Evening gazette, Saturday, February 29, 1896 · page 7

 

 

 

A SEA HERO. -

 

How Harry, the Cabin Boy,
' Aténed for His Sin.

 

' Everybody who knows anything
about Bath, Me., and her ships must,
necessarily, know the Reaper. She is
one of those trim-looking craft that
Fenimore Cooper might naturally have
pictured for his Skimmer of the Seas.
Bulky of hull, shaped like a sword-
fish, with wings of enormous spread,
there was a. time when the Reaper had
more “quick work” about her frame
than the “twenty periaguas built into
a single craft," of whiCh the great
American author used to tell. ‘

Few who were anywhere near Bath
on a certain day during the centen-
nial year can ever forget with what en-
thusiasm'the Reaper was consigned to
her native clement. She won distinc-
tion on the high seas from the very
start, and when it was not in winning
races or carrying notable cargoes it
was in rescuing some poor wretch clin g-
ing to a piece of timber. It is only
a few years since the Reaper arrived
here the winner of a. 15,000—n1ile race
around Cape Horn from Astoria, Ore.
Her competitor on this occasion was
the sturdy and speedy bark Western
Belle. The sum of $1,000 was staked
on this event, and the Reaper took
the prize. ,

But the Reaper is now in trouble,
and her many friends will .be glad to
learn that the marine doctor entertains
hopes of her recovery. She is at Port-
land, where she arrived the other day
badly broken down in health and
spirits, after the longest and rough-
est passage in her experience, from
ocean to ocean, and that is saying a
great deal for a craft that has doubled
the cape as many times as has the
Reaper.

Not- only were her hull and wings
badly crippled, but she lost a little
hero, and those who remained on the
battling craft were a struggling, emaci-
ated, exhausted and starving lbt when
the vessel finally reached the head of
the Columbia river. The story might
never have been known on this side had
not the nine—year-old daughter of Capt.
Young, the master of the vessel, writ-
ten briefly of the same to Mrs. H. W.
Morris, of Brooklyn. The little girl‘s
name is Henrietta, and she accompan-
ied her' mother to the Pacific coast
in the Reaper. Henrietta is a sea
nymph, if there ever was one. She
loves the sea as she loves her doll, and
not only can she spin a yarn as well as
any of the fo’k’sle hands, but she can
write an interesting one, too.

There never was a tougher lot
" of “hands” collected at the instance of
any shipping master than that which
tumbled aboard the Reaper as she lay

in the stream off Liberty island last.

May. '
Hardly had the ship got off shore
- from Sandy‘Hook when the mates dis-
covered that half a dozen of the sailors
who had been singed as A. B.’s were as
green as the sheathing on, the ship’s
bottom. Some masters believe in in—
troducing a capstan bar on occasions of
this kind; but Capt. Young is ahumane
man, and, with a sigh, he simply logged
the men, and determined to ‘put up
with a bad bargain. '
The mess or cabin boy who went in
- the ship was known to the officers as
Harry. He had never been to sea be-
fore, although he told Capt. Young
when he came on board that he had
made a deep water voyage in an English
bark. He was a good lad for a time, and,
it was not necessary to ask any ques-
tions to discover that at one time he had
felt the influences of a good mother’s
hand. He was only 15 years old, rather
tall for his age, with a full, open face,
light curly hair and blue eyes that
rivaled the clearness of the sea itself.
Somehow or other he evinced a. fond
ness for that little water sprite Hen-
rietta immediately after she came
aboard. It was one of those attach-
ments that an older brother forms for
his little sister, and at the beginning of
the passage he madeirequent trips be-
tween the cabin and the headquarters
of Charley Noble to get some dainty for
his little queen. But after the ship had
been at sea seven weeks it was noticed
that Harry was irregular in his habits,
and that his devotion “to the little
woman aft” was not as marked as it
should be. The lad had had much oc-
casion to associate with the men in the
usual course of events, and presently
his conferences with the green hands be-
came so frequent and pronounced that
Capt. Young was obliged to reprove
him, .-—
It was like casting water on a duck’s
back, though. These men seemed to
have some unknown power over the,- boy,
but the extent of this power was not
learned until the stewardess one day
discovered that. somebody was stealing
the condensed milk. A watch was
maintained, but still the milk continued
to disappear, and finally the butter be~
gan to take French leave. Then the
flour followed to keep it company, and
was soon joined by the sugar. Those,
whose duties called them aft began to
suspect one another, but never for a
moment was a thought given to the
honesty of Harry. Little Henrietta
vouched for him, and that was enough.
He had told her repeatedly that his am-
bition was to grow up a good, brave
man that he might command a majestic
ship like the Reaper, and on Sunday
afternoons, when he pored over the lit-
tle finger-stained Biblethat some Chris—
tian mother had given him as an heir-
loom and read aloud therefrom to the
girl, Harry was watched with envy.
But the dreadful blow came at last.
' Harry was discovered redhanded one
morning stealing a quantity of stores.
To have the stores stolen bit by bit was
sorrow enough, but to learn that Harry,
esteemed and loved by all, was the
guilty wretch was a crushing blow.
The stewardess Wept in concert with
Henrietta, Capt. Young felt as if he had
lost a dear friend and the mates shook
their heads in sympathy. 'As for Harry.’
he told it all. The green hands had in-

 

 

 

duced him to bring them a can of con-
densed milk one day, and when they
asked for another and he had refused
to get it they threatened to tell on him
unless he obeyed. He thought too
much' of the good will of his superiors
aft to let the men carry their threat into
execution, and as a natural sequence he
met their demands. And their de-
mands grew larger as his duplicity in.
creased, until finally it was too late for
him to make his book of conscience ever
balance.

After that Capt. Young and his
mates did not trust him. He could not
go anywhere without watchful eyes
upon him, for he had been tried and
found wanting. But he could count
upon one friend and comforter, after
all. Henrietta knew him when he was
a good boy, and she would not desert
him when he had fallen from grace.

“Oh,” she exclaimed one afternoon,
as a sort of exhaust to her wounded
feelings. “why did you do anything
like that, Harry; why did you do any-
thing like that? It was dreadful for
you to steal for those bad, wicked men.
Now we must all suffer for it. The ship
has been making such bad weather of
it that papa says the passage will last
more than six months, and because of
your helping yourself to everything
we must run short of provisions before
we arrive. It was dreadful of you to
do.” ~

' There was no mistaking the fact that
the craft was making bad weather of
it. Fifteen days had been consumed
in an endeavor to round the cape in
blinding snowstorms and gales that
were dead ahead and as sharp as the
point of a needle. Twice Capt. Young
had a conference with his mates on the
advisability of wearing ship and put-
ting before it so as to finish the pas-
sage by way of- the Cape of Good Hope.
When it was not blowing great guns it
was a. series of calms with the ship
fanning along, as sailormen say when
the canvas collapses every other min-
ute. In these light airs she was as
slow as a blind man groping his way.
The topsawers of the crew said they
never saw such weather before, and
they were about right. The gales had
played sad havoc with the sails and
spars, and the lusty seas which arose
in their wrath ate big chunks out of
the decks, their fixtures, and the hull
itself.

Then thefood gave out, as was pre-
dicted, and dark looks were flashed at
Harry. The butter, milk and sugar
had been exhausted some time when
the news was passed around that the
flour had given out. The growling be-
came general then, and even the green
hands turned up their noses every time
Harry put in an appearance. Some-
thing had to be done. The last few
pounds of flour had been used one Sun-
day, when Capt. Young thought of
some old wheat, the sweepings of that
famous cargo which was stowed in
the lower hold forward. This wheat
the hens on board had previously re-
fused to eat, probably because of its
bilgelike color. How to get it was
the thing that troubled Capt Young
most, for he knew that hungry men
would not refuse it even if chickens
would.

There was only one thing to do, and
that was to break out the cargo stowed
under the fore hatch. It was a long
and difficult job, and thefleck of the
ship was like a huge dry goods estab-
lishment while it was in progress, but
it was gotten at last, the green hands
working harder than anybody else,
their appetites urging them .on, per-
haps. Once on deck the wheat 'was
ground in the coffee. mill and the stew-
ard converted it into what Henrietta
describes as “good bread and pan-
cakes.” It could not last forever,
though, and finally it gave out, too.
Then the last remaining stores were
taken in hand. These consisted of peas
and beans, and Mate Harris thought
them so valuable just then that he had
them counted as a prelude to distribu-
tion.

Harry, who was primarily responsi-

ble for. all the trouble, did not suffer

from hunger as much as did the other
men. A worse fate was reserved for
him. The Reaper was about. a =month
in the Pacific when she encountered
a terrific storm that lasted three days
and nights. '

There was an old man in the crew
who had made several voyages in the
ship before and who was as capable
a. sailor as ever let go and hauled. To-
ward midnight on the second day of
the storm this old man was struck by
a sea which came on board, and the
ship being well heeled over was being
rapidly carried over the side, when
Harry, who was passing, grabbed him.
In doing so the lad fell and a succeed-
ing wave caught him, and, picking him
up much- as it would a straw, tossed
him into the dim, dark sea alongside.

The cry of "man overboard! ” brought

, all hands to the deck, and the roars

of the mates could be heard above the
howling of the wind and the painful
creaking of the spars. An'attempt
was made-in response to an order to

get the ship around, and though the '

helm was hard to weather, all efforts
to get the vessel before the wind proved
unavailing. Harry was never seen
again. There was great gloom among
the hands after that, and Mate Harris
that night read from Brainard, where
he says:
" At the piping of all lands,

When the judgment signal’s spread—
,When the islands and the lands

And the seas give up the dead,

And the south and the north shall come;

VJ hen the sinner is dismay'd,

And the just man is afraid,

Then Heaven be thy aid,

Poor Tom.”

The Reaper was nearly 200 days on
the passage, and was more like awreck
than her old self when she reached
Portland—N. Y. Mail and Express.

.-—-“Great Scott!” howled the boss,_,

“does it take you four hours to carry a

message three squares and return?”

“W’y,” said the new office boy, “youl

told me to see how long it would take
me. to go there and back. an’ I done it.”

1

PUNGENT PARAGRAPHS.

'~Literature.—-Editor—-“Your narra-
tive is too bald.” Author—“Very well.
I will introduce some hair-raising inci-
dents.”——Detroit, Tribune.

-—Miss Ethel—“I wonder if the gen-
tleman over there can hear me when
I sing?” Maid—“Of course, he can;
he is closing his window already."—
Buch Fur Alle.

——Useless Effect—“I have a story for
you that will make your hair stand on
end.” “Well, what good would that do ?
I don’t know one note on the piano
from another.”—Indianapolis Journal.

—Fussy—“Oh, if I could only have a
dinner like those my dear old mot-her
used to cook.” Mrs. Fussy—“Well, it’s
a great pity that your dear old father
never taught you how to carve.”—N.
Y. Tribune. ‘

-—Cashier—“Have you heard, sir, that
John Jones is a bankrupt?” Banker——
“Well, that’s good news. We’ll now get
a little of what he owes us, whereas,
if he had remained in business, we’d
never have had a cent.”——Fliegendc
Blaetter.

. —-Paternal Visitor—“Do you like to
go to school, little boy?” Little Boy~-
“Yes, I like goin’ to school well enough
and comin’ home all right. What I
don’t like is havin’ to stay cooped up
in there between times.”—-Somerville
Journal. -

——First Young Lawyer—“I don't see
how you happened to lose your case.
The law was plainly on your side."
Second Young Lawyer-“Yes, I knew
it. was,»and that was what I depended
on. But I forgot all about the‘jury.”—
Somerville Journal.

—Young Lawyer—"Thank heaven!
At last I have a case—a young rascal
who has at least half a dozen thefts
cn his conscience.” Wife—“How kind
of him to choose you for his counsel.
Don’t you think we ought to invite him
to dinner?”—Fliegende Blaetter. ‘

—A Disappointment—“Pd like to
hear you play the violin, Mr. Tilling-
hast,” saidsevenyear-old Tommy Dil-
lingham, who was entertaining the

caller. “But I don’t play the violin,
Tommy.” “Then' papa must be mis-
taken. I heardhim tell mamma that-

you .played second fiddle at home."—
Detroit Free Press.

BEFORE SHE SWALLOWS.

Russia Always Mastlcates the Territory
Before Gulping It Down.

Naturalists tell us that the boa-com
strictor, when preparing its victim for
food, breaks the bones and kneads the
hard substances int-o pulp before swal-
lowing the delicacy. An analogous
process is that pursued by Russia to-
ward her southern neighbors in the
far east. When the process has gone
on long enough, when everything that
is firm and strong has been carefully
obliterated by judicious treatment and
when the right opportunity occurs, the
gulp is made.

For years Corea has been subjected
to this emasculating policy and be-
fore the war she had reached that
stage when she had become a fit and
proper subject for passing into the
maw of her northern neighbor. The
design of Russia had long been patent
to all onlookers. The Chinese were
well aware of it and were doing all they
could in their. childish way to prevent
its consummation. But China was not
the only country which watched with
apprehension the action of Russia in
the Hermit kingdom. Japan had seen
all along, far more clearly than China,
the danger that loomed in the distance
if Russia’s policy should be crowned
with success. She determined, there-
fore, to take the matter into her OWn
hands so soon as China had declared
her unwillingness to support the re-
forms necessary to give strength and
vitality to Corea.

It was against Russia, therefore, that
the war was more immediately direct-
ed, though China through her flabby
action was called upon to bear the
brunt of the attack, and it may well
be imagined with what anxiety the
somewhat unexpected course of the
contest was watched by the real ene-
mies of Japan at Peking. As the Chi-
nese armies were vanquished in the
field and their ships were sunk at sea
the fear of the formation of a Japan
powerful enough to check Russia’s on-
ward course began to weigh heavily
on the spirits of her diplomatists. But,
fortunately for the interests of Russia,
the-czar’s representative at the court of
Peking, Count Cassini, is an eminently
astute and far-seeing official, and when
the supreme crisis of the war was
reached, when the enemy was within
measurable distance of Peking and
when the aged statesman, Li Hung
Chang, was about to leave for Japan
as imperial envoy to conclude a peace,
the Russian minister doubtless felt that
a crowning effort should be made to
prevent the elixir of political life from
penetrating into either Corea or China.
-—National Review.

 

‘ Gladstone on a Turk.

Mr. Gladstone, in replying recently to
a Turk who had written him concern-
ing the ex-premier's views on the Ar-
menian question, wrote as follows:
“I have felt it my duty to make known
that Mohammedans, including Turks,
suffer from the bad government of the
sultan, and I have heartily wished suc-
cess to every effort made for putting an
end to this grave evil.
sion when I did this was at Chester,
in the month of Augustfivhen I was
speaking about Armenia. Still, the
Turks and other Mohammedans are
not, so far as I know, plundered, raped,
murdered, starved and burned. But
this 'is the treatment which the sultan
knowingly deals out to his Aimenian
subjects day by day. There are de-
grees in suffering and degrees in base-
ness and villainy among men, and both
seem to have reached their climax in
the case of Armenia. I have known

 

,honored and respected, and who, I be-
‘lieve, did not find me an enemy. God
grant they may have multiplied.”——De-
troit Free Press ‘

4’

The last occa-'

and done business with. Turks whom I, v

 

 

u .- ,,. ‘
7.

.TEELEVEHIHGHGAZEmfim”

FAMOUS FOREIGNER'S.

M r. Gladstone is still champion postal
card writer, consuming over 4,000 cards
Per year. ' ~

Rebecca Isaacs, who supplied fruit
to the duke of Wellington and the.
'li-itish troops at Torres Vedras, died
recently at the age of 99 in Lisbon.

Jules Simon, the ' distinguished
French statesman, is in better health
at 82 than for some years past. He
enjoys his old age, and it is said that
he becomes a better orator every year.

When in Rome Sig. Crispi has an es-
cort of 29 police officers, which costs
Italy $12,500 a. year. When he leaves
the city the expense is increased to
three or four times that amount.

Kruger, president of the Transvaal
Iepublic, said when he was traveling
in Holland in 1886: “You may protect
yourself against the cold air with
weather strips, but there is no protec-
tion against British infiltration "’

After 42 years of service as lady—in-
waiting to Queen Victoria, the dowager
duchess of Athol, is about to resign.
She was mistress of the robes in the
Earl Derby’s first administration in
1853, and also under Lord Rosebery.

President Faure is agreat sportsman,
and his preserves are among the finest
in France. After a successful day's
shooting he usually remembers the
members of the French legislative body
with a brace or two of pheasants apiece.

The English papers all note the death
of Mrs. Cornelius, the old and faithful
servant of Charles Dickens, and who
was the first person named in his will.
She died on January 7 at the residence
of her son-in-law at Peckham. She
was aged 75, and had suffered much in
her last illness.

ooanss IN ANIMALS.

Oysters live ten or twelve years when
they have the chance. In this country
they don’t get the chance.

The large horned beetle can carry 315
times its own weight. One has been
known to walk away with a two and a
quarter pound weight,

Observe for yourselves. Every
spotted dog. has the end of his tail
white, while every spotted cat has the
end of her tail black. *-

Try it. Gather 10,000 of the threads
spun by a full grown spider, twist them
together and see if they equal in sub-
stance the size of one of your hairs.

Many horses are fond of beer, and
to :1 tired horse a bottle of beer in his
grucl is a great restorative. It acts as
a “pick me up,” and often makes a.
horse with no appetite eat freely.

ll‘CWeI‘S understand this, and that is
one reason why their horses always
seem to be in good condition.

The amount of light that can be ob-
tained from firelights is not generally
known. These insects have two bright
spots on their thorax, and also brilliant-
wings on the abdomen, and give light
sufficient to enable one to read at a
little distance. Two or three placed
in the center of a room will shed a soft
light all over it. They are very common
in Havana, Brazil, Guiana, Venezuela
and Mexico.

ABOUT PROMINENT PEOPLE.

, Prof. von Trietska, the German his-
torian, is wholly deaf.

Sardou is now 64 years old, wrinkled
and half bald, but in his elastic step
and brilliant eye youthful as ever.

Pillsbury, the chess player, eats one
small plate of‘ meat each day, drinks
not-lung but milk, smokes rarely,
sleeps eight to twelve hours daily and
rides a bicycle.

 

It is said that Rudyard Kipling never

reads criticisms on his own work
now, either laudatory or condemna-
tory, as he finds that it perpleibs his
imagination and diminishes his crea-
tive energy. He says: “A writer finds
his happiness in creating, not in crit-
ics."

President Clements R. Markham, of
the Royal Geographical society, has
probably risked his life oftener than
any other civilian in Great Britain.
He is a great adventurer and was
trained in the navy with McClintock,
the illustrious arctic explorer, as a
comrade.

POINTS ABOUT WOMEN.

The fact that ex—President Harrison
is about to marry Mrs. Dimmick calls
attention to the fact that \l’ashington,
Jefferson, Madison, Jackson and Fill-
more married widows.

Among the notable benefa-ctions of
John T. Spaulding, who died in Boston

lately, was the education of Helen ‘

Kellar. the deaf, dumb and blind girl,
whose fame has become international.

Charlotte Bronte manuscripts have
been bought from her husband and
others for the purpose of publication.
They are more numerous and impor-
tant than had been supposed, and will
make a substantial addition to her
work, both in prose and poetry.

The first original composition printed
in America was brought out by a
woman, Mrs. Anne Bradstreet, wife of
Simon Bradstreet, governor of Massa-
chusetts, and daughter of the celebrated
Thomas Dudley. She published 3. vol-
ume of poems in 1640, one year after the.
first printing press was set up at Cam-
bridge, Mass.

TOASTS TO WOMEN.

Woman—The sweetest creature the
Lord ever made.

Woman—The source of help, happi-
ness and Heaven. .

Woman—She needs no eulogy; she
speaks for herself.

Woman—A creature “nobly planned,
to warn, to comfort and command.”

'Woman—Once there was a woman,
sir, and here she is! '

Woman— —The tyrant we love, the
friend we trust.

Woman—God bless her, the queen of
all creation.

Woman-~The. fairest work of the
great Author; the edition is large,'and

’ no man should be without a COP3’.'-"

Baltimore World.

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