Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1898 — The American Sailor of To-day. [ARTICLE]

The American Sailor of To-day.

.Tacky, who used to be more sailor than gunner, is now more gunner than sailor. Just In proportion as he has ceased to be a partof the great engine on which lie lives, so he has come more and more into the control of It. And as the cardinal purpose of a warship Is to hit things with her projectiles, .Tacky has become a specialist In getting that work out of her. lie dot's It in two places—at the guns and at the engines. Correctly pointed guns are of no use, unless the platform on which they rest Is put In proper relation to the thing io be hit, and kept there; equally It Is useless to get the ship into proper place unless the guns are correctly pointed. Men who can do either of these things must have natural capacities and lie susceptible to education, and only men at this sort are eligible for our navy. Accordingly the "beach-coinfoer,” or the “rock-scorpion,” or any other variety of that ruck of marine refuse which drifts around the great maritime ports and ships in any craft where “grub" Is plenty and work light, no longer slings his hummock on Uncle Ham’s b®rtb-deck, as he used to <V> to the slinme of the service In years gone by. Nor can the tramp, nor the Jailbird, nor even the Incorrigible black sheep of the family, thus be provided for to the relief of constables and longsuffering relatives. No man or boy can now pass a United States naval recruiting officer unless ho Is clean, healthy, honest, young, strong and Intelligent; nor can he afterward get that advancement, which Is certainly open to him without fear or favor, unless he continues to show aptitude and ability. Mrs. Katherine L. Haddock, of Philadelphia, bequeathed her home In that city for an orphanage, endowing it with 1125,000. She nlso enriched several charitable Institutions In Philadelphia atv* VenusJ Ivan La with gifts of 110,000.