The Argosy, Vol. XI No. 19 — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ARGOSY 295 A horrid carnage ensued, the dread details of which could not be portrayea by words. Flashing cutlasses, with cut, thrust and lunge ; cracking revolvers, ruaring of cannon, and rending of woodwork ; and yells of rage, pain and triumph, all blended together and envel- oped in thick, pungent powder smoke, was all that could be seen or heard. In the beginning of the contest, young Cutter and his men fought hard to gain a footing on the enemy’s deck, With a navy revolver in one hand and his cutlass in the other, Charley led his chosen few. So fierce was their onset that the enemy gave way slowly. The latter stubbornly contested every inch of space, and fora moment it looked as if the Vandalia’s men would eventually have to give up their effort to take the ram. The crew of the latter outnumbered that of the Van- dalia almost two to one. Suddenly an idea occurred to Charley. Fighting like a fury, he headed toward the mizzen shrouds. The enemy were compelled to fall momentarily back. With a wild hurrah, Charley sprang like a cat tuto the rigging. With drawn cutlass in one hand, he ran quickly and nimbly up the ratlines. Thetop was filled with men who were firing at the Vandatlia’s crew. They had not noticed any one coming up the shrouds. Suddenly Charley’s head appeared over the rim of the top, and one of the men made a furious blow at him with the butt of his gun, The midshipman ducked his head, and the weapon came against the top with a crash that almost carried the stock from the barrel. Before the men could deliver another blow, younp Cutter sprang into the top and ran the fellow who had struck at him through the body. A howl of rage, and five other men who were in the top rushed at the intrepid midshipinan, With a cheerful smile, Charley braced himself against the topmost shrouds and awaited their onset. With a downward slash of lis cut- lass and a blow with his left fist, he disposed of two of his enemies. There was hardly room in the top for the men to bring their guns to bear, so they reached for thetr revolvers. While they were doing so, Charley sprang quickly past them, and leaping upon the gaff, pulled himself along the spar toward the extreme end, where hung the enemy's colors. He grasped the flay, and with a slash of his cutlass it was free from its halyards, Twisting it in a sort of line, he tled it about his body. When this was accomplished, a cry of triumph burst from his lips, and he prepared to descend to the deck by a rope. | Meanwhile the men in the top had no doubt been puzzled to know what had become of their daring antaponist, as the rolling smoke had hid him from their view. Then there was a sudden lull in the contest below them, and as the smoke cleared away, they saw and realized the daring midshipman’s purpose. One of them took deliberate aim at the boy. But Charley looked toward him just in time to escape the bullet by dropping at full length on the waff. The deadly missile sped over his head, and he raised his body quickly again. There was no rope within reach by which to descend. He glanced dawn into the sea over the stern, With a shudder of horror and loath- ing, he saw through the murky air a number of sharks churning up the water into foam as they rushed hither and thither to devour their human prey. In that momentary glance he remembered afterward to have seen a shark of enormous size. The ‘* man eater” appeared to be nearly half out of the water, with open jaws and lying over on its side, as if awaiting another victim. Charley hesitated a moment whether to try to regain the top or go overboard, There seemed certain death in either direction. Quickly reasoning that if he reached the top and the men dispatched him, they would capture the flag, he turned to jump over the stern, At the same moment there was the crack of a revolver in the top and an explosion beneath him. He gave a shriek, and fell like a rocket through the smoky air. Immediately after Charley had taken the enemy’s colors, the latter noticed their absence. Supposing their vessel had surrendered, they stopped fighting. Then the Vandalia’s crew quickly disarmed and se- cured them. Thus the battle was ended by Cheerful Charley’s brave act. The navy achieved .another victory by his daring exploit, and no doubt many of the crew of the Vandalia owed their lives to the discon- tinuance of what was a most unequal struggle. Meanwhile, what had become of the young midshipman ? Immedi- ately on returning to his own vessel, Captain Cutter found his son tn his bunk, still wrapped in the enemy’s flag, and insensible from a bullet wound in his side. Une of the men, Ben Blayall, had closely watched the boy’s movements, and as he fell from the paff, sprang to his rescue. Fortunately, just before they went overboard a hand grenade ex- ploded in the water astern and dispersed the sharks. After consider- able delay and a brave struggle, Blayall got on board the Vandalia with his senseless burden. A few more words and we will conclude this veracious sketch, for it is true, the author having received the main facts from the hero him- Self. Of course all the names are fictitious. After the battle Charley was conveyed to the hospital, where he re- mained six weeks, after which he went home on a furlough. Two mouths later he returned on board the Vandalia and was presented with a leutenant’s commission in recopnition of his gallant action. In the report of the exploit to the Navy Department there was no men- tion of the fact that a school of man eating sharks was under the Van- dahia’s stern, into whose dreadful jaws Charley believed, at the time, he was jumping, Tle was too modest to mention that circumstance of his daring venture, Charley says to this day nobody will ever know his thoughts and feelings at that moment, for he cannot find words to express them. Blayall, the sailor who had rescued him, was not forgotten, for he was soon advanced toa petty officer. Charley saw lots of active serv- ice, and at the end of the war everybody addressed him as captain. To this day, bowever, he is thought of as, if not cailed, ‘* Cheerful Charley.” POWER OF THE MYSTERIOUS. Lower animals stand in fear of what they cannot comprehend. Man be- trays the same emotion when confronted by anything mysterious under exciting circumstances, Once, in the long ago, says a contemporary, an Enylish and a Dutch ship had a battle, and the latter was vetting the wors: of it, when the second officer reported to the Dutch captain that (he cannon bails were all gone. “Phen load the guns with cheese," was his order: and all the guns were at once loaded with little round, hard Dutch cheese of the kind often seen in New York, but which I never saw elsewhere. “To wonder why they stop firing 2° said the English commander, as he peered through the smoke at the silent Dutch ship with the eve of alert sus- picion, After a while the Dutchman resumed firing, and a cheese struck the mast of the English ship, and its crumbs fell all over the deck. “What in Heaven's name is that’ exclaimed the English captain, in alarm, Another cheese struck a gun carriage, and its crumbs scattered all about. Then the souls of the Englishmen died within them, for they thought these cheese crumbs some new kind of infernal compound whieh would soon unite and blow them into “ kingdom come,’ and they hastily lowered sheir flag asa token of surrender, and taking boats, they pulled for the Dutch ship for safety. HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE MEMORY. NuMEKOUS devices have been invented whereby it ts claiuned the memory can be strengthened. Many of these svstems require bout as much men- taleffortas the simple memorizing of facts which you wish to impress upon the mind, but there ts one method which commends itself to general favor for its simplicity. Recallat the end of each day every incident that came under observation from the hour of rising until the time of retiring, and soon you will be the happy possessor of a retentive memory. More complicated mnemonics have often been found valuable in keeping the mind from going astray, and one of them is thus described by a writer inthe New York Z7>74Zune - [never have any trouble in remembering how ** Mississippi’”’ is spelled, for [have tirmly fixed in my memory this combination, which has been there in tact from my childhood : ‘ Miss-1ss-ipp-1 “"—that is to say, when- ever [ have occasion to spell” Mississippi [ say mentally or otherwise, ‘* M-i-double s, i-daquble s, i-double pyi.” If | had been taught in the mod- ern schools [ suppose " double s"’ would have been ruled out; you know they say ‘Ss--s° in such cases nowadays ; so while my method does adimtra- bly for me it probably won't do at all in the case of my children. nvery much the same way I remember the orthography of Cincinnati. My mnemonic is as follows: ** C-1-n, c-i-double n,a-t-1" to dois to show my application of this principle to the population of the United States, which was announced the other day. For the next ten years there isn ta man, woman or child in the country who will aot want to remember the exact population as reported by the census bureau. But how many of the Gv 622,250 do you suppose will be able to do it?) I should say, at a venture, net one-one-hundredth of 1 per cent. Yet it is an easy thing to do. This is my way of doing it: I find no dimeculty in fixing tn mv mind such a combination of sounds as the following: ‘“SIX-LWO, SIX-tWO, SIX-tWo-tWo, tWo-five-nought.” By repeating that half a dozen times tt becomes a permanent part of my mental possesstons. That is the way I shall remember the population for the next decade, whiie Ishould find it both difficult and awkward to burden my memory with .“* SIXLY-tWO millions, six hundred and twenty-two thowsand, two hundred ang hfty.” Compared with that, ‘* six-two, six-two-two, two-tive-nought " is simplicity itself. T advise all who have difficulty in remembering thin: s of this kind to try my method or something like it. But what ] wane GOR GOO (COLT