Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1918-11-22

In New YORK Public School No. 7S
had three chums, "Bill" Meek, Jim
Fleming, and Charlie" Unger.
Bill was full of wild ideas and
schemes. He had. the "get-rich-quick'
would call us aside and In a mystic
rlous and important manner carefully
unfold some daring scheme to get rich
quick, giving his personal guarantee
that it could not fail. At first we
were very enthusiastic over bis
scheme and wanted to go in with
: both feet" and would carefully work
out the details of how to proceed
when, bang Bill, 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 IN
blushingly told us that unforeseen cir
cumstances which no one could pre-
vent had interfered. Then he would
unroll another wild dream of fortune.
And so it went on; one scheme after
another vanishing in smoke, until we
became very skeptical. Personally,
had no faith in any of Bills day
dreams. but admired, and perhaps
envied, his spirit of adventure; so at
last I decided that would take a
chance, success or no success.
-. One night Bill came. around to the
house with four tickets for a 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 footlights were gushing blood,
love and adventure-and rotten act
ing. Bits brother was awful.
Bill was a pretty good judge Of
human nature. He had taken US to
! this play to get US worked up to- a
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 a trip to South America, which
took our breaths away. We were to
run away and ship on a tramp steam
err, for a passage of about nine
months. With the money thus earned
we were to equip ourselves and start
out for Port Limon. Costa Rica, and
go into the coffee plantation business.
We all fell for this and took a solemn
vow to stick. The scheme especially
appealed to me because here was my
chance to follow Dana in his 1.-TWO
Years Before the Mast" The next
day, after sleeping it over, Charlie and
Jim decided that there was more
money in New York, and refused to
go. 1 admit I had a sinking sensa-
ton in the pit of my stomach when
viewed the proposition in the sun
light, but I stuck. Then Bill and I
made a 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
and are nothing but bloodsuckers
preying 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, Time juicer." John
with the emphasis on
the hyphen. The wonderful tale of
ease, luxury and getting paid for see
ing the world" stuff that the steward
and 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 to sail at three-ten the
following morning, but they did not
ell us this. The steward said that
We were just the two that he wanted,
here being vacancies on the ship for
second steward and second cook. He
that we sleep on the ship
hat night, and then in the morning.
Ifter seeing what it was like, we could
70 home and decide whether we want
d to ship or not. / demurred at
his, because I had to go home first,
o he gave Bill and me permission to
o, but said we had to get back at
We hurried home and on
he sly packed my grip with my be-
ongings.
That night I exploded a bombshell
4 the family. After dessert had been
erved, pulled up with Importance, l
cleared: swell, I'm going to South
.merica." A barragef of laughter {
ppled around the table. This got
lie. sore, and i shnt up like Clam. a
1t was February, and very cold. L
bout seven o'clock that night a greal a
form came up and the streets were
BON covered with sleety ice. turned s.
ito bed with my clothes on. Bill was b
, notify me at ten o'clock By throw
lg pebbles against the window pane Il
my room. Every time I looked p
1T into the street and saw that howl o
g blizzard. picture Of ship wal Il
wing in trough Of the sea con- st
antly came before my mind and ri
livered. and my enthusiasm dropped II
zero. could not take my eyes W
way from the clock. 1t was an Ct
,ony of intense waiting, similar to as
mt wf'n, later In the trenches, / W