Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-03-30
SAILORS SNUG HARBOR-By Frederic j. Haskin

copper-l1ned troughs, and, while he was
| grievously disappointed ON these points, the
extraordinary comfort and expert equipment
of the institution almost made up for these
| lacks
The front view of the Harbor shows eight
large buildings Of sort of weatherbeaten
yellow brick, the Central Hall being distin-
gu1shed from the others by an impressive
white-pillared portico, above which flies a
particularly clean American flag. These,
however, are only the beginning of an in
stitution, which is entirely self-supportng
from its bakeshop to its power plant, and
from its laundry to it's farm.
The guide who volunteered to show the
reporter over the huge estate was tall,
slightly bent old seaman, who spoke with a
delightful Irish brogue. He wore the blue
uniform and cap of sea captain, which is
the uniform worn by all the inmates, and
he carried in his hand long, thin, nervous
cane. With his coattails Tapping in the
still March breeze, and with this cane, held
firmly in the middle and pointed authorita-
lively toward some distant spot, he looked
very much like the great figure he painted
himself to be in the remote days of his
youth, when he had "bossed" his own sail
ing vessel.
The eight main buildings of the Harbor
are all connected, so that, as the guide
pointed out with some pleasure, it was un-
necessary to go out-of-doors to pass from
JIG " Cu0 QUIET, Out Tor the same reason
it was hopelessly confusing to the sight
seer. Somewhere in this vast connected
men congregate by the hundreds (there are
large and very good assortment of books;
huge living room, with great fireplace and
comfortable leather easy chairs, where the
men congregate by the hundreds there IRE
seven hundred altogether in the Harbor)
smoking their seamans pipes and reading
their newspapers, and dining room, con-
tanning long, narrow mess tables, set with
fine linen and thick white chnaware At
tached to this is a serving room, in which
the food is received by elevator from the
kitchens below and placed in huge contain
ers on steam table. On the floor of this
room, also, are tremendous tea and coffee
urns, which look as if they might be the cap
tured loot of Jack, the Giant Killer The
capacity of these urns is taxed several times
a day, because ancient seamen consume cot
fee almost as often babies consume milk
Besides the kitchen on the lower floor
there are numerous workrooms, where many
Of the inmates have their private workshops
spending their time in making tennis nets
weaving curious foreign-looking baskets, and
doing odd carpenter jobs. One mans bust
ness is to restore all of the crumbling chairs
of the institution, for instance The men
are not required to do any work at all;
their activities entirely voluntary, and
their products are bought by the Harbor
for the same price that would be paid to
outsiders. The only requirements of the
Harbor are that a seaman must be sixty
years old upon his entrance to the institu-
ton, and that he must have sailed at lea t
five years in an American ship. All he has
to do, after he is once in there, is to attend
the chapel services occasionally and the rest
of the time enjoy the many comforts and
Injuries bequeathed to him by the founder
of the Harbor, Robert Richard Randall.