MEN OF THE ''ALEXANDER'' 31 



less, devil-may-care lad, who was looked upon 

 as the baby of the forecastle and humored and 

 spoiled accordingly. 



Among the six white green hands, there was 

 a " mule skinner " from western railway con- 

 struction camps; a cowboy who believed himself 

 fitted for the sea after years of experience on the 

 " hurricane deck " of a bucking broncho; a coun- 

 try boy straight from the plow and with 



farmer " stamped all over him in letters of 

 light; a man suspected of having had trouble 

 yviih the police; another who, in lazy night 

 watches, spun frank yarns of burglaries; and 

 " Slim," an Irishman who said he had served 

 with the Royal Life Guards in the English army. 

 There was one old whaler. He was a shiftless, 

 loquacious product of city slums. This was his 

 seventh whaling voyage — which would seem suf- 

 ficient comment on his character. 



" It beats hoboing," he said. And as his life's 

 ambition seemed centered on three meals a day 

 and a bunk to sleep in, perhaps it did. 



Two Kanakas completed the forecastle crew. 

 These and the cabin boy, who was also a Kanaka, 



