Year: 1869




The laughing philosopher of the Sun and
the poets of the Post are in terrible humor.
They lay about them as if their pens were
Andrea Ferraras. They want to annihilate
more particularly all such boats as yachts and
all SUCH superAuous people as yachtmen. Or
dinarily your comical fellows and your chaps
who count syllables on their fingers for cram
bo-jingle are pleasant persons enough, but IL rs
always painful spectacle to see them indig-
nant, because they are always indignant In the
wrong place. Indignation being valuable
article, we hate to see it wasted, and to see
men who ought to have the credit for virtuous
wrath merely laughed at for ridiculous blum
ders. No one can at present look upon the
funny fellows of the Sun and the sentimental
boys of the Post with any feelings but those OF
sorrowful sympathy. They have come out to
smash all to finders a proposition for a
law on the subject of yachting. What most
disgusts them is that any one should desire to
make yachts free of tonnage dues when such
dues have to be paid by the schooners Polly
Ann, Sarah Jane, and the Three Tall Sisters,
sailing from the Connecticut river. The Post
is dreadfully "sarcastical" that ''luxury should
be free" and ''hard labor pay" Now it would
have saved these honest fellows their fine
frenzy if they could only have known that all
this has been law for some years. How incon-
veniently old laws turn up nowadays. Here,
in one day. a terrible statute comes to light to
prevent the United States having the fittest
man in the country for Secretary of the Trea-
sury, and in another day another statute saves
the yachtmen from the fury of the jokers and
rhymers. Here again we see there is too
much law in the land for anybodys comfort.
We commend to the attention of these fellows
the following statute, approved August Z,
1885,


OF Representatives OF the United States OF America.
in Congress assembled That the Secretary OF the
Treasury is hereby authorized to cause yachts used
and employed exclusively as pleasure vessels, and
designed as models Of naval architecture, and now
entitled to be enrolled as American vessels, to be


licensed on terms which will authorize them to pro-
ceed from port to port Of the United States without
entering or clearing at the Custom House, Such IL
cense shall be in such form as the Secretary OF the
sci so enrolled and licensed shall not
be allowed to transport merchandise or carry
passengers lOF pay, anu pTOVIucu, lurtilcT bhub
the owner of any such vessel before taking out such
license shall give bond, in such form and for such
amount as the Secretary OF the Treasury shall pre-
scribe. conditional that the said vessel shall not en-
gage in any unlawful trade nor In any way violate
the revenue laws OF the United states, and shall
comply with the laws In all other respects.


SEC. 2. And be it further enacted that oil such
vessels SHALL in all respects, except as above, be
subject to the laws of the United States and shall be
liable to seizure and forfeiture Tor any violation or
the provisions OF this act.


SEC. 3. And be it further enacted. that all such


licensed yachts shall use sigma! OF the he form for SIZE
and the owners thereof shall at all times permit the
naval architects In the employ OF the United States
to examine and copy the models OF said yachts.


Now, apropos to this dreadful bugbear about
making the boats of rich men free while those
poor men pay, we fancy we may safely say
that man who can afford the luxury of a
yacht will hardly care to have law made to
free him from the trine of tonnage dues. In
for a pound, he may not object to penny.
Perhaps yachtmen themselves, indeed, would
be the last to object, though the government
laid tax on them that quintupled all such
dues, and yet, maybe, the tax on thirty or
forty yachts in the whole United States would
hardly pay for its own collection. The bill
before Congress is for amendments to the
above act Why does it rehearse points
already enacted? Only to make the govern
ment safer against possible abuse of these
points. But its principal purpose is quite diff
ferent By the above statutes yachts are free
'from port to port of the United States, and
now that ocean yachting is in high favor with
our clubs, it is desired to have equal facility in
clearing for foreign ports. Another point in
the amendment is one to which we believe no
true American can make opposition. 1t is to
extend to foreign yachts visiting this country
that same comfy, courtesy and civility that is
extended to our yachts by the governments
of foreign countries.


Spuin and Monarchy.