The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1918-09-13
Cap'n Ben's
Spy Glass
i.
By JONATHAN r NO
of The V1gil1nf~s


his movements, his clothes comblna-
ton of nautical and rustic, he stood
out like a lone pine tree In field. He
was the ideal type of the old-fash-
Toned New England shipmaster, with
an eye as blue as the sky on summer
day. l recalled how I had first seen
him at little town down East where
/ was spending my summer vacation.
He was standing out on the wharf
looking out to sea through large spy
glass. We had got into conversation,
he had taught me how to use the glass
and / had learned how greatly he val
ued 1t and had carried 1t around the
world with him on several voyages.
Seeing him again now In the crowd
ed station, l went up to him at once.
"Why Cap'n Ben" / exclaimed,
"where In the world did you come from
and what are you doing In BostonY"
"Oh, my daughter Is married to
Teller that works down In the market
district and I've been up here maxim
them a visit. I'm goin' back tonight
on the train. I'd rather go down by
boat, but they have pulled 'em all OH
on account of the war"
"Well, how is the old spyglass?"
said. IT presume you go down every
little while and have a look around
Just as you did last summer"
Cap'n Ben paused a minute before
he answered and then said, "There's
quite little yarn ter spin about that
old glass since you last saw her. My
train don't go for an hour and If you
have the time and would like to hear
1t I'll spin it to yer"
swell, Captain, real yarn from
real sailor isn't to be heard every day.
/ think that we had better take one
of these seats and you reel 1t off to
me-"
Old Man Did His Bit.
''Yer know" said Cap'n Ben after
being seated, II told yer last summer
that / thought q powerful lot of that
glass and / didn't think that she and
/ would ever part company, and now,
by lingo, I've sold her, or just as good
as sold her for a dollar"
why, Cap'n Ben" exclaimed, show
did that happen?"
"Well. I'll tell you" resumed Cap'n
Ben. "Ever since Uncle Sam went In
ter this war, I've felt meaner than n
sr,snnk that / want in it. / wrote to
washington and to some kind of a
shipping board here In Boston oferln'
my services, but they wrote back l
was too old. I amt but seventy-three
at that, and then, too, they said that
they wanted men who had experience
in steam and as I'd been on wind
hammer all the time / went to sea,
they didn't seem ter have any place
for me-
"Well, of course, like everybody else,
was reading in the papers as how the
submarines were sinking vessels right
and left and how our boys on the de-
stroyers had gone over to help the
English ter destroy that special breed
of sea lice, and one day l saw a piece
saying that the navy was mighty shy
of marine glasses of all kinds. 1t
seems that most Of them had been
made In Germany and we couldn't
make them here fast enough because
we had to have a lot of 'em right
away quick, and this article said that
if anybody had spyglass or pan
of binoculars, II they would send then
to the navy department they could us'
them to mighty good advantage; 1
said that Uncle Sam would pay dol
lar for the use of them and return
them after the war, but If they were
lost the dollar was to be the purchas'
price of 'em. 1t seems that they hat
to give you the dollar, for there wa
some kind of a law that wouldn't lie
you give 'em to the government.
''Well, l got to thinking the thini
over. and ! concluded that IL the
wouldn't give me show, here was
chance for the old glass to do her bii
and sent her along. My name wa
engraved on II, had that done year
ago, and in about a week I got lette
from this man Roosevelt who Is as
sistant secretary of the navy, sayin
he had received 1t.
Glass Saved Thousands OF Men.
"Of course ] missed the old gal
good deal, but I didn't regret it fer
minute, although I'll admit / didn
bank much on ever seeing her ag'in.
"Well, do you know about thre
weeks ago I got one of these letter
from across that had been opened .
the censor; ! couldn't imagine who
was from, and / looked at 1t quite
while before / opened ii, but when
did I sure got a good surprise. ~
got the letter here in my pocket an
you can read it for yourself"
He took out a large, old-fashion'
wallet from an inside coat pocket al
took letter from its spacious dept
and handed it to me to read.
'Afr. Benz. F. Buck:
Dear Sir-I have in my possesslo
aboard the q. S. torpedo destroy
j, a spyglass on which your mar
is engraved AS / am aware that
great many patriotic citizens have &C
tributed such articles to the u
navy, take it for granted that Y