The Davenport New Era (Davenport, Okla.), Vol. 8, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 7, 1916 Page: 3 of 8
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. ■; ■ -
THE DAVENPORT NE W E R A
I'll
JACK'' LONDON
COR>Rig i- T- Ay JACK lonpon"
SYNOPSIS.
Humphrey Van Weyden, critic and dilet-
tante, is thrown Into the water by the
sinking of a ferryboat In a fog In San
Francisco hay, and becomes unconscious
before help reaches him. On coming to
n)s senses he finds himself aboard the
Jeallng schooner Ghost, Captain Wolf
ters, Wit!
beginning of the voyage. The
captain refuses to put Humphrey ashore
and makes him cabin boy "for the good
&f his soul." Humphrey sees the body of
tie mate dumped Into the sea. He begins
to learn potato peeling and dish washing
under the cockney cook, Mugrldge, Is
caught by a heavy sea shipped over the
nuarter as he is carrying tea aft and his
knee Is seriously hurt, but no one pays
any attention to his injury.
t
i CHAPTER V—Continued.
After breakfast I had another un-
enviable experience. When I had fin-
ished washing the dishes I cleaned the
cabin stove and carried the ashes up
on deck to empty them. Wolf Larsen
and Henderson were standing near the
wheel, deep in conversation. I passed
them and flung the ashes over the side
to windward. The wind drove them
back, and not only over me but over
Henderson and Wolf Larsen. The
next instant the latter kicked me vio-
lently, as a cur is kicked. 1 reeled
away from him and leaned against the
cabin in a half-falnting condition. But
Wolf Larsen did not follow me up
Brushing the ashes from his clothes,
he had resumed his conversation with
Henderson. Johansen, who had seen
the affair from the break of the poop,
sent a couple of sailors aft to clean
up the mess.
Later in the morning I received a
surprise of a totally different sort.
Following the cook's instructions, I
had gone into Wolf Larsen's state-
room to put it to rights and make the
bed. Against the wall, near the head
of the bunk, was a rack filled with
books. I glanced over them, noting
with astonishment such names as
Shakespeare, Tennyson, Poe and De
Quincey. There were scientific works,
too, among which were represented
men such as Tyndall, Proctor and Dar-
win. Astronomy and physics were
represented, and 1 remarked Bulfinch's
"Age of Fable," Shaw's "History of
English and American Literature,"
and Johnson's "Natural History" in
two large volumes. Then there were
a number of grammars, such as Met
calf's and Reed and Kellogg's; and 1
smiled as 1 saw a copy of "The Dean's
'Snglish."
I could not reconcile these books
wfth the man from what I had seen
of him, and I wondered if he could
possibly read them. But when I came
to make the bed 1 found, between the
blankets, dropped apparently as if he
had sunk off to sleep, a complete
Browning, the Cambridge edition. It
was open at "In a Balcony," and I
noticed, hero and there, passages un-
derlined in pencil. Further, letting
drop the volume during a lurch of the
ship, a sheet of paper fell out. It was
scrawled over with geometrical dla
grams and calculations of some sort.
This glimpse 1 had caught of his
other side must have emboldened me,
for 1 resolved to speak to him about
the money I had lost.
"I have been robbed," I said to him,
a little later, when I found him pacing
up and down the poap alone.
"Sir," he corrected, not harshly, but
sternly.
"I have been robbed, sir," I amend-
ed.
"How did It happen?" he asked.
Then I told him the whole circum-
stance, how my clothes had been left
to dry in the galley, and how, later, I
was nearly beaten by the cook when
I mentioned the matter.
He smiled at my recital. "Pickings,"
he concluded; "Cooky's pickings And
don't you think your miserable life
worth the price? Besides, consider It
a lesson. You'll learn In time how to
take care of your money for yourself.
I suppose, up to now, your lawye: has
done It for you, or your business
agent."
I could feel the quiet sneer through
his words, but demanded. "How can
1 get It back again?"
"That's your lookout. You haven't
any lawyer or business agent now. so
you'll have to depend on yourself.
Whon you get a dollar, hang on to it.
A man who leaves his money lying
around, the way you did, deserves to
lose it. Besides, you have sinned. You
have no right to put temptations In
the way of your fellow-creatures. You
tempted Cooky, and he fell. You have
placed his Immortal soul In jeopardy.
By the way, do you believe in the
immortal soul?"
Ills lids lifted lazily an be asked the
question, and it seemed that the deeps
were opening to me and that 1 was
gazing into his soul. But It was an
Illusion. Far as it might have seemed,
no man has ever seen very far Into
Wolf Larsen's soul, or seen It at all—
of this I am ioavlnced. It was a very
lonely soul, I was to learn, that never
unmasked, though at rare moments it
played at doing so.
"I read Immortality in your eyes,"
I answered, dropping the "sir"—an ex-
periment, for I thought ^he intimacy
of the conversation warranted It.
He took no notice.
"Then to whaj end?" he demanded.
"If I am immortai—why?"
I faltered. How could I explain my
Idealism to this man? How could 1
put into speech a something felt, a
something like the strains of music
heard In sleep, a something that con-
vinced yet transcended utterance?
"What do you believe, then?" 1
countered.
"I believe that life is a mess." he
answered promptly. "It is like a yeast,
a ferment, a thing that moves and
■<nay move for a minute, an hour, a
year, or a hundred years, but that in
the end will cease to move. The big
eat the little that they may continue
to move, the strong eat the weak that
they .may retain their strength. The
lucky eat the most and move the
longest, that is all. What do you make
of those things?"
He swept his arm in an impatient
gesture toward a number of the sail-
ors who were working on some kind
of rope stuff amidships.
"They move; so does the Jellyfish
move. They move in order to eat in
order that they may keep moving.
There you have It. They live for
The story 01
A MAN WHI
a N HIS OWN
JTTLE WORLD/
AB^ARD/sjjtp
W A S A LAW
_,UNTO- HI i\\SELFW
"1 agree with you," he answered.
"Then why move at all, since moving
is living? Without moving and being
part of the yeast there would be no
hopelessness. But—and here It Is—
we want to live and move, though we
have ng reason to, because It happens
that it is the nature of lita to live and
move, to want to live and move. If It
were not for this, life would be dead
It Is because of this life that is In you
that you dream of your immortality.
The life that is in you Is alive and
wants to go on being alive forever.
Bah! An eternity of plgglshness!"
He abruptly turned oti his hoel and
started forward. He stopped at the
break of the poop and called me to
him.
"By the way, how much was it that
Cooky got away with?" he asked.
"One hundred and eighty-flve dol
lars, sir," I answered.
He nodded his head. A moment
later, as I started down the companion
stairs to lay the table for dinner, 1
heard him loudly cursing some men
amidships.
"They Live for Their Belly's Sake."
their belly's sake, and the belly is for
their sake. It's a circle; you get no-
where. Neither do they. In the end
they come to a standstill. They move
no more. They are dead."
"They have dreams," 1 interrupted,
"radiant, flashing dreams—"
"Of grub," he concluded senten-
tiously.
"And of more—"
"Grub. Of a larger appetite and
more luck in satisfying It." His voice
sounded harsh. There was no levity
in it. "You and I are just like them.
There is no difference, except that we
have eaten more and better. 1 am
eating them now, and you, too. But
in the past you have eaten more than
I have. You wear the warm clothes.
They made the clothes, but they shiver
in rags and ask you, the lawyer, or
the business agent who handles your
money, for a Job."
"But that is beside the matter," I
cried.
"Not at all." He was speaking rap-
idly, now, and his eyes were flashing.
"It is plgglshness, and It Is life. Of
what use or sense 1b an immortality
of plgglshness? What Is the end?
What is it all about? To be piggish
as you and I bftve been all our lives
does not seem to be Just the thing for
Immortals to be doing. Again, what's
It all about? Why have I kept you
here?—"
"Because you are stronger," I man
aged to blurt out.
"But wh* stronger?" he went on at
once with nls perpetual queries. "Be
cause 1 am a bigger bit of the ferment
than you? Don't you see? Don't you
•ee?"
"But the hopelessness of It," I pro-
tetit
CHAPTER VI.
By the following morning the storm
had blown Itself quite out and the
Ghost was rolling slightly on a calm
sea without a breath of wind. The
men were all on deck and busy pre-
paring their various boats for the sea-
son's hunting. There are seven boats
aboard, the captain's dinghy, the six
which the hunters will use. Three, a
hunter, a boat puller, and a boat
steerer, compose a boat's crew. On
board the schooner the boat pullers
and steerers are the crew. The hunt
ers, too, are supposed to be In com-
mand of the watches, subject, always,
to the orders of Wolf Larsen.
All this, and more, I have learned.
The Ghost is considered the fastest
schooner In both the San Francisco
and Victoria fleets.' In fact, she was
once a private yacht, and was built
for speed. Johnson was telling me
about her in a short chat I had with
him during yesterday's second dog
watch. He spoke enthusiastically,
with the love for a fine craft such as
some men feel for horses.
Every man aboard, with the excep-
tion of Johansen, whe is rather over-
come by his promotion, seems to have
an excuse for having sailed on the
Ghost. Half of the men forward are
deep-water sailors, and their excuse is
that they did not know anything about
her or her captain. And those who do
know whisper that the hunters, while
excellent shots, were so notorious for
their quarrelsome and rascally pro-
clivities that they could not sign on
any decent schooner.
I have made the acquaintance of an-
other one of the crew—Louis, he Is
called, a rotund and jovial-faced Nova
Scotia Irishman, and a very sociable
fellow, prone to talk as long as he can
find a listener. In the afternoon,
while the cook was below and asleep
and I was peeling the everlasting po-
tatoes, Louis dropped into the galley
for a "yarn." His excuse for being
aboard was that he was drunk when
he signed. He is accounted one of the
two or three very best boat steerers
in both fleets.
"Ah, my boy"—he shook his head
ominously at me—" 'tis the worst
schooner ye could Iv selected, nor
were ye drunk at the time as was I.
Don't I remember him In Hakodate
two years gone, when he had a row
an' shot four iv his men? An' there
was a man the same year he killed
with a blow Iv his flst. An' wasn't
there the governor of Kura Island, an'
the chief lv police. Japanese gentle-
men, sir, an' didn't they come aboard
the Ghost as his guests, a-brlngin
their wives along—wee an' pretty
little bits of things like you see 'em
painted on fans. An' as he was a get-
tin' under way, didn't the fond hus-
bands get left astern-like in their sam
pan, as It might be by accident? An'
wasn't It a week later that the poor
little ladles was put ashore on the
other side of the Island, with nothln'
before 'em but to walk home acrost
the mountains on their weeny-teeny
little straw sandals, which wouldn't
hang together a mile? Don't I know?
Tls the beast he is. this Wolf Lar-
sen—the great, big beast mentioned In
Revelation; an' no good end will he
ever come to. But I've said nothin' to
ye, mind ye. I've whispered never a
word; for old, fat Louls'll live the voy
age out It the last mother's son of
yet go to the fishes."
"But If he Is go well known for what
he Is," I queried, "bow Is It that he
can K t men to ship with him?"
An' how Is It ye can get men to
do anything on God's earth an' sea?"
Louts demanded with Celtic Are.
"There's them that can't sail with bet-
ter men, like the hunters, and them
that don't know, like the poor devlll
of wind-jammers for'ard there."
Tbem hunters Is the wicked boys."
he broke forth again, for he suffored
from a constitutional plethora of
speech. "But wait till they get to
cutting up Iv jinks and rowln' 'round.
He's the boy'll flx 'em. Look at that
hunter lv mine, Horner. Didn't he kill
his boat steerer last year? An' there's
Smoke, the black little devil—didn't
the Rooslans have him for three years
In the salt mines of Siberia, for poach-
in' on Copper Island, which Is a Roo-
slan preserve? Shackled he was,
hand an' foot, with his mate. An'
didn't they have words or a ruction
of some kind?—for 'twas the other
fellow Smoke sent up in the buckets
to the top of the mine; an a piece at
the time he went up, a leg today, an'
tomorrow an arm, the next day the
head, an' so on."
"But you can't mean It!" I cried out,
Overcome with the horror of It.
"Mean what?" he demanded, quick
as a flash. " 'JMS nothin' I've sald_
See? i am, and dumb, as ye should
be for the sake Iv your mother; an'
never once have I opened me Hps but
to say fine things iv them an' him.
God curse his soul, an' may he rot In
purgatory ten thousand years, and
then go down to the last an' deepest
hell lv all!"
Johnson seemed the least equivocal
of the men forward or aft. Ho seemed
to have the courage of his convic-
tions, the certainty of his manhood. It
was this that mado him protest, at thP
commencement of our acquaintance,
against being called Yonson. And
upon this, and him, Louis passed Judg
ment and prophecy.
" 'Tls a fine chap, that squarehead
Johnson we've for'ard with us," he
said. "The best sallorman In the
fo'c'sle. He's my boat puller. But
It's to trouble he'll come with Wolf
Larsen, as the sparks fly upward. The
Wolf is strong, and it's the way of
a wolf to hate strength, an' strength
It Is he'll see In Johnson—no knucklln'
under, and a 'Yes, sir' thank ye kindly,
sir," for a curse or a blow."
Thomas Mugridge Is becoming unen
durable. I am compelled to Mister
him and Sir him with every speech.
One reason for this is that Wolf Lar
sen seems to have taken a fancy to
him. It is an unprecedented thing. I
take it, for a captain to bo chummy
with the cook; but this is certainly
what Wolf Larsen is doing. Two or
three times he put his head into the
galley and chaffed Mugridge good
naturedly, and once, this afternoon, he
stood by the break of the poop and
chatted with him for fully fifteen min-
utes When It was over, and Mug
ridge was hack in the galley, he be-
came greasily radiant, and went about
his" work, humming the coster songs
in a nerve-racking and discordant fal
setto.
"I always get along with tho offi-
cers," he remarked to me in a confl
dentlal tone. "I know the w'y, I do,
to myke myself upprecl-yted. There
was my last skipper. 'Mugridge,' sez
'e to me, 'Mugridge,' sez 'e, 'you'>e
missed yer vokytlon.' 'An' 'ow's that?
sez I. 'Yes should 'a' been born a
gentleman, an' never 'ad to work for
yer llvln'.' God strike me dead, 'Ump
If that ayn't wot 'e sez, an' me a-slttln'
there In 'Is own cabin, Jolly-like an'
comfortable, a-smokln' 'Is cigars an
drlnkin' 'Is rum."
This chltter-chatter drove me to dis-
traction. I never heard a voice I bated
so. Positively, he was the most dis-
gusting and loathapme person I have
ever met. The filth of his cooking was
indescribable, and, as he cooked every
thing that was eaten aboard, I was
compelled to select what I ate with
great circumspection, choosing from
the least dirty of his concoctions.
My hands bothered me a groat
deal, unused as they were to work.
Nor was my knee any better. The
swelling had not gone down, and the
cap was still up on edge. Hobbling
about on it from morning to night was
not helping It any What I needed
was rest, If It were ever to get well.
Rest! I never before knew the
meaning of the word. I had been rest-
ing all my life and did not know it.
But now, from half past five In the
morning till ten o'clock at night, I
am everybody's slave, with not one
moment to myself, except such aB I
can Bteal near the end of the second
dog watch. Let me pause for a min-
ute to look out over the sea sparkling
in the sun, or to gaze at a sailor going
aloft to the gaff-topsails, or running
out the bowsprit, and 1 am sure to
hear the hateful voice, " 'Ere. you
'Ump. no sodgerln'. I've got my peep-
ers on yer."
There are signs of rampant bad tem
per in the steerage, and the gossip Is
going around that Smoke and Hender
son have had a fight. Henderson
seems the best of the hunters, a slow
going fellow, and hard to rouse; but
roused he must have been, for Smoke
had a bruised and discolored eye,
and looked particularly vicious when
be ctme Into the cabin for supper.
|TO BE CONTlNUED.j
ELDERLY WOMEN
SAFEGUARDED
Tell Others How They Were
Carried Safely Through
Change of Life.
Dnrand, Wis.—"lam the mother ol
fourteen children and I owe my life to
Lydia E. Pinkham'i
Vegetable Com-
pound. When I was
45 and had th«
Change of Life,
a friend recom-
mended it and it
gave me such relief
from my bad feel-
ings that I took
several bottles. 1
am now well and
healthy and recom-
mend your Compound to other ladies."
—Mrs. Mary Ridgway, Durand, Wis.
A MassachusettsWonianWrites:
Blackstone, Mass.—"My troubles
were from my age, and I felt awfully
■ick for three years. I had hot flashes
often and frequently suffered from
pains. I took Lydia E. Pinkham'i
Vegetable Compound and now am well."
—Mrs. Pierre Cournoyer, Box 239,
Blackstone, Mass.
Such warning symptoms as sense of
suffocation,hot flashes, headaches,back-
aches,dread of Impending evil, timidity,
sounds in the ears, palpitation of ths
heart, sparks before the eyes, irregu-
larities, constipation, variable appetite,
weakness and dizziness, should be heeded
by middle-aged women. Lydia E. Pink-
ham's Vegetable Compound has carried
many women safely through this crisis.
Your Liver
[s Clogged Up
That's Why You'r. Tired-Out of Sorts
—Have No Appetite.
CARTER'S LITTLE^
LIVER PILLS
will put you right
in a few <fctys.^
They d<
their duty.,
CureCon-J
stipation, -
Biliousness, Indigestion and Sick Headache
SMALL PILL. SMALL DOSE, SMALL PRICE.
Genuine must bear Signature
Carters
ITTLE
PILLS.
Dl if If LOSSES SURRY PREVENTED
uLAlR^uPTr^:1s,LAC,<Lt8 p,u«
mm umh relulle;f
■ p referred l jr '
B BH IK a western atock-
B BfVm. ■ nifn, because ^
protest where 0
.^5 vaoclnm fall.
Write for booklet and testinaoolals.
10-dose pkg. Blackleg Pills. SI 0
50-dose pkg. Blackleg Pills, $4.00
Uae any Injector, l>ut Cutter's simplest and stronceet.
The etiperlorlty of Cutter products la due to ov«r IS
years of spei lalizlng In VACCINES AND HBKL'MS
only. Insist ON CUTTKJt'S. li unobtainable.
order direct.
Tki Citti! IrtwttiTT. ItrtiUj C«l, ir Ckltiti, IM.
J
Welcome Change.
"I understand thut skirts are going
to be longer," remarked the observant
citizen.
"That's good," replied the tired busi-
ness man. "Maybe next season I can
go to a musical show without imagin-
ing I'm looking at a plain, everyday
street parade."
Dr. B. F. Jackson,Celebrated Physician,
handed down to posterity his famous
prescription for female troubles. Now
sold under the name of "Femenlna."
Price 00c and $1.00.—Adv.
Don't Forget Ideals.
Don't Judge a man altogether by his
achievements; his Ideals ought to
count for something.
Feel AH Used Up?
Does your back ache constantly? I Jo,
you have sharp twinges when stooping
or lifting? I>o you feel all used up —
if you could just go no further?
Kidney weakness brings great discom-
fort What with backache, headache,
dizziness and urinary disturbances it is
no wonder one feels all used up.
Doan's Kidney Pills bavo cured hou-
sands of just such cases It's the best
recommended special kidney remedy.
An Oklahoma Case
Mrs. Robert Web-
ster, 1140 W. First
Ht., Oklahoma City,
Okla., Bays: "My
kidneys were dis-
ordered by poor
,drlnklnf water and
they acted Irregu-
1 a r 1 y. I suffered
Intensely from diz-
zy spells and head-
aches and little
puffy sacs appear-
ed beneath my
eyes. I had nerv-
w ous spoils, also. On
a relative's advice, I usod Doan's
Kidney Pills and three boxes fixed me
up In food shape."
Get Dvetn'e at Any Store. SOc aBox
DOAN'S WIIY
FOSTER-MILSURN CO, BUFFALO. N. Y.
J\vtrj fttfurv
Ttill * Slin
GALLSTONE
AtuI<1 Poaf\1 ve Liver A it#niacb rnuiedj
(So (Miy—Bee Dip ewre; boat* r rue*y Writ* today
lith .CUMI
ll • -
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Tryon, W. M. The Davenport New Era (Davenport, Okla.), Vol. 8, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 7, 1916, newspaper, September 7, 1916; Davenport, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc109382/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.