Some Were Rather Vague In Their Own Minds Concerning The Work To Be
Done On The Snark; As, For Instance, The One Who Wrote:
"I am
taking the liberty of writing you this note to find out if there
would be any possibility
Of my going with you as one of the crew of
your boat to make sketches and illustrations." Several, unaware of
the needful work on a small craft like the Snark, offered to serve,
as one of them phrased it, "as assistant in filing materials
collected for books and novels." That's what one gets for being
prolific.
"Let me give my qualifications for the job," wrote one. "I am an
orphan living with my uncle, who is a hot revolutionary socialist
and who says a man without the red blood of adventure is an animated
dish-rag." Said another: "I can swim some, though I don't know any
of the new strokes. But what is more important than strokes, the
water is a friend of mine." "If I was put alone in a sail-boat, I
could get her anywhere I wanted to go," was the qualification of a
third - and a better qualification than the one that follows, "I have
also watched the fish-boats unload." But possibly the prize should
go to this one, who very subtly conveys his deep knowledge of the
world and life by saying: "My age, in years, is twenty-two."
Then there were the simple straight-out, homely, and unadorned
letters of young boys, lacking in the felicities of expression, it
is true, but desiring greatly to make the voyage.
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