The San Francisco call., 1897-11-14
us TOLD BY THE BL4CK DOLLARS
Earth shall reclaim
Her precious things from theel-
Restore the dead, thou zeal
FELICIA HEMANs

Her precious things from theel-
Restore the dead, thou >eal
FELICIA HEMANs.
The barkeeper in the dingy little drink
ing place on the water front shudders at
the sight of the black dollars.
"Sacre bleu," he exclaims to the grim
ming waterman, Il no TAXA the mon of
the dead man." But he takes it, compro-
missing with his conscience by furtively
crossing himself as he sweeps the ILL
omened coins into his cash drawer.
The history OF black dollars is a matter
of common knowledge along the 'front.'
Time was, perhaps, when their appear
ance would have caused inquiring COM
merits even in the haunts of those whose
habits lead them NEST along the wharves,
but that was before nenetcent law had
given to these habitue OF the front a
CHASTITY, ghoulish avocation. Now the
story of the discolored coins Is known to
every longshoreman and boatman. They
are the forced tributes of the dead.
Whence come the black dollar? Ask
the attaches of the Morgue if ever in their
experience the bay has given up victim
upon whose body was found so much as
the price of a shroud.
Seldom do we find cent on the bodies
of those who have been broughto out of the
bay" says Deputy Coroner O Brien.
"Often their pockets are turned inside
out, and frequently the pockets are in a
position that suggests that clumsy
effort has been made to put them back
after so turning them."
Ask the shrewd boatman if the pittance
which the city and county give for the
recovery of bodies from the deep pays for
the weary hours spent in patrolling the
bay for these grewsome prizes.
But the answer conclusive comes not
from these. 1t is in the black currency of
East street.
Each year the CITY and county pays out
in the neigh borhood of $500 for the recov-
act sum for the last twelve months, but
the Morgue records show that to have been
an unusually light year. Ten dollars
each is the reward which the Supervisors
have seen fit to offer for these CHASTITY
relics of suicide, of crime and of catas-
trophe.
There are many craft afioat, and it is
hazardous guessing whore the tides may
carry their burdens. yet day after day and
through the long watches of the night
the trained eyes of the waterman are
scanning the drift. Ii the search but
yield ali occasional gold piece from the
city treasury that is something. And
always there is the chance OF the black
dollars.
The tide sweeps swiftly and 6ercely by
the northern seawali of the city. Navi-
gators keep their vessels well into the
fairway to avoid the treacherous dragging
force of the currents. 1t was to prevent
disaster, often imminent to the bark
caught in this rush of waters, that the
old Powell-str eet wharf was shorn OF half
Its length. Drifting objects are borne
rapidly along on this current, and are
swept with the churning waters between
the piles of the projecting wharves.
When night has changed the green
waters Of the bay to great pool of inky
black; when the proud ship riding ct an
chor is but an indistinct skeleton in the
light of the single lantern at the mast
head; when an occasional ferry. boat with
it's silent procession of brilliant lights
is the only evidence of the busy life
that throngs the harbor when tho sun
is up, then is there an eager eye
always watching the fotsam of that
speeding tide. Out on one of the piers
beneath which the current is swiftest
patient boatman keeps nightly vigil. Stol-
idly, hopefully he waits. Some time it
must come. Perhaps it will mean but the
Coroner's paItry warrant. But who can
tell? Perhaps it may be freighted with
the black dollars.
1t Is not alone these ghoulish watchers
to whom comes the opportunity to earn
the citys reward. The Italian fisherman
whose saCcy little bark slips from its
moorings two hours before the sun is up
and bravsly dances along the waves
toward the great open sea sometimes
encounters that which makes his blood run
cold and stills the song which lie carols TO
the accom- paniment of the winds. Per-
haps when ii was first sighted he thought
it mass of drifting ssaweed or the wreck
age of some ilI-fated craft, and curiosity
caused him to swerve just little from his