Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-19
CONTINUED from Page 49,

NoCNhAb Nttt WIN
Frazier's side and damn near
scuppered them cannibals.
That's what ! got for playing
square with them natives" said
the old man when he told me
the yarn. IF I'd took the oil
and left Duke them guns I'd
have had 'em all on me neck
and the Lady would have bin
Quilted.
"As it was. I became King Of
the River and they wouldn't trade
wi no vessel IL ! didn't say so.
Every year we came back til
they let us build trade factories
ashore. The Lady became base
ship, then a hulk where the
traders slept. lived aboard her
for over 20 year til the firm
sold her to the COMMENT for a
powder hulk. An there she lies,
an here lie
Yes" went on the old cap'a in,
the Lady was a clipper ship
built by Mckay of Boston for
the English tea trade. She was
lady then. a real lady. stead
of what she is now. Clean, lone.
smooth as a smelt; that's a cbF-
per ship. Your fairweather sa
ors-roll- home-in their yellow
funneled mailboats gettin' the
hell kicked outta them in,
breeze that'd send the Lady along
at the rate o. knots with her lee
rail three feet under and her
yards dipping That's travelin'.
Took men to drive clippers.
men as wasn't afesred o nom
ing allow or aloft. Used to call
me Mad Frazier. they did cos
/ never took rag eff the Larry
on a homeward- run. She dieln
like to run nekkid before the
cold Atlantic blows. No. laddie.
she was graceful as a young
witch. bendin and curtesyin' an
bowin' TO port an to starboard
like the gracious lady she is
was"
The old man looked long and
lovingly at the blistered old hull
across the river and in the after
noon light the clean sweep Of
her flush deck told little of her
speed in her prime.
Aye sailor man am. - he
unused Never could stand the
mills. Give me sail and
Gods clean wind: that's honest
and natural"
He turned to me.
Some day I'll tell we some
real tales o. the sea. Did ye ever
hear o. the burnin' of the Bald
Eagle7 She burned wi 500
coolies battened below decks, she
did. and because her cap'n was
too yellow TO let 'em up. That's
black tale of a clipper. seen
pirates. have. I've fought
buckle foreigners who tried to
shanghai me whole crew. I've bin
shipwrecked and starved in a
open boat for weeks. An some
day I'll tell we tale that'll make
We flesh creep. All the cannibals
amt black. We ken.
"Blackbirdin' Well" he
filled his pipe. pulling slowly
across the placid river.
Aye" he said at last Il used
to carry contract labor in the
Lady. Blackbirdin' they called
it. Many's the cargo of boys from
,hese rivers | took to the cocoa
plantations in Fernando Pc. The
island natives didn't like work
so the overseers who wanted
strong boys who wouldn't have
nowhere to run away to. con-
tracted with the chiefs for two
year periods. The chiefs were
like gods to their natives. so
they did what they was told and
the chief collected a tax for every
boy he sold down-river to them
dam half-castes.
\ "Of course, sometimes they
didn't want to go. Then there
was smellin' out. and the
stinkin', scruffy witchman dis
covered that the boy who'd re-
fused to go on contract had a
devil in him. so he had to be
killed. The boys soon found out
it was better to go away for a
couple of years than stay home
an be jointed by their own
brothers.
We'll, the agent would col
lect a couple hundred boys. pay
the chief and give him a book
sayin that the boys'd get so
much for their work. Then he'd
give each blanket an ration
of ships bread an stink-fish an
they was set
Il never did like to load the
Lady with black ivory. But it