Evening Star Newspaper, May 7, 1898, Page 19

LL, oll sehei: DN, WKY Hogged at bow and stern, her deck sloped at the ends like a truck's platform, while a slight twist in the eld hull canted the foremast to pert and the mizzen to star- board. It would be hard to know when she was on an even keel. The uneven inbeard and cut, was scarred like g biock, pessibly from a former intimate acquaintance with the coal aloft dingy gray spars, un- and trade; were ‘raped for years; slack hemp riggin: for tarred snend hued years, and tan-colored s h patch upon patch of lighter- ch doubled and trebled t seemed about to fall apart from their own weight. She was English built. bark-rigged, bluff in the bow, are in the stern, unpainted and leaky— on the whole unkempt and disreputabie a eraft as ever flew the black fiag, ith the clank of the pump marking to the wailing squeak of the tiller ropes, she wallowed through the sea like a log in an eddying tideway. Even the black flag at the gaff end wore a makeshift. slovenly air. It was a square section ef the bark's .foreroyal, painted ack around the skull-and-cross-bone de- sign, which had been left to the original hue of the canvas. The port holes were equally slovenly in appearance, being cut through between stanchions with axes in- stead of saws, and the bulwarks were fur- ‘her disfigured by extra holes smashed through at the stanchions to take the lash- ings of the gun breechings. But the syns were bright and cared for, as were the uni- forms of the crew. for they had been lately transshipped. Far from nome, with a gen- eral cargo, this ancient old trader had been taken in a fog by Capt. Swarth and his men an hour before their own well-found vessel had sunk alongside—which gave them just time to hois: over guns and am- munition. When the fog shifted the pursu- ing English war brig that had riddled ihe irate saw nothing but the peaceful old tub ahead, and weat on into the fog, looking for the other. Any port in a storm, Angel,” remarked pt. Swarth, as he fleshed his keen eyes over the ricketty fabric aloft; “but we'll tind a better eae soon. How do the boys stand the pumping?” Mr. Angl Todd, first mate and quarter- master. filled a black pipe before answe: ing. Then, between the first and second deep puffs, : “Growlin'—dammum. the work? “‘tween-deck and fo: bugs and bilge wate tle smells 0° bed- —and they want their scorneth judg- mouth of the wicked devour- Tedd had been st pulpit. but, going » had fallen into un- slave coast, and sea. Ww Many of his drawled * and high n't blame th “ve got to make the ¢ wn't pick up some- thing cn the we must.careen and stop the leak. Then they'll have something to srowi about.” “S'pose the brig follows us in? “Hope she will.” said Capt. Swarth, with a pleasant smile and a lightening of his > will, and give me a chance. ic _widowship owes me a brig, nd that's a fine one.” Mr. Todd had never been Known to smile, but at this speech he lifted one eyebrow and turned his sat- urnine face full at his superior, inquiry written upon every line of it. Capt. Swarth was musing. however, and said no more; so the mate, knowing better than to at- tempt probing his mind. swung his long figure down the poop ladder, and went forward to harass the men—which, in their »pinion, was all he was good for. According to his mood. Mr. Todd's speech Was choicest English. or the cosmopolitan, technical slang of the sea, mingled with wonderful profanity. But one habit of his carly days he never dropped—he wore. in) the hottest weather. and in storm and bat- ue, tne black frock and choker of the clerical profession. Standing now, with »ne foot on the fore hatch, waving his long ‘ms ard objurgating the scowling men at the pumps, he might easily have seemed, ‘o any ene beyond the reach of his lan- guage. to be a clergyman exhorting them. Capt. Swarth watched him with an amused look on hts sunburned face, and muttered, “Good man, ever inch of him, but he — nandle men.” Then he called him aft. " he said, “we made a mistake the ports; we can’t catch any- thing afloat that sees them, so we'll have to pass for a peaceable craft until we can close enough to board something. I think the brig’'ll be back this way, too. Get out some old tarpaulins and cover up the ports. Paint them, if you can, the color of the sides, anc you might coil’ some lines over the rail, as though to dry. Then you can break out cargo and strike the suns down the main hatch. Three days later, wjth Cape St. Roche a black line to the westward, a round shot across ber bows brcught the old vessel— minus the black emblem now, and out- waruly respectable—up to the wind, with maintopsail aback, while Capt. Swarth and a dozen of his mer—equally respectable in the nondescript rig of the merchant sailor vatched the appreach of an English brig- of-war. Mr. Todd ard the rest of the crew were below hatches with the guns. The brig came down the wind like a graceful bird—a splendid craft, black, shiny and -hipshape, five guns to a side, brass- bound officers on her quarter-deck, blue- Jeckets darting about her white deck and up aloft, a homewardbound pennant trail- ing from ber main truck, and at her gaff end a British ensign as large as her main royal. Capt. Swarth lazily hoisted the En- #lish flag to the bark’s gaff, and, as the brig rounded to on his weather beam, he pointed to it; put his dark eyes sparkled enviously as he viewed the craft whose sovernment’> protection he appealed to. “Bark ahoy.” came a voice through a trumpet; “what bark is that?’ Capt. Swarth swung himself into the mizzen rigging and answered through his hands with an excellent cockney accent: “Tryde Wind, o Lunnon, Cappen Quirk, fifty- woon dyes out fro’ Leeverpool, bound to Calloa, gen'ral cargo.” “You were not heading for the Horn.” “Him a leakin’ badly. Hi'm a goin’ to myke the coast to careen. D'ye happen to know a gon ploce?” An officer left the group and returned with what Capt. Swarth knew was a chart, which a few them studied, while their captain hailed again: “See anyth more of that pirate brig the other day “What! When—a peerate? Be ’e a peer- ate?” answered Capt. Swarth, in agitated tones. “Be that you a-chasin’ of im? Naw, seed nothink of ‘im arter the fog shut ‘im out.” Th: captain conferred“with his officers a moment, then called: “We are going in to careen ourselves. That fellow struck us on the water line. We are homeward bound, an? Rio’s too far to run back. Follow us in; sight of us, it's a small bay, latitude 9, 51, ”, rocks to the north, low land to the south, good water at the entrance and i se t @ fine beach. Look out for the brig. It’s Swarth and his gang. Good morning.” “Aye, that hi will, Thankee. Good marnin’.” In three hours the brig was a speck under the rising land ah in another she was out of sight; but before this Capt. Swarth and his crew had held a long conf>rence, which resulted in sail being shortened, though the man at the whee! was given a straight course to the bay described by the English captain. Late on the following afternoon th: oid bark blundered into this bay—a rippling sheet of water, bordered on ail sides by a sandy beach. Stretching up to the moun- tainous country inland was luxurious forest of palm, laurel and cactus, bound and in- tertwined by aln.ost impassable under- growth, and about half way from th2 en- appearances of the tackls that held her down, which told him ~+ WEEDS MUST WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES, (Copyright, 1898, by Morgan Robertson.) LR QMES LILLIE Yep—and the grub. And they say the | that the work was done and she was being slacked upright. “Just in time,” he mut- tered. = ‘They brought the bark to anchor near the beach, about a half mile from the brig to- ward the entrance, furled th> canvas and ran out an anchor astern with the cable over the taffrail. Heaving on this, they brought the vessel parallel with the shore. So far—good. Guns and cargo, lightered ashore, mor> anchors staward td keep her off the beach, masthead tackles to the trees to heave her down and preventer rigging and braces to assist the masts would have been next in ord2r, but they proceeded no farther toward czreering. Instead they lowered the two crazy boats, provisioned and armed them cn the inshore side of the bark, made certain oth>r preparations—and waited. On the deck of the English brig things were moving. A gang of bluejackets, und2r the first lieutenant, were heaving in the cable; another gang, und2r the boatswain, erding down and stowing away the heavy tackles and careening gear, tailing out halliards and sheets aad coiling down the light running rigging, while topmen aloft loosed the canvas to bunt-gaskets, ready to drop ii at th2 call from the deck. The second lieutenant, overseeing this latter, paced the port quarterdeck and an- swered remarks from C Bunce, who paced the sacred sterbeard side (the brig being at anchor), anu vee his class on the dilapidated t fy cadiitew down the jeems to me, Mr. Shack,” he said across the deck, “that an owner who would send that bark around the Horr, and the master who would take her, ought to be sequester- ed and cared for, either in an asylum or in jai “Yes, sir, I think so, too,” answered the second Heutenant, Icoking aloft. “Might be an insurance “job. Clear away that bunt-gasket cn the royal yard,” he added in a roar. Capt. Bunce—round, rosy, with brilliant mutton-chop whiskers—muttered: “In- surance—wrecked ntentionally—no, not here where we ar2; wouldn't court inves- tigation by her majesty’s officers.” He rolled forward, then aft and looked again through the giass. “Very large crew—very large,” he said, “very curious, Mr. Shack." A hail from the forecastle, announcing that the anchor was short, prevented Mr. Shack answering. Capt. Bune aved a deprecatory hand to the first lieutenart, who came aft at once, while Mr. Shack descended to the waist and the boatswain <cended the fcrecastle s to attend to the anchor. The first lieutenznt now had charge of the brig, ard from the quarter. deck, gave his orders to the crew, while . Bunce ed himself with his glass ull was set and head she: aown to pert, ails were , sheeted home fore- ced to port, the anchor tripped nd fished and the brig paid off from the land breeze, and with — tor Steadied down to a course f Ir. Durexn,” said the captain, are fully ferty men on that bari all dressed al:ke--all in red shirts and knitted caps 4M dancing around like L z the glass to ught it to bed a few showing w it looks as though they were ali drunk. singing and could see h the naked eye that the men on the bark were wrestling, dancing and running about. ‘Quarters, sir?” inquire Mr. Duncan. ‘hali we bring-to, alongside?” Well—no—not yet,” said the captain, hesitatingly; “it’s xl right—possibly; yet it is strange. 2 a little.” They waited and had sailed down al- most abreast of the xray old craft, no- ticing as they drew near an appreciable diminution of the uproar, when a flag arose from the stern of the bark, a dusky flag that straightened out directly toward them, so that it was difficult to make out. But they soon understood. As they reached a point sqvarely reast of the bark, five points of flame burst from her innocent gray sides, five clouds of smoke ascended and five round shot, coming with the thunder of the guns, hurtled through their rigging. Then they saw the design of the flag, a white skull and crossbones, and noted another, a black flag, too, but pennant-shaped, and showing in rudely- painted letters the single word, “Swarth,” iling up to the fcrepeak. “Thunder and lightning,” roared Capt. Bunce. “Quarters, Mr. Duncan, quarters, and in with the kites. Give it to them. Put about first.” A youngster of the crew had sprung be- low and immediately emerged with a drum, which, without definite instruction, he hammered vigorously; but before he had begun, men were clearing away guns and manning fiying-jib down-haul and royal clew lines. Others sprang to stations, an- ticipating all that the sharp voice of the first Heutenant could order. Around came the brig on the other tack and sailed back, receiving another broadside through her rigging and answering with her starboard guns. Then for a time the din was deafen- ing. The brig backed her main yards and gent broadside after broadside into the hull of the old craft. But it was not until the —- The Captain Yelled Back. eighth had gone that Captain Bunce no- ticed through the smoke that the pirates were not firing. The smudge from the burning canvas port coverings had deluded him. He ordered a cessation. Fully forty solid shot had torn through that old hull near the water line, and not a man could now be seen on her deck. “Out with the boats, Mr. Duncan,” he said; “they're drunk, or crazy, but t.ey’re the men we want. Capture them.” “Suppose they run, sir—suppose they take to their boats and get-into the woods? Shall we follow?” No, not past the beach—not into an am- bus! The four boat loads of men mich put off from the brig found nothing but a deck on the sinking bark and two empty boats hauled up on the beach. The pirates were in the wood: , having kept the bark between themselves and the brig as they pulled ashore. The two lieu- tenants conferred for a few moments, while the bluejackets clustered around bows of their boats’ and watched i i Hh i Into their midst it sped with mighty bounds, and, sinking down, lifted a glad face to the heavens with the groaning ut- terance: “O God, I thank Thee. Protect’ me,- gentlemen—protect me from those wicked Who are you?” asi men. x Du : ‘cower hey shooting at you?” incan. ‘‘Were they s] 2 “Yes—at me—who never harmed a fiy. They would have killed me. My name is Todd. Oh, such suffering. But you will protect me? You ee oe officers, You are not pirates and murderers.’ “ “But what, has happened? Do you live around here?” s It took some time for Mr. Todd to quiet down sufficiently to tell his story coherent- ly. He was an humble laborer in the vine- yard of the Lord. He had gleaned among the poorest of the native population in the outskirts of Rio Janeiro until his health suffered, and had taken passage home in a Passenger ship, which, ten days out,. was captured by a pirate brig; and the pirate crew had murdered every soul on board but himself, and only spared his life, as he thought, for the purpose of amusement; for they had compelled him to dance—he, a minister of the gospel—and had made him drink under torture and recite ribald poetry and swear avd wash their clothes. All sorts of indignities had been heaped upon him, but he had remembered the injunction of the Master, and had invariably turned the other cheek when smitten, and had prayed for their souls. He told of the flight from the English war brig, of the taking of the old bark in the fog, and the sinking of the pirate craft, of the transfer of guns and treasure to the bark and the interview at sea with the English brig, in which Captain Swarth had deccived the other, and of Captain Swarth’s reckless confidence in himself which had induced him to follow the brig in and careen in the ‘same bay. He wound’ up his tale with a ‘lurid description of the drunken debauch following the enchoring of the bark—dur- ing which he had trembled for his life—of the insane firing on the brig as she passed, and the tumb!ing into the boats when the brig returned the fire, of the flight into the Woods, the fighting among themselves and his escape under fire. As he finished he offered an incoherent prayer of thankfulness, and the sympathet- ic Mr. Shack drew forth his pocket flask and offered it to the agitated sufferer; but ONE DASH AND TODD WAS UPON HIM, } and waste his energies in the comfort and ; cers lighted fat cigars, and he learned that chapl: THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAY 7%, 1898-24 PAGES. Not 1,” rmié: "bd ealking an upward extension the main hen, thowe Fenpajled tae’ to | hateh Sombine thet sees Sear} clean’ Pipes—40 foul pipes—and I] high tide, while others went over the side holes of eight broad- Captain found, were covered Bunce told of @ chaplain he had once sailed | by canvas, nails re whose clothing smelled so vilely that leads himself had framed a petition to the ad- miral for his transfer to another ship and station. And the li had the effect on Mr. ie little story swear that didn’t allow king,” aver that no stnoere, conuistent Grrlaton , Consist is man would be satisfied to stultity himself men, clinging to wa! men whose eyes prot ached, whose brains were turning. ‘Then, and before a final inspection by the boatswain in the diving suit assured them that tha last shot hole was covered, they began baling from the main hatch, and success—e feverish yell arose and continued, while nude lunatics wrestl>4 and lered waist-deep on the flooded deck. The bark’s pumps were manned and worked under water, baling pumps—square tubes with ona valve—were made and plug- ged up and down in each hatch, whips were rigged and buckets rose and fell until the obstructing cargo confined the work to the bark’s pumps. Can hooks replaced the buckets on the whips and boxes, and bar- rels w2re hoisted, broken into and thrown overboard until the surface of the bay was dotted with them. They drifted back and forth with the tide, some stranding on the beach, others floating seaward through the inlet. And all the time that th2y worked, sharp eyes had watched through the bushes, and a few miles inland, in a glade surrounded by the giant trees of the Bra- zilian forest, red-shirted men loll2d and smoked and grew fat while they discussed around the central fire the qualities of bar- becued wild oxen, roast opossum and veni- sen, and criticised the s>amanship of the Englishmen. With a clear ‘eck to work on every man and boy of the brig’s crew except the idlers—stewards, cooks and servants—was requisitioned and boxes flew merrily; but night closed down on the 10th day of their labor without sign of t ireastre, and Mr. ‘fodd, who had noticed a shade of testiness in the queries of the officers as to the exact location of the gold and diamonds, expressed a desire to climb the rigging that afternoon—a feat he had often wished to perform—which ke did, clumsily, going through the lubber's-hoic, and seated in the maintop with Mr. Duncan’s Bible, he re- mained in quiet meditation and apparent reading and prayer until the tropic day changed to sudden twilight and darkness, and the hysterical crew returned. Then he came down to dinner. In the morning the work was resumed and more boxes sprinkled the bay. They drifted up witn the fiood and back they came with the ebb tide; but among them now were about forty others, unobserved by Capt. Bunce pacing his quarterdeck, but noted keenly by Mr. Todd. These forty drifted slowly to the off-shore side of the brig and stopped, bobbing up and down on the crisp waves, even though the wind blew briskly with the tide and they should liave gone on with the others. It was then that Capt. Bunce stepped below for a cigar, and it was then that Mr. Todd became strangely excited, hopping along the port rail and throwing overboard every rope's end within reach, to the wonder and scan- dal of an open-eyed steward in the cabin door, who immediately apprised the cap- tain. Capt. Bunce, smoking a freshly lit cigar, emerged to witness a shocking sight—the good and holy Mr. Todd, with an intens *xpression on his somber countenance, holding a match to a black pipe and puff- ing orously, while throfigh the ports and over the rail red-shirted men, dripping wet and scowling, were boarding his brig. Each man carried a cutlass and 12-inch knife and Capt. Bunce needed no special intelligence tc know that he was tricked. One hail only he gave and Mr. Todd, his as ease of @ naval chaplaincy, and that a chaplain who id smoke should be dis- credited aud t out of the profession; but later, when Captain Bunce and his offi- the aforesaid jain had merely been a careless devotee of pipe and pigtail twist, Mr. Todd's’ feelings may be imagined (by a smoker): but he had committed himself against tobacco and must suffer. 3 During the breakfast, the two lieutenants reported the results of a survey which they had taken of the wreck at daylight. “We find,” said Mr. Dunéan, “about nine feet of water over the deck at the stern and about three feet over the forehatch at low tide. The topgallant forecastle is awash and the end of the bowsprit out of water, ‘so that we can easily reach the upper ends of the bobstays. There is about five feet rise and fall of tide. Now, we have no pontoons nor éasks. plan, captain, is to lift her bodily. We have-a diving suit and air pum Mr. Shack enthusiastically, “and fifty men ready to dive without suits. We can taise her, captain, in two weeks.” “Gentlemen,” said Captain Bunce, grand- ly. “Ihave full faith in your seamanship and skill. I leave the work in your hands.” Which wag equivalent to-an admission that he was fat and lazy, and did not care to take an active part. id Mr. Duncan, and said Mr. Shack; then the captain said other‘pleasant things, which brought other pleasant responses, and the breakfast passed off so agreeably that Mr. Todd, in. spite of the soul-felt yearning for a smoke inspired by the cigars in the mouths of the others, felt the influence of was removed from his Nps and inserted in the mouth of Mr. Todd alongside the pipe, d he was lifted, spluttering with aston- . borne to the rail and rd, his sword clanking ag: as he descended. When he came to the surface and looked up he saw through a cloud of smoke on the rail the lantern jaws of Mr. Todd working con- vulsively on pip d cigar and heard the angry utterance: ‘Yes, d—n ye, I smoke.” Then a thundering voice behind Mr. Todd roared out: “Kill nobody—toss ‘em over- board,” and the captain saw his servants, cooks and stewards tumbling over to join him. Captain Bunce turned and swam, there was nothing else to do. Soon he could see a black-eyed, black-mustached man_on his quarter deck delivering orders, and he rec- ognized the thundering voice he had heard, but none of the cockney accent of Captain Quirk. Men were already on the yards loosing canvas, and as he turned on his . back to rest—for though fleshy and buoy- : “1 atit, swimming in full uniform fatigued him Mr. Todd, who could probably drink more whisky with less results than any man in the pirate crew, declined the poison with a shiver of abhorrence. Then Mr. Duncan, who had listened thoughtfully, said: “You speak of treasure; did they take {t with them?” Mr. Todd opened wide his eyes, looked toward the dark shades of the forest, then at the three masts of the bark sticking out of the water, and answered, impressively: “Gentlemen, they did not. They were in- texicated—mad with liquor. They took arms and a knapsack of food to each man— they spoke of an inland retreat to which they were gcing—but the treasure from the passenger ship—the bars of gold and the bags of diamonds—they forgot. They trans- ferred it from their sinking vessel when sober, but when intoxicated they remem- bered food and left it behind. Gentlemen, there is untold wealth in the hull out there which your fire has surk. It is, verily, the root of all evil; let us hope that it re- mains ut the bottom of the sea.” “Bars of gold—bags of diamonds,” said Mr. Duncan. me on board, Mr. Todd; we'll see what the captain think: At cinner in the brig’s cabin that even- ing—as a prelude to which Mr. Todd said grace—his account of the wealth spread out on Captain Swarth’s cabin table after the taking of the passenger ship was some- thing to arouse interest in a less worldly man than Captain Bunce. Virgin gold—in bars, ingots, bricks and dust—from the Morro Velho mines of Brazil was there, piled up on the table until the legs gave way and launched the glittering mass to the floor. Diamonds, uncut, uncounted, of untold value—a three years’ product of the whole Chapada district—some as large as walnuts—had been spread out and tossed about like marbles by those lawless men, then boxed up with the gold and stewed among the cargo under the main hatch. Again Mr. Todd expressed the hope that Providence would see fit to let this treas- ure remain where the pirates had left it, to no longer tempt man to kill and steal. But Captain Bunce and his officers thought differently. Glances, then tentative com- ments were exchanged, and in five min- utes they were of one mind, even including Mr. Todd, for it may not be needless to state that the treasure and the passenger ship existed only in hts imagination. Pending the return of the boats the brig’s anchor had been dropped about 200 yards from the bark; now canvas was furled, and at eight bells all hands were mustered aft to hear what was in store. Captain Bunce stated the case succinctly; they were home- ward bound and under general orders until they reported to the admiral at Plymouth. ‘Treasure was within their reach, appor- tionable, when obtained, as prize money. It was useless to pursue the pirates into the Brazilian jungle; but they would need to be watchful and ready for surprise at any moment, either while at work raising the bark or at night; for, though they had brought out the two boats in which the pirates had escaped, they could find other means of attack should they dare or care to. The English sailors cheered. Mr. Todd to say a few words, and enjoined them not to allow the love of lucre to tempt their minds from the duty they owed to their God, their country and their captain, which was also applauded and forgotten in & moment. Then, leaving a double anchor watch, provided with blue fire and strict instructions, on deck, the crew turned in to dream of an affluent future, and Mr. ‘Todd was shown to a comfortable state- room. He removed his coat and vest, closed the door and deadlight, filled and lighted his black pipe and rolled into the berth with a seaman’s sigh of content- ment. - # “That was a good dinner," he murmured, after he had filled the room with smoke, “a good dinner; Nothing on earth is good for a sky pilot. I'll go back to. the business when I’ve made tg ed if wasn't so-all-fired hard ‘on the t—an, then the trustees and the sisters, their eternal on he and the "em. We “this " 2 Wonder out? ever carried and the lat how are ne rig thtse too it with the enthusiasm and bestowed his biessing— qualifiedly—on the enterprise. Every man of the brig’s crew was eager for the work, but few could engage at first; for there was nothing but the forecastle deck and the bark's rigging to stand upon. Down came the disgraceful black flags the first thing and up to the gaff went the ensign of Britain. Then they sent down the fore and main lower and topsail yards and erected them as shears over the bow and stern, lower ends well socketed in spare anchor stocks to prevent their sinking in the sand, upper ends lashed together and stayed to each other and to the two archors ahead and astern. To the shear- heads they rigged heavy three-fold tackles and to the disconnected bobstays (chains leading from the bowsprit end to the stem at the water line) they hooked the forward one, and heaving on the submerged wind- lass, lifted the bow off the bottom—high enough to enable them to slip two shots of anchor chain under the keel, one to take the weight at the stern, the other at the bew, for the bobstays would pull out of the stem under the increased strain as the bark arose. 2 Most of this work was done under water; but a wetting is nothing to men looking for gold, and nobody cared. Yet, as a result of ruined uniforms, the order came from Captain Bynce to wear underclothing only or go naked—which latter the men preferred, though the officers clung to de- cency and tarry. duck trousers, | Every morning the day began with the washing of the brig’s deck and scouring of brass work—which must be done at sea though the. heavens falJ—then followed breakfast, the ‘arming of the boats ready for an at- tack from the shore and the descent upon the bark of as many men as could work. Occasionally Captain Bunce would order the dingy, and, acompanied by Mr. Todd, would visit the bark and offer interfering suggestions, after the manner of captains, which only embarrassed the officers, and Mr. Todd would take advantage of these occasions to make landlubberly comments and show a sad {gnorance of things nauti- cal, But’often he would decline the invite- tion, and when the captain was gone would descend to his room, and, shutting the door, grip his beloved—though empty—black pipe between his teeth and breathe through it, while his «yes shone flercely with un- satisfied desire and “his mind framed silent malediction on Bill Swarth for condemninz him to this- smokeless sojourn. For he dared not smoke; stewards, cooks and sail- ors were all about him. In three days the bark's nose was high as the seven-part'tackle would bring it, with as many'‘mer heaving as could find Toom at the windl brakes. Then they clapped a luffltadkle on the fall, heaving on this, epering and fleeting up, they lifted thé fdte hatch and forecastle scuttle out of*wadter—which was enough. Before this anéthet' gang had been able to slip the other ihe position abaft the mizzenmast, Kk °8n the tackle and lead —he saw his anchor chains whizzing out the hawse pipes. He was picked up by the first boat to put off from the bark, and ordered pursuit, but this was soon seen to be useless. The clean-lined brig had sternway equal to the best speed of the boats, and now head sails were run up, and she payed off from the shore. Topsails were sheeted home and hotsted, she gathered way, and with top- gallant sails and royals, spanker and stay sails following in quick succession, the beautiful craft hummed down to the inlet and put to sea, while yells of derision oc- cationally came back to the white-faced men in the boats. A month later the rehabilitated old bark also staggered out the entrance, and with a naked, half-starved crew and sad-eyed, di- lapitated officers, headed southward for Rio Janeiro. CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR NOTES ‘The Junior Christian Endeavor Union will hold its regular meeting at Luther Place Memorial Church, corner of 14th and N streets northwest, at 7 o’clock next Mon- day evening. The topic for discussion by the junior superintendents is “How to Im- prove the Music in Our Junior Meetings.” On the evening of April 29 the ¥. P. 8. Cc. E. of the Maryland Avenue Baptist Church celebrated its seventh birthday by a social, which included a fine musical and literary program and light refreshments. An invitation is extended to all the Chris- tian Endeavor societies in the District to attend the second quarterly temperance meeting of the Y. P. 8S. C. E. of Lincoin Memorial Congregational Church, corner llth and R streets northwest, on Sunday evening, May 15. Mr. F. M. Bradley, chair- man of the District Union good citizenship committee, will deliver a temperance ad- dress and the vested Y choir of the ci-urch will furnish music. Last Sunday over thirty people went out to the National Lutheran Home for the Aged from the Church of the Reformation and conducted the first of a series of re- ligious services to be held by them every fourth week in the month. Tomorrow Rev. Dr. William E. Parson will celebrate the vineteenth anniversary cf his pastorate at the Church of the Reformation. A meeting of the committee on nomina- tions of officers of the District C. E. Union for the year beginning September 1 will be held Wednesday evening, May 11, at 7:30 o'clock at the Y. M. C, A. building. Friday evening, May 20, the District C. E. Union will hold a mass meeting in the Mt. Vernon M. E. Church, South, in the in- terests of the international convention to be held at Nashville, Tenn., in July. Mrs. Gilpin and Miss Batley, delegates of the Women’s Missionary Society of First the fall thi ff a'snatshblock at the quar- assemb! . J-, have ter bit for ‘to the midship capstan. | just returned home and report fine meet- Disdaining the al suit, they swam down | ings and a delightful time. nine feet to do things, and when they had towed thezope forward they descended seven feet to,wind.{t around the capstan Fac which they found in a ini A weighs practical}: nothing, and to ‘heave around a canary under water requi lateral resistance, To secure this they,-dived with hammer and nails, and fe hed a circle of cleats to cateh their feet. ‘Then with a boy on the main fiferail (his head out) holding slack, teen men—three a bar—would in- and Next Monday evening there will be at Mt. Vernon Place M. E. Church, South, 9th and K streets northwest,a union mass meet- ing of all the Christian Endeavor societies and Epworth in the churches of that denomination in the city and vicinity. A LIFE THAT MAKES Whether They Quit the Service or Ship as Bluejackets. —_- + CHANCES FOR PROMOTION pot ee Written for Tie Evening Star. Apprenticeship in the United States navy is capable of making either a man or a reprobate of a boy. Just what manner of chap he shall be when ke attains his ma- icrity in the service and is at liberty to quit or ship as a full-fledged bluejacket, as he chooses, depends altogether on the boy. He is given every induc»ment to be- come a good, solid man, whether for con- tinuation ® member of a man-of-war's ship's company or for the earning of a livelihood ashore. The officers of the Amer- ican navy give th> apprentice boys consid- erably the better of it over the bluejackets who ship as such in all that concerns their interest and advancement, and the boy who @uring the period that h> wears the ap- prentice’s figure-of-eight knot on his mus- tering shirt goes wrong and becomes a rowdy and a sea lawyer has only his own innate cussedness to blame for it. The whole tondency of the apprentice’s train- ing aboard an American man-of-war makes for the conversion of the lad into a digni- fied, seif-controtled, able man, a matchiess seaman and a tiptop guuner, to say nothing of the substantial equipment it furnishes kim for lucrative >mployment ashore should he elect upon the conclusion of his apprenticeship to settle down on the beach. For example, the writer often meets upon the streets of Washington a young fellow who has earned distinction, not to speak of exceedingly substantial reward in the way of money, as an expert electrician of the first class. Less than three years ago this young man was wearing the apprentice’s bluejacket uniform on a ship attached to the Pacific squadron. He learned the bulk of his electricity in the navy, which he en- tered as an orphan, took the seaman gun- ner’s cours2 &t the navy yard here, and ex- hibited such genius that the officers took him individually in hand, furnished him with facilities for the highest studies, and sought in every way to push him along. He is a born clectrician, and ye could have had 2 gunner’s commission inthe n the asking. He preferred “the however, and it is said that for over a year he has been securing an average of ene valuable electrical patent a month. The United States navy employs today a number of the young man’s appliances for use in connection with great guns. Gunner Kublwein, The last time the writer saw young Gun- rer Kuhlwein of the flagship Olympia, that was such a big floating factor in tearin things loose in Manila harbor on Su! last, the lad was workirg a bleci star on the crown of his apprev tering cap, seated on a ditty box receiving ship Independence at the Mare Island navy yard. Now he is a gentleman of the quarterdeck, rates a salute from all hangs ameag the old flatfeet that taught him how to be a sailor and a maniy man, and when the full reports of the Man- ila engagement are received it is safe to wager that the Olympia’s gunner’s name will have a place—for the boy always looked as if he had it in him. It is the otd sailors, the men who have spent about an equal number of years in the merchant marine and in the United States navy, who possess the greatest power for gvod or evil in making or break- ing American naval apprentices. The of- ficers aft hold the lads with a strong rein when they have them under immediate in- struction, but the boys live forward among the men, ard tney form their characters in the fo'c’stle. If the material is in them it is bound to come out. The old-time naval sailors can tell at a glance whether a just shipped boy or a boy fresh aboard a cru ing man-of-war from a training ship, has the “makings” of a finished sailor and a good shipmate in his composition. If their careful inspection of such a boy convinces them that the lad is worth their pains they “go to work” on him from the very outset of his cruising career, season him with all of the practical ship-and-gun information that they themselvés have picked up after years of experience, and thus valuably sup- plement the technical education that the boy receives from the officers. The sailors who thus take a kindly interest in a boy who looks promising do not treat him with partiality, and he gets swatted about just as much as the apprentice who is a slug- gard and a “‘don't-care-a-d—n,” as the old-timers say in disgustedly speaking among themselves of ambitiontess lads in the apprentice uniform. A Matter of Pride. But the interest they exhibit in drilling sea lore into his mind, and their pains in instructing him on every little valuable de- tail as the occasion arises, plainly shows that they have “got him in their minds, and observation proves that the boys who are thus picked out by the old-timers up forward as being worth these efforts are the lads who get the warrant officers’ blouses when their apprenticeship is over. Ask any warrant officer in the United States navy today about the struggle he had to finally attain the wearing of a sword from the wearing of a figure-of-eight krot, and he will begin to speak affection- ately of two or three grumpy, savage old bo’sun’s mates or quartermasters to whom ha claims he owes most of his success. It is a matter of pride with the old-timers to thus bvost a lad up the ladder. “Look a-here, ye blooming little swab,” the writer once heard an old man-of-war armorer say to a bright but somewhat un- Tuly apprentice, “don’t you hand me none 0’ your jaw. Ye'll have pleaty o’ time to put it on me and slam me into the brig after I've made a gunner o’ ye.” The cld men-of-war’s man did make a gunner of Kis protege in time, but up to the present, although the two have since been ship- mates, the young gunner has never had a band in getting the old man ‘nto tie brig— though he has helped to get him out a few times. ‘Works Queer Changes. Observation shows that the apprentices who go into the bluejacket uniform as “tough” and incorrigible boys become sen- sible, self-restrained and reliable seamen by the time they attain their majority. On the other hand, the lads who exhibit traits of goody-goodiness upon their entrance to the service become, in nine cases out of ten, hard customers in the course of their apprenticeship and not of much account either for men-of-war or the shore. The reason for this is not hard to discover. Be- fore entering the navel service the unman- ageable boys have had their whirl at juve- ‘ractiousness, have mingled in the vor- tex of boyish wildness, and are about ready, when they find themselves in the bell-bot- tom trousers, to “pipe down” and to make something out of their opportunities. Be- ing “tough,” they are not easily contami- nated by the burly roughness of speech and manner as displayed by the old-timers. The milk-and-water, but they have no actual use for him, and mever lend their efforts to making thing cf him. It is the manly boy, who declines to be either coddied or bulldozed and who, above ail, has a crntrotiable tongue in his head, that invariably shows strong in the stretch when the race is on for the braided blovses and the xilt-orna- mented caps. No Place for Milksops. The rapidity with which boobyishness is yanked out of very young boys who «1 the navy is remarkable. From his very first day on bord either a training ship or @ man-of-war proper, the unfledged young- ster is expected to hop right out of bis beyhood and asumes, to all Intents and Pirposes, the full status of a man. He lives among men that have caaged the werld most of their lives; he works along- side of them, and aimost ss much work is expected of hiza as from the old-timers; he pcts up with the same amount of “hard- ship, toes the same mark of discipline, is quite’as responsible at the mast Ci lictions, and just as liable to a t brig in double irons for misconduct older shipmates who regard the navigation of the globe as a bagat The boy who at the outset of hi life sheds a lonesome tear or tw hammock, but who keeps up a br when in view of his shipmate who may be always mar It would be of any sort plunge into -of-war life, with : its apparent rigidity at first sight, without oeing a bit taken aback and sed by the roughness of it all. But lucky boys buckle down and force to become used to it, and cven their first lubberiy days at sea they approach to the verge of deci The little Lord Fauntleroy sort of lL naval in his front the themselves during never k whimpe ring i better keep out of th The navy is composed, as a whol» and aft, of genuine, masculine men, and of deeply affectionate and unswervingly loyal men n their esteem and confidence have but in no environment is. the parade of even the slightest suspicion of sentimentality more kly frowned upon than upon the forw: eck of a man-of war. If a small kedge anchor happens te crush a blu t's foot his sy net y feeling for the injure around his bunk int and call him a “d—d tubber ay huckster” for permitting him- self to get hurt that way. That is their way of expressing sympath: athe jured man knows it and iates it if his shipmates were to condole with him and mournfully tell aim how sorry they were, and all that sort of thing. he would turn over on his bunk and tell them to go to the devil. In a floa! as a man-of-war, th: Weak heart and of lily-li find no habitation of peac eventual honor. Makes Men of "Em. From the purely physical point of yiew, apprenticeship in the navy is a fine thing for a lad. Nine out of ten naval appre tices, when they attain their majoritic "re strapping, rugged, brawny men, ca ble of enduring mount of hardship and y of health soundness to se through ups and down: should they elect to quit the sea when (! reach the age of twenty-one—which not many of them do, by the wa in order to get into the nz Prentice must be sound of of the lads only get into the serv row ma ms, Owing to their sized or Lysi there is nothing r the matter with them, how the lads begin a it is to spre the > from their dail "s that are of the bod soon begin s into their year or so in the bi aval a Atices: uniform, most Bin to leok so en} unlike, as to bodily for- mation, th dup when they first entered the as to puzal their own people on vy ays. TE writer has often enjoyed the speet when the mothers of the naval apprentic: hive visited them aboard ship after the boys have been to sea on long cruises. There is something touching, primitive and of first principles in the mother love that beams from the eyes of these women when, right at the main gangway and in full sight of all hands—“and be d—d t’ all 0” yeez,” says the old bo'sun’s mate, look- ing on—they are enfolded in the arms of their towering, great-shouldered and tron- muscled sons, lifted clear of the deck, no matter what their weight, chucked and clipped under the chin, and then bodily hauled off to a remote ship's corner for # long talk and cuggermuggering. “He's all mine,” speaks the look in the woman's eyes. Their Treat t Board. When the apprentices emerge from their apprenticeship and ship over as full-fledged bluejackets, at the seaman gunner rate, they are given first call in the distribution of the petty officer prizes, and are, as stated, eligible for promotion to the rank of warrant officers. For these reasons, ap- prentices are never called upon, during the service as boys, to perform any menial tasks cn shipboard. Landsmen are ship- ped to wait upon the officers aft. put no apprentice lad is ever asked by an officer to perform the slightest personal services for him. The boy's routine is the military routine, and he is rot required to co wny- thing that would run counter to his ‘deas of strict personal independence. He may be- come the “striker” for his own mess, volun- tarily always, however, but he is not pe mitted to perform any service for high- rated enlisted men or officers fur a money consideration, even if he wants to. On jong cruises in southern waters, when all hands wear their white uniforms, -the officers and chief petty officers employ landsmen, will- ing to turn an extra half dollar or xo, to wash their duck clothes, out they would never think of employing an apprentice for this sort of work. The whole idea of naval apprenticeship in the American navy is to inculcate uprightness, dignity and manli-+ ness into the lads—for upoa the character of these boys the future of the forward ends of American men-of-war is known to depend. Taught to Be Nervy. If a boy in the navy cxhibits at the out- set of his sea life any natural tendency toward “yellowness"’ ever which he may or may not have control, it is the aim of the finished tars, if the lad is otherwise all right, to knock the saffron tinge out of him effectually and foftever. The lad who displays the faintest hesitation on the deck of a man-of-war, no matter what he is asked to do, or whatever the quality of the task’s Ganger, is marked, and the old- timers never let up on him until the boy has become nervy even to the point of foolhardiness. When the hesitant boy is de- tailed to accompany a party of the old- timers on a short cruise in one of the sail- ing cutters, as like as not the grizzled blue- jackets, all in a kindly, well-meaning way, will heave the lad over the side, with many scarifying tales as to the presence of sharks, two or three times in the coerse of the trip) They will slacken ridge-ropes on him, and they will find occasion to send him aloft to the signal yards when the ship is hove to and beam-ended. In these and many other ways thcy fashion strong nerve and dauntlessness in the face of danger in the lad who, upon entering the service, may have been a coward by heredity. There are boys belonging to famous American families serving their appren- ticeship in the United States navy, some of them from choice and others because their people have insisted upon it. These iads were most of them incorrigibles when they entered the service. Thy declined to take advantage of their opportunities to cptain