Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 19, 1924 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

482 ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. buryport and in Boston. He built such ships as the world shall never see again; great- est of them all, the Lightning. To-day, we may look at pictures on the wall but the breath of life is not in pictures. To see aright, we must behold the living Lightning, riding before the gales like some archangel of the tempest. Four hundred and thirty-six miles in one day was the achievement of the Light- ning, a sailing ship record for all time. Take notice, ye who boast of speed and prog- ress, that this record was achieved in the year 1854! Only in our own day have we been able to surpass with steam and electricity that immortal record carved out in those roaring days by naked fists and manhood’s hearts of oak. Why did the Yankee lose his leadership upon the sea? of the sailing ship, is commonly given as the reason, but this is superficial. men who gained renown in sail could gain renown in steam. The Yankees turned from their maritime empire because they lost the vision of the sea. The railroads, the prairie farms, and the wealth of an opening West allured them, and they turned their backs upon blue water. England, with her cliffs forever whitened by the foam of the Channel, has never been allowed to lose the vision of the sea, and she has never lost her heritage upon the water. That same heritage, with neénkindled vision, may even yet return to New England. 3 A friend of mine laments: ‘ We used to have lions and tigers in the woods; now we've got nothing but chipmunks.” When the old-timer utters this lament he is thinking of America’s royal blood, of her cattle kings, and her clipper captains, imperial gamblers who used to play poker with ten thousand head of steer in the jack pot, who used to bet, at the Astor House bar, for stakes that were nothing less than the commercial supremacy of the world. These were strong men with strong virtues, and also with strong vices. Their whisky and their poker might not commend them to our sterilized humanitarians. But when we hear the milk and water slopping in humanitarian veins, we must admit a hankering for the dashing pungency of Bully Forbes, with his “ Hell or Melbourne in sixty days.” Depend upon it there was no “ safety first” emblazoned on the cabin bulkhead of the fastest ship that sailed the seas. It was rumored that Forbes was occasionally religious, but that there was no religion with him outside the three mile limit. This rumor was not just. Outside the three mile limit Bully Forbes represented the strongest, and manliest religion—the religion of valor. Whenever the Rev. Dr. Broughton in his ministerial capacity upbraided Forbes for “ cracking on, ” his rejoinder was: ‘‘ The bold man seldom gets hurt’; another way of saying bravery is beloved of God. I always intended to put Forbes down on paper, but he is an elusive person, this master of the Lightning, alias the Valkyrie. I have taken him out of the pages of history, allowing him at times the freedom of fiction, for Forbes was nothing if he was not free. Because of the passing The same CHAPTER: F. DEVOTEES OF BEAUTY. Zs HE two most beautiful things in the world are women and roses,” ex- claimed Captain Forbes. “Ah,” replied Donald MacKay, “ but you have never seen Valkyrie under sail.” Valkyrie was merely a draftsman’s plan on blueprint. But for Donald MacKay she was the most wondrous of his storm birds. They were in the model room, at New- buryport, discussing hemp and rig, when Mary Williston, passing without, caused a sudden dis traction. The girl in the street paused and smiled, then catching a glimpse of Donald MacKay, she waved her hand and in another moment came bounding into the model room. On the China Coast it was rumored that Captain Forbes had a way with him with the ladies. At all events he now evidenced EOmicsoo nn “Si (S@)