- end_line
- 6835
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T07:57:45.584Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 6775
- text
- 'Gee stand strongly on them? His knees, any Belshazzar symptoms there?
How stands it in the regions of the brisket, etc., etc.
Thus far bone and bottom. For the rest, draw close to, and put the
centre of the pupil of your eye--put it, as it were, right into the
'Gee's eye--even as an eye-stone, gently, but firmly slip it in there,
and then note what speck or beam of viciousness, if any, will be
floated out.
All this and more must be done; and yet after all, the best judge may
be deceived. But on no account should the shipper negotiate for his
'Gee with any middle-man, himself a 'Gee. Because such an one must be
a knowing 'Gee, who will be sure to advise the green 'Gee what things
to hide and what to display, to hit the skipper's fancy; which, of
course, the knowing 'Gee supposes to lean toward as much physical
and moral excellence as possible. The rashness of trusting to one of
these middle-men was forcibly shown in the case of the 'Gee who by his
countrymen was recommended to a New Bedford captain as one of the most
agile 'Gees in Fogo. There he stood straight and stout, in a flowing
pair of man-of-war's-man trousers, uncommonly well fitted out. True, he
did not step around much at the time. But that was diffidence. Good.
They shipped him. But at the first taking in of sail the 'Gee hung
fire. Come to look, both trousers-legs were full of elephantiasis. It
was a long sperm-whaling voyage. Useless as so much lumber, at every
port prohibited from being dumped ashore, that elephantine 'Gee, ever
crunching biscuit, for three weary years was trundled round the globe.
Grown wise by several similar experiences, old Captain Hosea Kean, of
Nantucket, in shipping a 'Gee, at present manages matters thus: He
lands at Fogo in the night; by secret means gains information where the
likeliest 'Gee wanting to ship lodges; whereupon with a strong party he
surprises all the friends and acquaintances of that 'Gee; putting them
under guard with pistols at their heads; then creeps cautiously toward
the 'Gee, now lying wholly unawares in his hut, quite relaxed from
all possibility of displaying aught deceptive in his appearance. Thus
silently, thus suddenly, thus unannounced, Captain Kean bursts upon his
'Gee, so to speak, in the very bosom of his family. By this means, more
than once, unexpected revelations have been made. A 'Gee, noised abroad
for a Hercules in strength and an Apollo Belvidere for beauty, of a
sudden is discovered all in a wretched heap; forlornly adroop as upon
crutches, his legs looking as if broken at the cart-wheel. Solitude is
the house of candor, according to Captain Kean. In the stall, not the
street, he says, resides the real nag.
The innate disdain of regularly bred seamen toward 'Gees receives an
added edge from this. The 'Gees undersell them working for biscuit
where the sailors demand dollars. Hence anything said by sailors to the
prejudice of 'Gees should be received with caution. Especially that
jeer of theirs, that monkey-jacket was originally so called from the
circumstance that that rude sort of shaggy garment was first known in
Fogo. They often call a monkey-jacket a 'Gee-jacket. However this may
be, there is no call to which the 'Gee will with more alacrity respond
than the word "Man!"
Is there any hard work to be done, and the 'Gees stand round in sulks?
"Here, my men!" cries the mate. How they jump. But ten to one when the
work is done, it is plain 'Gee again. "Here, 'Gee you 'Ge-e-e-e!" In
fact, it is not unsurmised, that only when extraordinary stimulus is
needed, only when an extra strain is to be got out of them, are these
hapless 'Gees ennobled with the human name.
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