f tropic ports passes; and the ship has to
steam many a mile before she must be coaled again. So, taking it in the
long perspective, it is a moderately varied life, an outdoor life, and
under hygienic conditions of the best. Right now, war with us, there is
going to be some danger; but we are assuming that any man who thinks of
joining the navy is prepared for a little danger.

A man may enlist in the navy up to thirty-five years of age, provided he
is at least 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 128 pounds, has a 33-inch
chest, possesses normal vision, a moderate number of sound teeth, is
free from disease or deformity, and is an American citizen. Sometimes
men shy on some measurement are passed if above average otherwise. A boy
seventeen (the youngest enlistment age) must be 5 feet 2 inches and
weigh 110 pounds. When a boy or a man enlists he goes at once on the
payroll. With his pay goes a clothing allowance sufficient to cover all
service demands; with his pay also goes nourishing and abundant food.

Enlistments are of four years for men. A boy's enlistment runs to his
majority. A man may work up to be a C. P. O. (chief petty officer) in
his first enlistment. The navy is full of men who have done that. During
this war many a recruit should make his C. P. O. quickly, for there is
nothing in the Regulations to prevent a recruit from making his C. P. O.
overnight. The habit of most officers is to rate up good men in their
divisions as fast as vacancies will permit.

A C. P. O.'s base pay may run up to $77 a month. With re-enlistment that
base pay is increased. A man re-enlisting without delay gets a bounty of
four months' pay. (Figure that extra re-enlistment money--four months'
pay every four years, the same with interest at the navy savings-account
rate of 4 per cent--and see what it amounts to after thirty years'
service.) That extra re-enlistment money is not figured into the pension
probabilities, as stated in the beginning of this article. Consider that
and then consider how many men have to work until they are too old to
work any further and who, after all their years of labor, go on the
scrap-heap without a dollar against the poverty of their old age.

Besides the base pay of a man's rating there is extra money for men
doing special work. (Neither has this been reckoned in the pension
possibilities.) Certain gun-pointers, gun-captains, coxswains, stewards,
and cooks get extra money up to $10 a month. Men in submarin