The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 24, 1898, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 1898. 19 TS S 2 SS o THE NAVAL RESER\/Es' SHIP MARION EXCITING LIFE NOW on the TRAINING-SHIP MARIO Boys of the Naval Bétlalion Preparing Themselves to Fight for Their Country. ; tendance if three-eighths bers show up for ¢ seld a man a ended uj the mem- Now there i3 it can safely ations ) great the them. But the complement of the ship is full and no othe n join no matter how eager le th be. don’t exy be sent to the said one of t st mem- or ast drill night, re ready and willing to go.” way this sturdy your fellow emphasized his left no doubt as to his earnest- “You see,” he went on, as he polished Angeles have med to the 2 st and, successful os- America are Ame v minutes’ ride of interest- r tour s upon ection enterp: 1 enormous nt such a flourishing « the business being such a percentage d young tly re- Mr. > of s will eventually 300 birds, being 1d the value of the s from thirty to forty 1 South Pasadena is ad- both for the birds The entrance is le what irre an. It tions on the way to lost on the way out, s through it again on room, where ible to she with- > divided and ones the ired of the younger f them over hteen . s 1 obliging attendant g of the ¢ : on_the 1 and as - than the ordir eir throats, the I produced was exceed- nything they can get is disposed of for- t was swallowed by ago without any you seem to be fairly 1 r are not in the ything thai for they realize one weapon, the which they can deliver d at from und. As do no execution close to the 11 dog is an object of T, one which is trainea purpose was s at into the cor- 2 good eld their heads horse 8r fully and the feathers read and ruffled with the wind, it w realiy a beauti- ful as well as strange sight, although indlvidually, when quiet, they are not in the le; attractive, even when in full plumage. Some of the birds became so much excited that th executed a most pe- culiar waltz movement, whirling around and around as if crazed, as 1 suppo: they iy fence high h they say it for it would them over a do not seem ghts, and if a board a p wildly ble; they ven when young, that cannot rise from the ground very ind the matured birds weigh over wndred and f pounds and stand about seven feet high. Another of the large c als had a number of the brown young birds, timate he positiv ed to cr inches high they W into the air far a from six months down. It is very easy to tell their age, as they grow one foot a month for the first six months. The small corrals have each a pair of the fully grown birc 8 i L onetioF them the hen was setting on the nest, which is simply a hole dug in the ground by the male. He also does the larger part of the setting, being on the nest from 5 in the afternoon until 9 the next morning, and giving her a rest of an hour at noon also. It h been impossible to find a successful in- cubator, although they hav mented with many and are about to try a new one. It would sav 8 er percentage of eggs tha dinary chicken incubator does, for in addition to the fact that the birds will lay a great many more if they do not the breech of one of the old 60-pound- ers, “we are not real men-o’-warsmen in the technical sense of the word, but I tell you the boys on 'board this oid craft can give pointers to a good many men who have been at sea for years. They are all completely wrapped up n naval study and are all full-blooded Americans. We love our country and we love our ship, and there ain’t a man among us who is afraid to t. “Of course this recent trouble has kind of roused us up, but we have al- ways felt just as we do now. America is our native land and we are ready to fight any other nation who dares af- front us. Why, I really believe that if word came to us that an enemy, in the shape of some big ironciad, was coming toward the Golden Gete and there w. no other defense but this old wooden ship every man aboard would glad- ly jump to his place and sail out to fight. And even if he kne the chances of his coming back were rather slim.’ To see just what interest these young men take in their work at the present time it is only necessary to be down on the dock any morning just before the hour for beginning drill. You can even go half an hour before the appointed time and find them all there. And what a multitude of employments they are - have to set on them, many of the eggs are broken by the weight of the ostriches. All of the males in the smaller cor- rals (which have and require stronger and 1ZEerous, angrily at the st dis Some of them worn completely off their bre ts in dashing at the fe 5 in anger at the teasing and one of them a short time , being enraged at an- other male bird which he could not reach on account of the alley running between their corrals, turned and at- tacked his mate and killed her. There were some rather pretty “lit- tle chicks” of weeks, about the size of a turkey, that were running around in an alfalfa patch and picking up their living, but, of course, it is not practic- able to furnish ranges for the larger ones, and they are fed chopped alfaifa, beets, corn, etc., with sufficient gravel to enable them to grind up the food properly. The plucking, which takes place once in nine months, is a most alarming pro- ARING TO E THE YAWL engaged in. Some are cleaning and pol- ishing guns, some are practicing the manual of arms, while others are en- gaged in study. A few can nearly al- ways be seen practicing in the rigging. It is each « plan to see how qulck he can reach the main most exhilarating exerci Standing on the deck long breath the young seaman makess a run at the rigging and about five feet fr ore he touches it. Moving as rapidly and as noiselessly as a monke; slide up to the low He slides over the ou if he were only a few feet from the deck. Standing on the top for a brief instant he seizes the rigging and commences to climb again. Up he goes, pa rd after another, until he stands on the topgallant royal and then commences to climb the mast. At last he is on the main truck, where all the world seems to swim beneath M But our seaman does not get dizzy. He simply stays aloft as long as he wishes and then begins the descent. This takes 1 time than the ascent, for he “slides” a goodly portion of the and the last stage of the journey is de down one of the back sta It might seem as if such a bit of ex- ercise would consume considerable time, but such is not the case, for many of the boys have been timad and it has been ascertained that they have made the trip in less than three minutes. It is safe to say that few men in our modern navy can duplicate the feat. The naval reserve men are drilled in every branch of work on shipboard. They know how to splice rope in all of knots dear te the old seaman’s heart, and can handle sail to perfection even in a gale. In the ship drill each man is allowed to do pretty much as pleases, but in the artillery and musket drill they are ndled in squads. The musket drill is little different from that of tbe in- fantry of the regular army. but the artillery is. of course, purely naval. There are two kinds of artillery. The big guns mounted on the ship and the small rapid-fire guns that are used by landing parties when taking a city. In handling the big guns the Naval Reserve boys are compelled to work hard. The guns are heavy and so are the ramrods and s well as the “sham” loads of powc This drill never last long, but when it is over the boys are pretty well warmed up. The rapid-fire guns are, of course, lighter to handle, but,the movement must be quick, and as it is very in- tricate requires the closest attention. In these drills the guns are sometimes taken ashore and handled on the dock. At such times the maneuvers make as pretty a sight of the kind as it is pos- sible to imagine. After all the drills for a certain day are over the boys prepare to enjoy themselves on shipboard. The cooks’ galley is opened and a big meal of sea fare prepared. This is spread in the cabin, where all are sure to partake heartily. If the weather happens to be the kind the boys want they lower the ship’s boat and go for a long sail. But they never leave the ship as long as there is any branch of the ser- vice they can practice on. That's the reason they are ready and willing to go to war. S s R A GEORGE KEARNEY of the ity Dispensary staff is a bache- lor. His interest s is there- fore pure al and ab- stract. From professional standpoint he objects to the preva- lent custom of dr g t s—the are dressed these fin de siecle days. rt babies were never made for long clothes,”” he says, “and long clothes ought 10t to be made for short babies. These Kate Greenaway g I believe they call them, and these sailor boy to look at sponge R ound just to be kick- ively just as they wrong when a baby ng. They do it inst laugh. Something does not kick. Bright babies kick and the more they kick the brighter they are. Kicking develops strength and pro- motes circulation. Sawing the air with the legs exe the stomach mu P! and all the other parts of the body. If you go to a skilled physical instructor he will put you on your back on a rub- ber mat and make you kick around like vou used to do in the nursery, that is, provided you did nothave a foolish mother who swaddled you up in long clothes so that vou could not kick. Give a child plenty of leg room and it 1 do the rest.” —_———— There are langnages and dialects. The world about 200,000 postmasters. All the land above sea level would not fill up more than one-third of the Atlantig Ocean. = cess for the birds, as they are driven into a pen and blindfolded while the larger thers are cut off and the smaller ones which are are gently pulied out, but it is the i In fact, it n- owner not to the for if that i the gain. :d naturally i up about wing hers will ne The body feather once each yea and nd only il feathers are re short rs of the fully ale bird are black, and the wing and tail feathe but the poor hen has to be with a dismal gra all her nd her feathers are of a much poorer grade also. All of the fem * feathe and a large portion of the male for all of the very long ones nd the de- mand for black feathers is greater than r white. of the black ones are also dyed which gives them a very fine much deeper than either white v n be made. Every fes really c ady for use from three to five spliced together, treme length, such as Knights Temp- NOBLF TITLES IN LOWLY PLACES OING home one night very late, or rather not very early, for it was along in the “wee ’sma’ hours,” I stopped into a cafe. The man scrubbing out the place was the only one about; even the barkeeper was not in evidence. As he handed me the bottle and glass he asked me: “Will you take it neat The “neat,” the intonation and the voice made me look again at the man. He was tall and fa but it must be agged and unclean. I am an Englishman myself, and knew in an instant that that intonation was liable to belong to but one class on the other side, where either a man is a “gentleman” or he is not. I drew the man into conversation and asked him however he came to be doing what he was. Knowing me to be a country- man, he told me of himself. It transpired that he was a Cam- bridge man, son of a man who had been raised to the rank and title of baron for his services to the Government. and I am the eldest son,” he but I shall have drunk myself out of the way I hepe before my turn comes to the name and the estate.” Over and again his father had paid his debts and got him out of drunken scrapes. Despite the entreaties of the mother and sisters he was given his passage money to America, with the derstanding that so long as he re- a month would be regularly paid to him, but if he re- mained in or returred to England he must shift for himself and by himself, for his father would have nothing more to do with him. He came to San Francisco, changed his name slightly, ‘and once a month for a few hours is a rich man, and pays up the 50-cent and $1 loans which he is so fortunate to secure during the cther twenty-nine days. For his bed and food he scrubs out the second-class sa- loon where I found him. His case is not the only one. Seldom does it happen that the real “sprig” divulges his identity; it is the “would- be” who boasts of his connections. Pride of race and name is part of the man, as much as eyes and ears, and when he cannot keep up his name de- cently he drops it. Another man I knew, son of a Scotch divine and a branch of one of the proudest old families of Scotland, of whom cone of the peasants on the estate said: “The Queen did well to get her daugh- ter married to an Argyle.” Highly educated, polished, handsome oung Scotchmen often are, , with the “bonnie blue een,” he had been sent out for the good of the family. There had been a scan- dal, a woman's name mixed up in it. He had a wife and two children, and just simply went abroad. He receives a monthl llowance, but makes a good deal by writing. His curse is drink. One ¢ in a store a lady dropped & parcel in front of him. He was more than half seas over, but a casual ob- server would not have noticed it. He, however, knew that if he stooped he would have difficulty in regaining the vertical. Will you pardon me, madam,” he said, “but the doctor forbids my stoop= ing. Heart out of order. Poor woman; e looked at him so sympathetically, and was about to tell him of a sure cure, but he got out of the way. He will never return home, and has signed over everything to his son, a boy of 6 years. A certain German princeling, how- ever, is made on another model. He gambied away his mone d came out here to get rid of his creditors. What could he do to earn a living, for eat and drink and sleep he must? It hap- pened that in the town on the other side where he found a temporary asy- lum before sailing there was a doctor with a large family. One son was in the army and must have his allowance, but no “dots” were to be had for the daughters, who were thoroughly educa- ted musicians. It was really a godsend to one of the doctor's girls when the young man with the title proposed to marry her and forego the “dot,” saying they would seek their fortunes together in the haven across the sea. They did, and the gratitude the girl still feels to him for marrying her without a “dot” I suppose helps to keep her happy while she supports him by giving music lessons.