--ROONEY (_Adapted_).

RAPHAEL SEMMES

DESPOILER OF AMERICAN COMMERCE

(1809-1877)

"Sit apart, write; let them hear or let them forbear;
the written word abides, until, slowly and unexpectedly,
and in widely sundered places, it has created its own
church."--RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

RAPHAEL SEMMES

DESPOILER OF AMERICAN COMMERCE

(1809-1877)

"We started from Ole England fer to cripple up our foes,
We started from Ole England fer to strike some rapid blows,
So we coasted to the Azores where we ran a packet down,
And then to the Bermudas, where we burned the _Royal Crown_,
Then we scampered to Bahia, fer to sink the gay _Tycoon_,
And to scuttle the _Justina_, before the Harvest Moon.
We hit across the ocean to race by Cape Good Hope
And in Madagascar channel towed _Johanna_ with a rope.
Away off at Sumatra, we had lots an' lots uv fun,
When we winged the _Pulo Condor_; but say,--we had a run,
An' a pretty bit uv fightin', when we took the _Emma Jane_
Off th' heated coast uv India, near th' bendin' sugar cane.
Yes, we did some privateerin', as wuz privateerin', sure,
An' we scuttled many a schooner, it wuz risky business pure.
But--stranger--we'd be laughin', jest filled with persiflage,
If we hadn't had a seance with that bloomin' _Kearsarge_."

--_Song of the Chief Mate of the Alabama._--1864.

It was off the east coast of South America. The year was 1864, and a
little schooner--the _Justina_--bobbed along, with the flag of the
United States Government flying jauntily from her gaff.

Suddenly there was a movement on deck. Men rushed hither and thither
with some show of excitement. Glasses were brought out and
raised,--smothered cries of excitement were mingled with orders to
trim sails. All eyes looked with suspicion and dismay at a long,
graceful vessel which was seen approaching from the northward.

"The _Alabama_!" cried one.

"Yes, the cursed _Alabama_!" answered another. "We are lost!"

On, on came the pursuing vessel; a cloud of black smoke rolling from
her smoke-stack; her white sails bellying in the fresh breeze; for she
was rigged like a barquentine, with a lean body, single smoke-stack,
and a polished rifle-gun winking in the sun-rays upon her bow. On, on,
she came, and then--_puff! boom!_--a single shot came dancing in front
of the slow-moving schooner.

"Pull down the