People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1897 — Page 6

6

A SEA CHANCE.

By MORGAN ROBERTSON.

At the age of twenty-five, John Dorsey possessed few attributes of mind or body that would distinguish him from other seafaring men, unless it was the deep resonance of his voice and a strong memory for faces, facts, and places—which latter made him a wonderful pilot, his mind retaining a vivid picture of every harbor, island, rock or shoal that he had once seen. His strong lungs, with his pilotage and a general intelligence, raised him early to the quarter-deck. Born at Nassau, in the Bahamas, where his mother still lived, he had obtained such education as the island schools afforded, had followed “wrecking” until his brain was a comprehensive chart of the whole West India group, and had then made four long voyages—one in the engineroom. The closing years of the Civil War found him engaged in blockade-running, which had grown to be a prosperous—though risky—and, from his insular standpoint, a legitimate business. Long, low, speedy steamers were built, painted shite color, loaded with munitions of war, and sent to dodge their way past Federal cruisers into Southern ports, to return With cotton. In one of these—the •“Pel - id”—he occupied the position of first mate, and stood aft m ;. • she taffrail, one dark night, w.aching the indefinite loom of a siw.-p of-war about a mile astern. At intervals a gleam, as of heat lightning, would light up t! ‘darkness. Then could be b? n d the humming and “cheep, cl eep” of ricochetting solid shot, so owed by the bark of the gun. Tney were firing low. The chase, commencing with the wind abeam, ended with the w. -d ahead; for the quarry, with la: ge engine , and small sail power, had edged around in a w de curve until the sails of the pursuer no longer drew. The cruisers of that time were at best but auxiliaries, unfitted to chase to windward, and had not this one, as though to voice her disgust to the night, discharged a br•$ f dside as she squared away, the fleeing steamer might have pefiaped. ; 1: is this broadside, or, particularly, one round, nine-inch sin . of it, that concerns us. The re >‘ of them, with the screaming si.- 'ls, flew wide or short.. This si. / , uuaimed and unhoped of, st tick a sea at a quarter of the di ance. another three quarters, a;...-:/' hi the air, and crashed through ilie rudder and stern posts of the “Petrel”, forward through the boiler, and then on through the length of the steamer, making holes for itself where necessary, from the last of which ' -in the port bow— it dropped into the sea. The “Petrel” was successfully raked and disabled. When the shot had entered the stern, an iron belaying pin, jolted from its place in the tali'rall by the impact, had spun high •as the cross-trees. Before it came down, and coincident with the roar of escaping steam from, the punctured boiler, the mate noted the damage done in his department, and, to apprise the captain on the bridge, roared out: ‘fKudder post —” But the desendjug belaying pin, stricfcmg him '.a giaw ing blow on the head, cut ,t : short the sentence, and he fell to the deck. The escaping steam broughtthe Cruiser back to the chase,-and the “Petrel” was captured, towed to a Northeim port-, and condemn'd. Here John Dorsey, 'Still unconscious, though .breathing, wan placed in the hospital of a 'military prison. In a week he open*.! his'eyes and smile l—as a baby smiles. Then as a baby looks at his hands, he looked at his. and cooed softly. His skull had not, apparently, been in- . jured, and the lump raised had so he was told z to get up and dress. He only smiled, wu- then assist* . , .It could hardly have been said tfiat John Dorsey had recovered consciousness. While physr-ahy healthy, a m- .ative, non-combik-tive good-humor,indicated b;, his smile, was t-lm only mental uttriHe even si.umed to lack some of the instils.is of self-preservAtion which the humah, in with other aniJnjdls-, ... from parents. ■Feeling hunger, ho would not eat food placed before him until

A Tale Told BY a Mate and a Cook.

shown how; and then not with a kfiife and fork; or even by intelligent use of his fingers, but by lowering his head in the manner of brutes. Hustled aside by a harsh attendant, he felt pain, and cried out —with no articulation. But he felt no fear at the next meeting; he could not remember. , An inner sub-consciousness directed necessary physiological function, and he lived and gained flesh. But, though far below the level of brutes in intellect, he differed from them and idiots in his capacity for improvement. For he learned —to dress himself; to use a knife and fork; to make his bed, sweep,’carry water, etc. The first sign of memory he displayed was in his avoidance of the nurse who habitually abused him. He learned the names of things one by one, and, in time, essayed to speak them. But only with the progress of a gurgling infant did he acquire a vocabulary sufficient for his wants; and this he used, not in the breezy, quarter-deck tone of John Dorsey, but in accents soft and low, as became the gentleness of his new nature. Not being a prisoner of war, he was discharged—rcured; but being useful, and not a stickler for salery, was allowed to remain in the hospital until it was officially abolished, six months after the close of the war. Then he*was turned adrift—a man in physique but a child in experience /for his life now dated from the awakening in the hospital, and what he knew he * had learned since then. Not a glimmer or shadow of memory as to his past remained. It was as though the soul of John Dorsey had gone from him, and in its place had come another—but a limited, a weakling soul: one that couid neither love, nor hate, hor fear, in a human sense. Poorly equipped as he was, he natu> ally became a beggar, but would work when told to. He wandered, associating with tramps; and under the tutelage of tramps, his mind expanded, but only to the limit of his soul. I Some things he could not underI stand.

In a measure the embargo on bis faculties impressed its stamp on his face; but tiie features of the intelligent John Dorsey did not at once yeild to the new conditions, and while a fit cauidute for an asylum, the strange mixture of expression, resembling careworn candor, saved him from commiti.'im as weak-minded, though he was often sent to jail as a van-rant. . For thirty ’ years he was a homeless wanderer on the face of the earth, at the end of which time he had learned much, considering his limitations. He could talk fairly well in the slang of the road, and in an evenly-mod-ulated tone of voice which was somewhat plaintive. He could not read or write; but he could count, though telling the time by the clock marked the limits of his progress in practical mathematics. A timetable map, the, chart of his wandering confreres, was an incomprehensible puzzle to him. Re knew the use of money, and what his. day’s labor was worth, though his lack of skill at the simplest tasks prevented his holding a job;' hence, his over-reactionary tendency to beg ary. But latterly lie had worked in a hotel kitchen, and liking the shelter and warmth, cultivated the industry to the extent of becoming, in spite of himself, a fairly good third-rate cook- x At the hospital he had been number seven, Asked his name later, he had given this number, which bis companions corruptee}. to “Shiven” and prefixed with “Jack”---their hall-mark of fellowship. His beard hud grown, and will, his hair, was of a soft shade of brown; with no vices to age him, and tormented by nospeculations as to his origin or destiny—the impressions of a year back deing forgotten unless renewed, by friction—his face, though changed, was even more youi'iful than the sailor Dorsey’s. In repose it,was stuped; but wnen he was pleased and smii..d with the infantile smile that marked the birth of his new exi iimss—it lighted up with the ineffable glory of an angle’s. It was the.mute expression of an innocence of soul which approched the divine—beyond hu

THE PEOPLE'S PILOT, RENSSELAER, IND., THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1897.

man understanding. And it won nim universal good-will, though not always good treatment. In the autumn of 1895 he -was in Mew York, penniless; and overhearing from a group of South Street loungers that the “Avon,” at Pier No. 9, wanted a cook hurried there and met her captain, stepping over the rail to find him. “I heard you had no cook,” he began. “You a cook?” “I kin cook plain grub.” “Ever been to sea?” I “Mo.” “Where’er your clothes?” The applicant looked down at himself. “Tramp, aren’t you?” said the captain, good-humoredly. “Yes, kinder,” he answered and smiled. “Come aboard, I’m in a hurry. Thirty dollars a month. Say ‘Sir’ when you speak to mb or the mate.” The “Avon” was a two-masted, schooner-rigged, five-hundred-ton, iron screw steamer, with an old-fashioned oscillating engine, which her old-fashioned engineer patted lovingly for the wonderful bursts of speed he could induce from it. Against his name on the Avon’s articles, the new cook placed his mark for the highest rate of pay he had worked as Jack Shiven. He was seasick the first day out, but recovered, and gave satisfaction. Quiet, good-humored, and obliging, he smiled on all hands and won hearts. “He’s a daft man, but a good ’un,” said the engineer. At Ceder Keys, Florida, the captain brought aboard, one evening, a tall, dark man, with whom he consulted locked in his cabin. As they parted at the rail, he he said, in Es low tone: “We’re speedy enough to get away from any cutter on the coast, "and, I think, any cruiser the Spanish have over. This was a blockade, dodger in war times, named ‘Petrel’ Still, as I said, Doctor, I must consult my crew. It’s risky work. ”

“Did’ you own the ‘Avon’ then, when she [jwas the ‘Petrel?” asked the other, speaking with an accent that stamped him a foreigner. “No,” answered the captain; “I bought her years afterward. But, “ he added proudly, “I sailed in hor ‘fore the mast when she was captured. They jugged us for a whilejthen let us go. •Twas curious about the mate, a fellow named Dorsey. Got? a rap on the head somehow, and came to in the hospital, but lost his bearings—did’nt know his name, and couldn’t understand when told. They let him out ’fore they did us, and we lost all track of him. It’s pitiful, the w; y bis old mother sits up on the rocks over at Nassau and watches the channels. She expects her boy back; says she knows he’ll come. I’ve got so I hate to bring the •Avon’ there; for every time I’ve done it, she’s recognized the old •Petrel.’ and waved her shawl from the rocks, and crushed aboard. And I’ve always had to give her the same old story: ‘Haven’t heard from him.” Its heartbreaking. But John Dorsey’s dead, sure.” .

In a couple of, days the ‘Avon’ sailed, with the dark stranger below in the hold. Two hours later a revenue cutter, primed with information of a purposed breach of the neutrality laws, lifted her anchor and followed, a menacing speck on the horizon astern of the “Avon,” and an irritation to the quickened nerves of her captain, as he viewed her through the glasses, and wondered, and guessed and swore. But next morning the horizon was clear, and the “Avon,” having doubled the Florida reef in the night, was steaming up the east coast. The following midnight found her well up past Cape Canaveral, and hero, after answering a rocket from the shore, she cautiously, and with much heaving of the lead, and speak-ing-tube calls to the engineroom, felt her way through a narrow inlet in the outlying reef or sand covered barrier, into the enclosed lagoon, where she lay, with steam up and without anchoring. while her crew brought off, with thetbree boats/ numerous boxes, eases,.and 1 barrels, which they Stowed carefully in the hold. As the largest boat came out, the captain said to the tall stranger: “I’ll not have that stuff aboard. We’ll tow it astern. Its fine weather and smooth water. Here, you cook, Jack Shiven, watch this boat. Don’t let it touch the side, or it’ll blow, youi* old head off. Keep it away with an oar.” The boat was fastened to the stern by the painter, and the cook, who had

been awakened by the unusual proceedings, obeyed orders. Then, leaving the dark man on the bridge to watch the horizon, and a negro fireman in the boiler-room to keep up steam, every other man in the crew from the captain to the mess-boy went ashore in the next boat, for the last and' hardest lift of alt. A large shell gun, too heavy for one boat, was to be carried off on a temporary deck covering two. At this work they were engaged when daylight broke; and with its coming appeared, outside the barrier and heading for the inlet, the revenue cutter that had followed them, with ports open, guns showing, and at her gaff-end a string of small flags which, in the silent Volapuk of the sea, said: “Get under way as fast as you can.” A signal-book and a good glass are needed, as a rule, to interpret this language. The caplain and - mate ashore had neither and those aboard were not tutored in their use; so the command was not answered. “The jig’s up,” said the captain. “Get this gun ashore again. We’Ll go aboard and answer' or he may fire. They’ll confiscate my boat, but I don’t want her sunk.” But their hurry to unload the gun, resulted in the Swamping of one boat and the staving of the other; so they were forced to remain—-and hope. “Run up a white flag,” roared the captain; “then scull that boat ashore.” The cook heard, but could not understand. The man on the bridge understood, bnt could not obey—he could not find the flag locker. However, he impressed on the cook’s mind the wisdom of getting the boat ashore. But Jack Shiven only smiled and shook his head. He could not scull a boat. Neither could the Cuban—for such he ‘ was—and the fireman conscientiously 7 and emphatically 7 refused to leave his work. lie had shipped fireman, not sailor.

The boom of an unshotted gun was heard from seaward—given as a hint, which, of course, -was not taken. Then another report, louder, came from the' cutter, and with it a shot, aimed to cross the stern of the “Avon.” But years of service in the’ revenue marine had somewhat demoralized the old man-of-war’s-man who Jia'd charge of the gun. He did not allow for the half-charge of powder, and the lateral de- ■ flection given the consequently ricochetting shot by choppy waves, running at angle with his aim. That shot, barely clearing the reef, made a curve, shorter with each blow of a glancing sea, bounded over the stern of the “Avon,” and cut through the port main boom lift (a wire rope), which fell and struck the wondering, smiling cook on the head —a slight blow but enough. The shot buried itself in the sand on the beach, having undone the work of that other government shot fired thirty years before; it had' wakened the sleeping soul of John Dorsey. He reeled, recovered, and in a cracked falsetto, cried out: “ —carried away, sir,” finishing the sentence begun in his youth and interrupted by the descending belaying-pin. Clap-' ping his hand to his head, he looked around bewildered; then bounded forward to the bridge. The Cuban followed. "Are you hurt?” asked the latter. “Hurt? Who are you? Get off the bridge! Where’s the captain? Who's got the wheel?” His voice was choked and guttural. “The captain is on the shore with the crew. Do you not see them?” . Dorsey reached into the pilot bouse, and in the old familiar nook placed his hand on a pair of glasses, with -which, after a suspicious inspection, he examined the group on the beach. “None of our crowd,” he muttered. Then he turned the glasses on the revenue vessel outside.

“Haven’t they got enough meu-of-war on the coast without trottirg out their cutters?” he growled. “What’s he say? ’M, L. H.’— ‘get under way.’ Say, you,” he demanded of the Cuban, “what’s happened? What time is it? When’d you join this boat?” “On the day before yesterday, at Cedar Keys.” t “Y-ou lie,” snarled Dorsey. ‘We haven’t been there in four months: but—” he felt his head again—“what’s happened? Everything looks queer. Where’s the ball on the pilot-house? -Two minutes ago it was night time. Whtit does this mean?” Two minutes ago you were struck on the head, and have

'acted strangly since,” answered' the Cuban, who thought the cook was crazed by the blow. “Yes, I know something belted me; my head’s pretty sore. But you weren’t aboard, and t’was up I near Hatteras. Now we’re down here in Gallino Bay, and it’s daylight. I must ha’ been knocked silly and’ stayed so. What day is it? Monday? Three days ago!” Dorsey’s mind had solved the problem, though with no regard to the lapse of time. But his mind not yet regained thb command of Jack Shiven’s body: his gestures were ciunisy, and his eyes—wide open and alert—though not the eyes of Jack Shiven, were not the eyes of John Dorsey. -His voice was a mixture of .strange sounds, and he coughed continually. “What ails my throat? Ajad this!” he exclaimed; he had felt j of his beard. “Say, Mister Man, I am I dead or alive, or asleep, or crazy? Who am I?” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

GROWING MOVEMENT.

MEN ALL OVER THE COUNTRY ENLISTING TO AID CUBA. The Enlisting of Men Causing 3.lucb Comment and Discussion Among Stato_ Department Officials In Washington—Compared by Some to the Coxey Movement While tho members of the senate and house are endeavoring to kill off the Spaniards with resolutions and by wagging their jaws a movement that, seems to be growing tremendously in the west .is attracting more attention at thd department of state than anything that is being said or done at the capitol. “Oh, it will be nothing mor© than another Coxey affair, and will probably amount to Jess than that,” said an official of the state department to me, and with that he was desirous to dismiss ' the whole subject. Tho matter referred to especially was the report that Colonel John McAndrews, the middle of the road Populist candidate for attorney general of Colorado in the recent campaign, is raising an army that ho will march to tho coast, gathering recruits by the way, and will embark for Cuba to wrest tho island from the Spaniards, despite the interference of the government and the statement of the officials of the Cuban junta that arms and ammunition and not men are wanted for the Cuban cause. “But,” said I, “suppose this movement really grows to formidable proportions, what are you going to de about it? The country feels intensely ■on this question, and no one can tell where a craze initiated in this way might end. ”

“It would be a problem in statecraft,” was the response, “for which there is no precedent, and, to tell the truth, I don’t see what this government could do about it, Such an army would be too great for arrest by the ordinary legal processes, and to call the regular military power into action would possibly excite antagonism which might have serious consequences.. To tell the truth, we, as well as the war department, are watching, and have been for some time, these sporadic movements in various parts of the country to assemble a Cuban army and have been inclined to attach little importance to them until now. But the popular feeling is such that we "would not be . surprised if one of the most curious demonstrations the world has ever known should he made within a short time. There is an undercurrent that has not been estimated at its true Value even by the press. While it savors of Coxeyjsm, it has a much more substantial basis. One might- liken it to. the sort of enthusiasm which led Byron and other young men of the day to enlist in the cause of the Greeks. I hope it will .be discussed in the press as little as possible, for such crazes grow upon notoriety. ” “We are living in a time of strange psychological phenomena,” saida member of congress to whom the above conversation was repeated, “and it really might be a healthy thing for the United States to become involved with some other country and so divert the minds of a certain class from brooding over things which they imagine are out of joint in our affairs.” One could give a mass of astonishing comment of this kind if it were worth the while.—Washington Cor. Pittsburg Dispatch. ,

QUEER RECRUIT FOR CUBA.

Sargent’s Two Kentucky Wives and His Loose Matrimonial Ties. I William Sargent, left his home in Lewis county, N. Y., the other day to join the revolutionists in Cuba. His wife kissed him an eternal farewell, as she never expects to see him again. Sargent is a stalwart, 6 foot Kentuckian, who has had a remarkable matrimonial, experience. Four years ago he wedded Mies Rosa Evans, one of the prettiest , girls in Lewis county. She was the daughter of the Rev. William Evans. They had been married less than six months when Sargent went west, in the interest of a capitalist. From the west came a report that Sargent had died in the Rocky mountains. After a decent interval the young widow married a prosperous business man of Cincinnati. After an absence of two years Sargent returned, procured a divorce and paidcourt to Miss Mary Evans, a younger sister of Rosa. Three months later they were married. It was not long, however, before Sargent disappeared from home, and a report came back that ho had died in Cuba. His wife then married Charles Simpler of Lewis county. About six months later Sargent again turned_up Jr ..but he difiLnoLgurxendeikhis

claims fTMary, ancTSlr. Simpler had to surrender her. In speaking of her peculiar husband, Mrs. Sargent said: “If a Spaniard’s bullet does not end his restless life, I think his strange experience in marrying the Evans girls will prevent him from returning to Lewis county. ”

A MONSTER WINE VAT.

Largest Tank In tlie World Being Set Up In San Francisco. The largest oak wine vat in the world is being set up by the California Wine association at the Lachman cellar, on Brattan street, in San Francisco. The famous Heidelberg casket is a baby by the side of the newcomer. It has the proportions of a two story cottage, and on its bottom four quadrille sets could be danced with ease. 3 The Heidelberg w-onder has a capacity * of 50,000 gallons, while this San Francisco monster is to hold 80,000 gallons. The huge cask is oval shaped on the ground and measures 27% by 80 feet in each direction, while tho great sides rise to a height of 20 feet and are from 2% to 8 inches in thickness. The wood used will weigh 20 tons, and the iron hoops would turn the scales at about six tons.

HE ATE AT HEADQUARTERS

A Hungry Newspaper Reporter Who Invited Hbnself to Grant’s Table. ■ After the officers at beadquarters had obtained what sleep they could get, they arose about daylight, feeling that in all probability they would witness before' night either a fight or a foot race— a fight if the armies encountered each other, a foot race to secure good positions if the armies remained apart. -Jg General Meade had started south at dawn, moving along the Germanna road. General Grant intended to remain in his present camp till Burnside arrived; in Tirder to give him some directions in person regarding his movements. The general sat down to the breakfast table after nearly all the staff officers had finished their morning meal. While be was slowly sipping his coffee a young newspaper reporter, whose appetite, combined with his spirit of enterprise, had gained a substantial victory over his modesty, slipped up to the table, took a seat at the farther end and remarked, “Well, I wouldn’t mind taking a cup of something warm myself if there’s no objection.” Thereupon seising a coffee-, pot he poured out a full ration of that soothing army beverage, and, after helping himself, to some of the other dishes, proceeded to eat breakfast with an appetite which had evidently been stimulated by long hours of fasting. The general paid no more attention to this occurrence than he would have paid to the flight of a bird across his path. He scarcely looked at the intruder, did not utter a word, at the time and made no mention of it afterward. It-, was a..fair sample cf the imperturbability of..| his nature as to trivial matters taking place about him—General Horace ter in Century.

OLNEY’S NEW TASK.

’FortOg-ii Nations Con'.plsfn That Their Citi- ’ sens i’:«e Ameri.-aa .Privileges. Secretary-Olney is low -engaged-with ■' another perplexing problem which re- ! lutes to the treatmeut of naturalized ? Americans who have returned to the land of their birth and are suspected of not having the animus revertendi, which is the diplomatic phrase for an intention > of returning to the United States. This .- : has always been a vary serious matter, particularly iu Germany, Turkey and ;■ i Russia and of late with Spain, in regard ? to her Cuban subjects. I f The United Statesis one.of the easiest | . countries on ejbth iu which a foreigner j | may acquire citizenship, and a greatg many discontented persons' corue-here ■ from the monarchies of Europe simpiyj for the purpose of taking out natural!-. !j zation papers in order io claim the pro-? tecticn of our consuls abroad in case they get into trouble and to soet- an asylum iu this country if they are ban- 1 ished from their own. The Germans ; come in order to escape military service?? that is required.of every citizen df that" J empire; the Russmnt, Poles, ans, Turks, Syrians, Armenians and other subjects of Russia, Austria and ? Turkey have similar reasons, and it has been a common custom for Cubans to ‘ spend their summers in the United’..? States and their winters at homo until? ■ they have been able to take Nearly all the persons engaged prc.duinently in the Cuban revolution are citt'-? izens of the United States. Nearly allJf i the citizens of the United States who i have been arrested in Cuba for convY plicity in the revolution are citizens. N( ither class has ever had any?? • genuine residence iu this ahO the most g? them have never intended ;■ to return yere unless they were coni® polled to do so to escape the pem-.lty of L their acts.—Chicago Record. ‘ij

Kansas Will Talk Back.

| This Jan. 29, the birthday of Kansas* will be made a state holiday. The pep-’* pie will meet, irrespective of party, . denounce the eastern capitalists wba’-i have maligned her good name Because Populism won at the recent The appeal for meetings everywhere?! says: “Every yelping dog has hod bark at Kansas. Every cesspool of ig-J ■ norance, squalor and iniquity in tbO east has gasped a curse at Kansas. Let-J us stand up for our state and rebuke! those hoary, wrinkled, hardened' sin- J - ccrs -” .*iH

Ireland’s Potato Tercentenary.

The introduction of the potato in toil Ireland three centuries ago by Sir \V«9| ter Raleigh was celebrated by aence and show’ iu the Rotunda,. Ddbiiraß recently under the auspices of the IrishM Gardeners’ association. A larger and] more meritorious collection of the dis-1 ferent varieties of the succdleht “Ireland’s staple food,” from alnXlM every part of the kingdom was never be-■ fore witnessed either in Dublin or outM . of it.—London I