Show TBE PARABLE 1 1I Of the rood Ship WIth a Yellow Flag Editors Herald I have too much business on mv hands to devote sufficient time to answer all the questions ques-tions and listen to all the comments elicited by the publication of my letter in your columns on Washing tons Birthday If you will kindly give space to the following it may have a tendency to elucidate A strong and well built ship is sailing along in a fleet and doing 2 outs well as the others having fewer leaks than many of them but carrying perhaps a little too much sail Some of the passengers taking exception to the actions of the captain cap-tain and the crew and being unable to bring nbout such a change in the regime us may to them appear advantageous ad-vantageous seek diligently lor a remedy At last the dissatsfied passengers hoisted a large yellow flag at the stern of the vessel and notwithstanding the protest of the majority of the passengers the unlimited un-limited power of the captain and unequalled fanaticism and ferocity of the crew the flag was allowed to remain The result was the captains and passengers or all other ships in the fleet concluded that yellow fever smallpox and every other fatal disease dis-ease was aboard There is really no serious disease among the peoplecertainly nothing noth-ing of the nature of an epidemic but on account of the yellow flag and the continuous cries of the passengers in the stern the other ships avoid this one for tear of contamination If the captains of the fleet would turn their telescopes upon us they might easily discover that the crew and passengers generally were as fit to enter port as those of any o her ship They would discover that the crew and passengers were a little cranky but that nothing of serious importance was the matter with them and that the yellow flag had been hoisted by discontented ones who set a very poor example to the cranky crew who became more cranky on account of the constant con-stant row and the sight of the yellow yel-low flag in the stern The managers of the yellow flag business foolishly imagine that if the ship go to pieces they will be saved through some interposition of Providence their claim upon which however has been much disputed by the majority of the pasengers The captains of the fleet in looking look-ing at the quarantined ship see nothing but the yellow flag and taking it for granted that all the people on board are diseased and never happening to remember that thoughtless creatures will sometimes some-times raise a yellow flag for malice profit or fun they sail away for a consultation By and by the fleet decides tltat the infected ship shall be swamped at all hazards or at least it appears that this is the conclusion arrived at judging by their man uvres The yellow flag is still maintained main-tained at the ships stern by a party of passengers who continually cry in a harsh and very dis ojordaut tone that all the crew are diseased except themselves who are in the stern of the vessel They invite from the guns of the fleet solid shot shall grape and canister Greek fire or any other destructive element so that they be aimed to strike the forward part of the ship feeling safe in the stern because they have by the aid of the generous passengers constructed a paper partition which may be quite effectual while the ship is intact Should the ship bo struck in the forward part and sink suddenly the paper partition will afford little protbction against the sea water on account of having been constructed on false principles like their lifeboat life-boat on which they place much reliance Overlooking the fact they are now sailing along as pleasantly as they would on any other ship and that by virture of the fact that the passengers pas-sengers are of a kind and submissive submis-sive nature they are allowed to exercise more authority and are treated with more leniency than they would receive with similar conduct on any other ship of the fleet they continue to wave frantically franti-cally the yellow flag and howl lustily for the swamping of the ship They appeal to the fleet which is too scared and two far off to make accurate observation and they declare de-clare that the disease from their ship is poisoning theocean so that the infection will soon reach the entire fleet and if not checked immediately im-mediately that it will render the ocean unfit for navigation None of the passengers says a word exceptthe yellowflagwavers and those who on account of being a little cranky have been refused a hearing so that the fleet declares it will blow the infected snip to fragments frag-ments and then have it analyzed to see what ailed it Surely this is the wisdom of the nineteenth century B C added would make it look more natural though Knowing that the crew and passengers pas-sengers who are rather cranky can i be cured feeling confident that the paper partition and the paper lifeboat i life-boat would be utterly demoralized I and drown the yellowflagwavers flag and all and besides having I some of the instinct of selfpreserva tion I raise my voice against the i shot and shell of a fleet among which there are so many of the can i noniers whose eyes have been 1 weakened by tho glare of the yellow I flag that they make me afraid to i trust the accuracy of their aim > One of my friends said to me the other day What do you have anything any-thing to say about this matter for I hear you are no writer I fancy him now say Why do you speak in Jesus Certainly parables you are no tainly not Respectfully GEOKGE A MEEAES Salt Lake City Feb 25 ltS2 |