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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1907)
THE OMAITA SUNDAY ?EE: nECEMTtETt 15. 1007. &XktoktoktokMk WSkWk Wk toktok UtJc ktok tok toh tok 2 IX IX iiAVUJ 1 ID) EVANS' MEN WON'T DESERT Pacific Tleet Sailors Likely to Stick it Out. NO PLACE TO LIGHT FOE SKIPPERS I'.trn Ihe llfl Itecrnlla Knurr letter Than to Take t nances In a I.aUn-Amrrloau Tom n . NKW YORK. Dec 14. "Hob KVBns It mikes him' fighting mail to bo called 'Fight ing Hb Always did have more luck than u blun gummed dlnge In a crap game," lcmurkcd a man who knows a lot about the American navy. "Grunting him Ills aggressiveness, he ought really to be called 'l.ucky Hob.' lie always gets a break. Thing havo a way of coming- his way. "Talte tills stunt he's Just embarking upon guiding' the battleship fleet around to the west coast. That In Itself Is the swellcst assignment ever pulled down by an American admiral In a time of peace. Of course, the Job belongs to him. He's Wn man In line for It. But doesn't that fact in Itself help to brace up my assertion and don't lmuiclne that I'm alone In mak ing the assertion that Evans is one of luckiest heavy weather men we aver had? ' Out I didn't stmt to talk about his luck In Ih-Iiik In Hue for the. fat assignment. That's been pretty well fanned over al ready. What I'm thinking; about particu larly ns an element of his unfailing luck Is the soft time he's going: to have of It wlih his ships' crews on the way 'round to Sun Francisco. "Now. ordinarily, when an admiral takes a fleet off on a distant sea hike of this char acter he's got to figure and does figure upon TK 71 vIMliMll V CSirisSmas Candies PYLBALL'S AT CHOCOLATES AXI) HON HONS Our cholocates are all made In our own confectionery from the purest material money can buy. They are made under our personal su pervision. These facts count In producing chocolates of incom pHiatile purity and dellelousueits, l'cr pound box (17 4 ox.) 60c SPECIAL PRICKS We will make special prices In quantities for schools, churches, so cieties, lodges, etc. This Includes candy of all sixescandy of all kinds, but all candy of quality. Full Weight 171, All goods sold by the Our Can dies are all made DYBAII ETAIL MERCHANTS are urging every one to do their Christmas shopping early. We would also urge the public to act on this suggestion at once. As Christmas day ap proaches, the crowds become greater. Many shoppers will not wish to take chances on de livery and will return on the cars loaded down with packages and bundles. Although we will make every effort to provide adequate facilities to carry the crowds, we know there is bound to be severe congestion. Therefore, take advantage of this splendid weather; the unbroken stocks of merchandise at the stores, and the opportunity to travel in safety and comfort before the rush commences. Your Experienced shoppers will tell you that you can accomplish twice as much in the forenoon with one-half the fatigue. There are no crowds; it is much easier to secure a seat in the street cars; you will be waited upon more promptly at all the stores; the clerks will be more agreeable and take more pains to show goods, because, they, like yourself, will not be tired. We suggest that all ladies able to do so, try this plan and do their shopping not only as early in the month as possible, but also in the early part of the day. a most shocking; and Irritating tlilnnloa out of the freshly shipped enlisted force by desertion. Admiral Hob doesn't have to make any calculations on, that at all. He'll have his ships' companies for'ard right up to their full strength when the fleet pulls through the Golden Gate. Why? Simplest thing In life. Because he'll only touch on the cruise at South American and Central American and Mexican ports to do hia fleet coaling. And men-o'-war's men don't Jump their ships in South of Central America or in Mexico. You can gamble they don't. Soino of 'em, the new ones, are pretty raw, but they know better than to go over the aides of their ships in coun tries where busted Americanos don't even class with blllygoats in popular esteem and where they've got Just about as much chance to do any good for themeselves as a spangled aigrette 'ud have In a coke oven. "lUw ships' companies will hop ship first port they make, anywhere else in the world, but nay, nay for tho ship Jumpeis when they gut into South or Central Ameri can or Mexican ports. They're too wise for that, and if they're not the old timers among the enlisted llatfeet will put them wise. A ship hopping gringo Isn't any body's baby in a Latin American country. He's a leer, that's what he Is or might as Well be for any life he'll get, except maybe the lift at the toe of a boot. There are too many busted, beach combing greas ers, anyhow, to pick up an occasional crumb to leave any room for ship Jumping Yankee men-o'-war's men to lnm for those beaches even If the greasers that have got something possessed or ever did pos sess the slightest Inclination to lend an as sistful hand to a down and out gringo. And they never did possess and don't pos sess any such feeling toward United States lans of any class. "When a native ef this country gets himself into the position of a lieachcomber in any Latin American country his plight Is miserable beyond depletion. Better, far better for n ship jumping sallorman to be combing the beach of any of the m!d- FANCY UOXKS AX1 UASKKTS See our beautiful tine of fancy boxes and bankets for Christmas gifts. All the latest designs, attractively lined with silk and satin. Killed with Dy ball's choicest confections, sites In . 1, 2, 3, 6 and 10 pounds. Prices from 60c up to (10-00 MIXKU CANDIES Tram lOo to Oc pr pound. ClirMnias Candles Such as Candy Canes, Strings, Toys, Braid Rings, Mottoes, etc., la endless varieties. Oz. to the Pound Box. pound and not by the box. in the illimitable Dyball way. The Palace oi Sweets 1318 Douglas Street Shopping in. the ftiidl Pacific or South Sea islands. It he doesn't get much on the Islands they won't run htm, any way; they sort of let! him alone and permit him to mooch around, doing the best ho can, till he see? a chanco to shake a shovel or swab paint or something on a ship or steamer bound fur some American port. The gringo beachcomber In a Latin American country Is herded with the sandflies and the fiddler crabs. "Men-o'-war's men know these things, and that's what gives Bob Evans his fine, close hauled, housed over, battened down cinch on his heap big wise cruise he's starting on. He'll carry his ships' com panies Into California's chief port with him. They'll stick along with him Just like lit tle birdies that've got clipped wings. "They'll stand for the constant coaling all right they'll have to stand for it. They wouldn't have to, us I say, and wouldn't in any other mess of ports than the Latin American ports but down that way they'll stand for and by any old thing. "If, for limbering up purposes, Evans hud, for example, to take his fleet down to Havana and then bring It back to some United States port before tho final get away to Charleston or Savannah, we'll say Why, then, the aggressive Robley would have something to keep him tossing in his admiral's bunk about. For at the American port to which he returned in such a presumed case I guess maybe Ad miral Hob wouldn't lose hands so fast that thero'd be some embarrassment about spreading mess gear! That's what he would. The new chaps with the cooled-out deep sea ambition would do that hand over hand scamper from the battleships at the American port in such numbers that they'd look like an overestimated school of porpoises, and the gang of them that would get absent-minded while on Ulerty and quite forget thut they'd ever been aboard of a guardo for recruiting pur poses would be something mournful for Hoblcy to contemplate. "It's all the coaling. That's the main thing that gets 'em. Coaling ship Is the unl that makes it hard for all of the divines and devices framed up by crafty i i rultlng officers to keep the navy up to ts full, or anything like Its full, enlisted trength. "The fellows who ship are not such oftles as to suppose that they're going o have a snap In the navy; nothing like .hut. Hut they rarely have the' slightest advance understanding of the meanness and devlllshness of coaling a man-o'-war, and their first experience at that stunt Erets them on the raw and causes many of them to quickly make up their minds to make the forget-lt Jump at the very first decent opportunity. Their point of view is that they've been conned, as they usually cull it. They say that they never understood that they'd have to poke through such ineasley, bedlnged labor as coaling ship comes to for all hands, or (they go on) they never would have shipped. And so away tiny go. "The coal passers' force suffers the most at the first port made by a ship with a new crew. Hardy, rugged fellows imagine before they ship in the navy as coal heav ers that they've got a pretty good Idea of what they're going up against and they figure that they can endure it, If only for the sake of the additional money that they make over and above the pay dished out to landsmen (lubber deck hands) who ship at the same time with them. But they rarefy allow sufficiently for the misery of the coal Imavtr's billet. They can't ossl bly apprehend the gloom and sweating labor and choking wretchedness of those four-hour watches In the dead dark ship's bunkers. That work Is enough to tak the heart out of the spiniest kind of chaps, and It dues. That's why the black gang on a man-o'-war la rarely kept up to Us full enlUHed strength. A large proportion nrr r fiTI Mm VV X-Vtf X x Hi X- X of the hands of the black gang simply Vlll not stick. "Pretty soft, then, for Bob Evans to have lits little route map so fixed up that his crews'll Just have to stick for the entire hike. And he'll probably have pretty good luck In hanging on to the ones Inclined to desert even after he makes the harbor of San Francisco. Of course, wages are high out in 8an Francisco now, and all like that but they'vo got a little way In that town of keeping out butters-ln. The already-lns want to keep wages up, and they mean to and they know how to. They've got ways and means of making It hot for Interlopers for any outsiders, that Is, who drift In, either by a land or sea route, with the Idea of sharing In the good wages and thing. "And so there won't be much of a dis position on the part of the ships' . com panies of the battleship fleet to hop ship at Sun Francisco. They'll find out pretty o.ulck, If they don't know already, that they've got a little way of surrendering deserters out that way that makes ship Jumping unwholesome work. Moreover, the guiding Impulse of a ship Jumper Is to get back home. Him for the simple life, back home If he can only make It. The homes of most of the enlisted fellows at tached to the battleship fleet are far on this side of the Rocky Mountains. Well ervby the way, did you ever happen to be broke In San Francisco? No? Well, don't you ever let that thing happen to mi, that's all; don't. "And If It's the awful place to be stranded in it's the devil's own town to get away from to get east, for Instance. Those Intervening mountains, plains, peraries and deserts man, man, don't you ever be so foolish as to permit yourself to be broke In San FranclBoo, because If you do it'll be tile dlsmalest, dirglest experience of your whole life, and then some. "Well, men-o'-war's men, when they're making up their minds to Jump ship set to work to obtain a sort of line on what their chances are going to be be to get away from the port at which they make their Jump, and any Inquiries that they make in respect to this in and around 8an Francisco are bound to be discouraging. Of course those with money coming to them can hop at San Frinclsco If they feel like digging up the main part of the earned wad or all of it Just for the ride bark toward the At lantic seaboard. Rut enlisted men sure do nachully hate to surrender the whole pile Just for a ride, and so the chances are overwhelmingly In favor of Admiral Robley Rvans losing proportionately fewer of his enlisted men by desertion on this the big gest time of peare sea hike in our i.aval history than ever happened before since we had a navy." t'olated l'arauraphs. It Is better to work than to be worked Many a toothless person Indulges in bit ing sarcasm. We feel sorry for a man who gets whit he really deserves. Re sure of your foundation before try ing to put up a bluff. No, Alonzo, family Jars do not come under the head of bric-a-brac. It ts better to be brought1 up on a bot tle than to be brought down by one. Only a beautiful girl can afford to keep her domestic vlrtuea under cover. Many, a young lawyer falls to mult good because he practices at ths wrung bar. Cupid la a wise little chap. He leaJs the couple to the altar, then tjulta the game. If you would see good In your nrlgh burs anoint your yea with ths tnltk of human kindness. When a sick man sleeps well at night his wife is apt to rejolca because It glvea her a chanca to. The elevator boys In New York's forty-soven-story ofn building will be auia to reach the highest ofUcS la the laud. Chicago News. END OF FIRST BATTLESHIP Texas Dropped from the Navy After Stormy Career. BAD LUCK RECORD IS LONG 'Hoodoo Ship of the Xavy" Coa Btantly In Trouble from the Day it Was Lounrhed Its Close tail at Santiago. Thi second class battleship Texas, re cently retired from active service In the navy, formed part of the beginning of Uncle Sam's new nuvy. Although it cov ered Itself with honor at the battle of San tiago It was so unfortunate In time of peace as to earn the title of "hoodoo ship of the navy." The end of the Texas does not come sud denly. For a year or more it has been little more than a floating boarding house for enlisted naval men, Stationed most of the time at Charleston, S. C. Ever since the Spanish War It has dono nothing but cruise up and down the At lantic coast, taking the midshipmen on their annual practice Jaunts to the New England regions, and steaming around Hat teras In all kinds of weuther for the fall and winter maneuvers in the tropics. Dur ing the Jamestown exposition it was at anchor in Hampton Roads. Now that It is no longer considered even good enough for a station ship, Its future Is In doubt. In all likelihood It will be assigned to some state for the use of the naval militia, several states having made application for It. At all events it will be saved from the fate that threatened It last winter When a congressman prepared a bill authorising Its use as a target for a new kind of dynamite shell which was to prove that the greatest effect of a shell is obtained by outside explosion rather thun by penetration. Ilullillna of the Texas. The necessity for more powerful ships in tho United Stat.-n navy was demonstrated by the battle between the French and Chinese, fleets In Augu.it, 1KM, ut tho pa goda anchorage, Mm river, lien the Chi nese ships were sunk in half an liojr. It was decided that this country should have a modern naval defense force us soon as possible. On August S, 1K.SS. President Cleveland approved a naval appropriation act which directed the building of tho Texas, a second class battleship, thu Maine, an armored cruiser; the Vesuvius, a dynamite cruiser, and the Cusliing, a tori edo boat. With the exception of the protected cruisers Charles ton and Ualtimore, built later, the Texas was the only vessel constructed according to designs purchased abroad. A prise was effered by Sicrctury of the Navy Whitney for the best designs for a battleship to cost 2,5ou,o. Many naval architects competed and the prize was awarded to an Englishman, Mr. John. The Texas was constructed at the Nor folk navy yard, being the first and only battleship ever built there. Work on It was so slow that although the keel was laid down In January, lsK). It was not launched until June 1. and by that time the plans had been altered so much that It was practically of American de sign. The Texas showed up badly almost from the start. On Its dock trial at Norfolk on of Its propellor blades cut Into and sank a schooner. When it was brought to the navy yard and put in dryduck It was found that It was not strong enough to bear Its own weight. It proved Itsslf a poor steamer and ornio Ivii burned great quantities of coal. On No vember 9, 1898, while It was lying at the cob dock in tho Brooklyn yard, one of its sea cocks became unfastened and It sank. So much criticism was directed against the Texas aftor this prank that Secretary of the Navy Herbert made an official state ment to demonstrate that the Texas In stead of being In any way a failure ranked with the finest warships In the world and certainly was not surpussed by any Amer ican vessel. Among othor things Secretary Herbert said: "The Texas has been cruising as part of the North Atlantic squadron for the last four months, since its bottom was stiffened ut the Norfolk navy yard. Captain Glass, one of the most efficient and reliable offi cers of the navy, declares that it Is the stlffest, most easily managed and entirely seaworthy ship In the service. Captain Robley D. Kvans, commanding tho In diana, says the same thing. "He says that when the fleet on the 12th day of October whs on Its way to New York, In the worst sea he ever encoun tered, the Texas showed It whs the most seaworthy ship In the service. Tho In diana was Just ahead of the Texas and the Maine, Its rival ship. Just behind. The Texas rolled only five degrees, while the Indiana rolled thirty-nine degrees." In that Btorm the Indiana's turret lock bolts broke snd Its thlrteeti-lnch guns rolled from side to si le. The Texas, on the other hand, was a perfect gun platform and could have fought Its guns easily. Snmiilo of III I '.spades. The Texas went ushore In the Tortugas In February, 1SS7. and In the winter of the same year grounded In Wallabout channel. In Ronton harbor an engine In one of Its launches exploded and hurt six men. It was only a miracle thut the Texas was saved from being rammed and sent to the bottom by the Rrooklyn In the battlo with Admiral Ccrvcra's fleet off Santiago July 3. lkf1. Admiral Sampson has issued standing orders that if the enemy tried to escape the ships were to close and engage as soon as possible and to sink the Spanish vessels or send them ashore. On tho day of the battle the American vessels moved toward the mouth of the harbor. When the Maria Teresa started to run for It the Iowa gave the order "Knemy's ships escaping," and then signalled "Ch nr for action," and gave a third order, "Close up," all In execution of Rear Admiral Sampson's standing order. As the Rrook lyn steamed toward the mouth of the har bor Commander Schley, who was aboard it. explained to its commander, Captain Cook, that the order "Close up" meant Humidors That Kesp Cigars fresh at All Times THE LATEST UP-TO-DATE SMOKERS' NOVELTIES Ladles, be sure to come here. We have ust tlie thlna for Men MX (CdD Ux that ha was "to keep somewhere wlthii 1,000 yards from the enemy, so as to b outsldo of its broadsldo torpedo range.' Captain Cook then gave orders to port th helm, and thus tho Rrooklyn began to turi away from Uie battle lino and presentei Its stern to the hostile, cruisers. Tin Brooklyn ran about 2,000 yards south and all but collided with the Texas, which saved Itself by reversing Its engines, A holo was then left in the blockading llm through which tho enemy prompt) )t steamed. Captain Philip's Amount. The late Captain Philip of the Texas In describing this incident once wrote to Secretary Long: "Suddenly a whiff of breexe and a lull in the firing lifted tho pall, and there, bearing toward us and across our bows, turning on its port helm, with big waves curling over Its bows and great clouds of black smoke pouring from Its funnels, was the Rrooklyn. It looked as big as a half dozen Great Easterns. 'Rack both engines hard!' went down the tube to the aston ished engineers, and In a twinkling tho old ship was racing against Itself. Had the Rrooklyn struck us then It would probably have been the end of the Texas and Its 600 men." Aside from this Incident tho share of the Texas In the fighting off Santiago was con spicuous. On June 22 a shell from Santi ago's Morro pierced a six-Inch hole In Its bow under tho anchor and killed Frank Rlakely, a first class apprentice. In th fighting of July 3 a shell from the Alml rante Oqliendo pierced tho Btarhoard bulk heud under the bridge. Then it entered the smokcplpe and exploded. The hist accident on the Texas camo on November 30, 1902, when at target practice along the New England const. The dis charge of the big guns broke the recoils, with the result that the gun foundations were shattered, water and steam pipes were crushed and damage was done that was thought ut first impossible of repair. MiikIiik Hlacksmltha. "Jf I wen- an Impresario on the lookout for good voices to train for the opera. I'd nuiAC a tour of the blacksmith shops of New York unil pick out a few of the best voices to b found there," said the city salesman. "That Is where you find good voices. I don't know whether thoso fel lows are horn with the gift of song, and by foue of circumstances drift into black smithing, or whether blowing a bellows and wielding a hammer produce vocal chords and lung power. Anyhow, half of the blacksmiths can sing.. 1 sometimes drop into a shop Just for t lie BHku of hear ing one of their fill" tunes. It does my heart good. Maybe, the singers are not up In Wagner and the rest of the grand opera fdlowi.: and maybe they don't know mucia alsoit (irleg and Tschalknwski, but tl,4 certainly have big, melodious voices." New York Press. Smoking Sets In Hammered Brass and Oxidized Copper