Letter to Henry from his father February 15, 1908

Cover:

Henry S. Makibbin

U. S. S. Tennessee

Care Post Master, San Francisco

Cal.

Postmarked 11 PM Feb 15 1908, Harrisburg, PA

Home Port – 2-15-08

My Dear Son:

Just a few lines in reply to your request to hunt up the parents of Ishler.  I gather from what you say that his folks do not know of his whereabouts of course I will go & propose doing so tomorrow morning.

The hankering to see you and your ship at Frisco could not be put aside.  I have about all arrangements made to take the journey only your mother is not so well.  I do not know how we will get along, have to go it on our faith & if we get through without mishap will consider it a miracle.  I know she would like to see that 156 pounds you mentioned.  We have a letter now at the Bureau of Navigation try to locate the Tennessee I suppose you are at sea.

By the papers I have learned that the Cruiser Maryland made a new record at target practice & a six in gun came within a fraction of the world’s record.  This is fine I hope the Tennessee hit her up good with a good average.

Did you like target practice?  Were you on a gun crew at any time, or did you do all your work in the handling room?  

I learned from Sam Martin (Riley & 7^th St) that the boats lay at Vallejo some distance from San Francisco.  Could you let the one in authority over you know of our trip & that you expect a visit?  My idea is that you have some time with us.  Robert Null’s idea is that I should go to your Captain and request time off for you.  Which do you think the better idea?  As I would certainly be sorry to get to Vallejo & you not be allowed any furlough.  

Your mother is sorry that she got her letter off without the address you asked for and would be glad if you would write to Franklin Sourbeer, Meade, Meade Co., Kansas.

Good night,

Your affectionate father

Jas. G. Makibbin

Enclosed newspaper clipping:

Gems from the Poets

The End of the Play

By William Makepeace Thackeray

The play is done – the curtain drops,

Slow falling to the prompter’s bell;

A moment yet the actor stops

And looks around to say farewell;

It is an irksome word and task;

And when he’s laugh’d and said his say

He shows, as he removes the mask,

A face that’s anything but gay.

One word, ere yet the evening ends:

Let’s close it with a parting rhyme;

And pledge a hand to all young friends,

As fits the merry winter time;

On life’s wide scene you, too, have parts,

That fate ere long shall bid you play;

Good-night, with honest, gentle hearts

A kindly greeting go away!

Good-night! – I’d say the griefs, the joys,

Just hinted in this mimic page,

The triumphs and defeats of boys,

Are but repeated in our age;

I’d say your woes were not less keen,

Your hopes more vain, than those of men,

Your pangs or pleasures of fifteen

At forty-five played o’er again.

I’d say we suffer and we strive

Not less nor more as men than boys,

With grizzled beards at forty-five,

As erst at twelve in corduroys;

And if, in time of sacred youth,

We learn’d at home to love and pray,

[Pray Heaven that early love and truth

May never wholly pass away.]

And in the world, as in the school,

I’d say how fate may change and shift,

[The prize be sometimes with the fool,

The race not always to the swift;

The strong may yield, the good may fall;

The great man be a vulgar clown,

The knave be lifted over all,

The kind cast pitilessly down.]

[Come wealth or want, come good or ill,

Let young and old accept their part,

And bow before the awful will,

And bear it with an honest heart.

Who misses or who wins the prize –

Go, lose or conquer as you can;

But if you fall or if you rise

Be each, pray God, a gentleman.]

The letter writer drew in the brackets and underlining above and added these words in the margin:

Your lines to your mother, concerning the future of Puffy & Sporver as compared to yours, touched me very much.  I send you this [missing] as it is life.