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No. 49.—Easy Riddle in Prose.
Valuable as a curiosity to any museum. The five pebbles. The one pebble with which David killed Goliath.
A Sailing Trip and a War-Ship.
Last April a friend of my father's told me that a party from Bluffton were going to "Paris Island" to see the man-of-war Indiana, and asked me if I would like to go. I went. We had to ride five miles in wagons, and then we got into a large sail-boat. It was a cold and rough day, and some of the girls got seasick. But other boys and girls and myself had a delightful time. We arrived at our journey's end in four hours, and proceeded to a friend's house.
The dry dock in which the ship lay is a hole thirty-five feet deep, four hundred feet long, and about seventy feet broad, and has steps going down three sides of it. The other end is the gate, which is very large and oblong. It has rigging inside of it, which opens or closes it at will. A pump working all the time keeps the dock dry. We went on board the Indiana, and a marine explained everything to us. The small cannons fire twenty-five times in a minute, and some others sixty or sixty-five times in a minute. The large cannons are in turrets, which can be turned around on a pivot, enabling them to be fired in any direction. We saw some torpedoes which, the marine said, cost twenty-five hundred dollars apiece.
The ship's kitchen is large and cool. There were some sailors cooking, and some were washing clothes. Others were sewing, reading, writing, and talking. Then we went through the petty officers' quarter, which was a kind of long hall, on each side of which were small rooms, and all along this hall sailors were asleep in all kinds of positions. We went to a lower deck in the boat, and our guide showed us where they telegraph to all parts of the ship. There were two rows of boxlike instruments, and in the middle of each was a button. The sailors wore navy-blue blouses and pantaloons and Tam o' Shanters that were trimmed with white braid. The marines' suits were trimmed with gold braid. Instead of Tam o' Shanters they had caps. We went also to see Fort Charles. The moats are three feet deep and five feet broad. They are very thickly overgrown with scrub-oak. We picked up a few shells on the beach as mementos of our trip to the Indiana. I would like a few correspondents.
Emily Mittell.
Bluffton, S. C.