Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 170, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1918 — GENERAL KINSHIP WITH SEA [ARTICLE]

GENERAL KINSHIP WITH SEA

Fondness for Salt Water Seems to Bo a Characteristic of the Whole Human Race. A kind of kinship with the sea is in every one of us, says Boys’ Life, the Boy> Scouts’ magazine. Noah built the ark as a matter of religious duty, we are told. But if old Noah could have -written a few lines to go with the half dozen paragraphs of- the Bible narrative —not for religious effect but as a man to man, to let us know just how he felt about the Job—what a story it would have been! A landsman, getting ready for his first voyage! Big and important responsibilities to •carry, but back of all the study, all the labor, and the “kidding” of his friends, that ecstasy of anticipation that grips your throat and makes you want to yell for joy. Noah was a “regular fellow.” You can tell that by the way he "carried on.” You bes the fact that he was performing a religious duty didn’t make him feel like some Yolks look in prayer meeting. You bet that when he put aboard the, ark one pair of worms, per order, lie put in an extra few for bait. You bet he had that same hankering for the sea that you and I have. It’s in the very blood of every man. Remember how, when you were a kid, you put your finger in your mouth after cutting it with your first jackknife? Didn’t the blood taste salty? Ask any doctor what they put into a man’s veins to fill them when he has lost a lot of blood. He will tell you “salt water.” Doesn’t that prove our kinship to the sea? Did you ever know even a grown-up to pass a gang in swimming, or a kid with a string of fish, or even a picture of a ship, without stopping a minute to look? It can’t be done. We all love the water.