Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-09-07
AMONG THE SHIPPING.
Peculiar Sights to Be Seen Around
 the Chicago Docks.
How the Lumber-Shovers Earn Thei, Wages = The Hard Lot of Fresh Water Sailors-Dock Rats, Both
 Animal and Human.

How the Lumbor-ShOvorS Earn TheiJ
 Wages = The Hard Lot of Fresh-
 Water Sailors-Dock Rats, Both
 Animal and Human.
 The docks of a great city offer strange and interesting sights and sounds and pre- sent a peculiar phase of life, says the Chi cago Times. It has a class of people who not only work among them but who may be said to live there and become peculiar to the place. They seldom go away from the water-side day or night.
 The other day I watched a barge from which the lumber was being taken by . gang of seventy five men. It was huge, broad boat with two masts, and carried l. COG, ,OOO feet of lumber. The masts are used for sails which serve no other purpose ex- cept to steady the boat in heavy sea as she is being lowed.
 It was curious to see how these seventy five men were kept busy pulling that lum- Der out of the sides of the barge and piliug it up on the docks or carrying it to waiting wagons to haul 1t away. l was sure that some kind of new-fangied machinery was used.
 Looking in the hold aft only four men, in pairs, were seens They were dressed in their underclothing and were trotting back and forth like a horse in canter, taking SeV0u plduhS 0b 0 VluAO ouu ouOSAuS IAOhA out to the men on the docks and trotting back for others. They had to trot. They were expected to keep eight men busy talk ing that lumber out and putting 1t in piles to be taken up and carried farther away by eight other men. In reality these four men, with like four in the bow, kept the seven ty-f1ve men on the docks busy. Did they falter in their trot they would be "docked' by the ever-vigilant time-keeper.
 n1I nn<s 0lS 1t seemed, from the conglomerate sounds made by their talk There were Poles, Be- hemians, Russians, Africans, Greeks, Scan dinavians, and, believe, Scythians, Elam- ties, Mesopotamians, Romans, friends and countrymen. Their wages ranged from one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents day.
 It was the hardest, fastest and hottest work l ever saw outside of a coalstoking department of a steamship.
 The cabin, or rather sleeping apartments for the whole crew, as captain, mate, boat swain, cook and men all sleep in one place, is verltably place of contrasts. The hunks are like prison hunks in Russia, and are small, close and dirty. The bedding looks as though it would have to be tied down to keep it from walking overheard. The doors and windows are kept shut tight-probably to keep the blankets from going ashore for fresh air.
 But in contrast to this the ''galley'' is very clean. The pots and pans are bright and inviting and the floor as clean as the deck of revenue cutter. The cook is an all-round man, too. He is one of the trot- ters saw in the hold, but is relieved an hour or two before each meal-time so as to prepare dinner or supper. He must "turn out'' early enough to get breakfast for the others. For this he gets a few cents moro per day than the others and is happy None of them seem to mind work, and are joking, | laughing and singing ..all the time. I no longer wonder that so many Russians live through Siberian exile.
 As if to match the Babel mixture of peo- | pie who live on the docks every class and l rig of boat and water craft is seen. "Chuff, chuff, chuff, chuff, chung, chung, | chung, chung" and tug goes skimming g | by dragging a little ''cat-boat," as the | fresh water ''salts" contemptuouslyi call l those little mosquito fleet vessels which ply l around the edges of the lake. Then one will go pulling and wheezing and laboring l down the rlver, leaving a stench behind and | above and around her as she pulls a big steamer out, whistling like all possessed two blocks before she gets to 8 bridge, SC as to have it opened long enough before she gets to it to set thousand people swearing. l The old proverb which says ''Never cross a bridge till you get to it'' should be made to 1 apply to tugs and vessels not trying to gc l through bridge on the Chicago river till l they get to 1t. These little tugs are made up of one part boat, one part smoke-stack one part ropes, three parts puff, and nine ty-four parts of engine and screw. They can pull any thing, it seems At least they pull any thing which can be floated in the l water.
 When night comes all is changed. The l noise and roar and hustle cease. All is
 darkness, save where the faint flicker of { I street-lamp here and there sends its itfu l glare over the piles of goods and stones anc
 behind warehouses and lumber piles. The hundreds of boats lying along the docks fol miles and miles up the river become dark
 shadowy outlines, looming against the star
 lit heavens, but not glimmer of reflection
 comes back from the bosom of the murky
 frothing, slimy waters. It seems to swallow
 up the images of all that should be reflected
 from It's bosom, just as it swallows up ever.
 thing of life which falls into it..
 The rats come out by thousands and fgh
 and feed and squeak as they swarm abou
 in and over and on every thing. And thos,
 two-legged dock rats, who infest ever,
 city, come out and glide along on thei
 nocturnal mission of crime and murder
 and to carry out the dark purposes of thei
 lives. The night history of the docks of {
 large city would reveal many crim
 planned and carried out. It is the very re ! zion for such work.
 II A Patriarchal Land Turtle. A merchant named Leon Eantelli, residinl
 at Carupano, Venezuela, has in his posses
 sion giant tortoise. It is called tn
 ''morrocl" by the natives there. Tn phenomenon weighs sixty-fve pounds an'
 is over hundred years old. Ordinarily thi
 species do not weigh more than seven t
 eight pounds. Its shell is dense mass o laminated plates and the little children 0
 the owner ride about on it. When it eat