing blizzard, picture of ship wal
lowing In a trough of the sea con-
stantly came before my mind and
shlyered. and my enthusiasm dropped
10 zero. | could not take my eyes
away from the clock. 1t was an
ngong. Of intense waiting, similar to
that when. later In the trenches !