Show i g A HOODOO SHIP several naval men predict that despite the discipline that uncle sam successfully cess fully exacts in his maritime service there may be ul hereafter in securing a sufficient complement of men to man the battleship texas by reason of the fact that she brought from cuba for burial on the banks of the potomac the other day lie ruthlessly slaughtered dead of the maine whose destruction by treachery brought spanish rule in the antilles ta an end sailors are proverbially superstitious this by reason of the fact that the immensity and apparent infinity of the watery wastes which they travel give them an awesome thought of futurity and of the providence that controls it to this doubtless is due the fact that the carrying 0 a corpse aboard ship has been looked upon as a suspension of the divine decree and as bringing disaster to the vessel making a coffin and its enclosed mortal remains a cargo mutiny has grown from this foolish idea but the texas carried nearly two hundred cof nn enclosed corpses from cuban soil to american interment now all this might not mean much but for the unfortunate fact that for years the texas has been looked upon among naval men as a hoodoo nato reputation dates from the time when in november she had a mishap while in dock in brooklyn owing to tho collapse of an injection valve this at the time and subsequent minor misadventures adventures mis which seemed to pursue her led to the belief among sailorman sail ormen that she was an unfortunate craft to be aboard and this feeling will certainly be made more deep seated by her bringing cof ened corpses from havana even though the remains are those of men who gave their lives ito their country in the maine catastrophe the texas was a very difficult vessel to design in the first place because the law authorizing her construction placed her maximum cost at a figure much too low for the requirements as to character and performance the farst and most important limitation which this imposed was that of size or displacement and he requirements of the circular the competitive plans were made arid offered to the secretary of lie navy prescribed a larger range of engine power armor protection and armament than could reasonably bo compressed into the general dimensions which the limit ot cost as provided by congress inexorably decreed before hand however a design and plan s were made which doubtless met anda overcame all these difficulties as bearly as was possible to aman skill these plans being selected from a number in competition and adopted by william C whitney then secretary of thy navy were turned oer to a navy yard for construction 0 the hull and to a locomotive build gnp establishment for the construction of the engines nine years were then consumed in building the ship in the meantime private shipyards working on business principles and according to real ship and angine practice had turned out a fleet of over thirty vessels some of which were nearly twice the size and about four limes the fighting efficiency of the texa botu bilg of any consequence has happened to these ships which were built by ship builders but nothing has happened to tho texas which was hot the anover are the material facts in thac caie butof course knowledge of them will have no effect toward dispelling the jacktar jack tar about an unlucky or a Jo nahed ship thi texas several years ago took her place in that ill fated category and no human power can remove her from it in the estimation of the jolly old salt now it will be emphasized by her corpse carrying |