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Show WAITERS BY THE BOATLOAD. How Officers of the Olympla Secured Italian Servitors. "Along In 1890," said a Now Yorker who resigned from tho navy to go Into business, "I was serving on a cruiser attached to the North Atlantic squadron. squad-ron. Our old tub, which, by tho way, played qulto a respectable part ln the war with Spain fo' sho was the Olympla had been uutslng In the Mediterranean. When wo anchored ln the Bay of Naples wo found we were shy several men who were supposed to wait on the officers' mess. It was decided to advertise for waiters ln Naples, and you novcr saw a 'help wanted' notice bring forth so many responses as did our little advertisement advertise-ment "Applicants came by the boatload, each man asserting ho was a membei of tho most noble iamlly. in Italy. 1 -don't think any one below tho grade of count had the nerve to ask for a Job as waiter, and all were willing to put up with tho small pay fixed by Uncle Sam. Wo offlcors felt that an American citizen was a suro enough monarch when wo hud theso Italian scions of nobility standing boblnd our chairs. Tho men, however, did not regard tho blue blooded servitors with such kindly feelings. One day while I was on watch I heard a deafening crash of crockery, mixed with a fan-farronnade fan-farronnade of shrill Neapolitan oaths. "'What ln the world 1b that?' I asked of a sailor. "He gave a hitch to hie trousers and cocked hlB weather eye ln a quizzical fashion. " 'Ol think, sor,' ho said, with an 111 repressed grin of satisfaction, 'it's wan o' thlm dommed Eyctallan Jooks that's hit a reef head on with a cargo o' crockery.' " New York Press. |