224 Brotherhood and 



and executive officer and a few veterans here and 

 there among the crew being the only ones that came 

 from the regular service. The naval militia con 

 tained every type of man, from bankers with a taste 

 for yachting to longshoremen, and they all went in 

 and did their best. But of course it was a little hard 

 for some of them to adjust themselves to their sur 

 roundings. One of the vessels in question, toward 

 the end of the war, returned from the Spanish Main 

 and anchored in one of our big ports. Early one 

 morning a hard-looking and seemingly rather de 

 jected member of the crew was engaged in "squee 

 geeing" the quarter-deck, when the captain came up 

 and, noticing a large and handsome yacht near by 

 (I shall not use the real name of the yacht), re 

 marked to himself: "I wonder what boat that is?" 

 The man with the squeegee touched his cap and said 

 in answer: "The Dawn, sir." "How do you know 

 that?" quoth the captain, looking at him. "Because 

 I own her, sir," responded the man with the squeegee, 

 again touching his cap ; and the conversation ended. 

 Now, it was a first-rate thing for that man himself 

 to have served his trick, not merely as the man be 

 hind the gun, but as the man with the squeegee ; and 

 is was a mighty good thing for the country that he 

 should do it. In our volunteer regiments we had 

 scores of enlisted men of independent means serving 

 under officers many of whom were dependent for 



