The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-04-27

cradle money as common carriers for the
blusiackets
People In New York city who purchase
beautiful pieces OF hric-a-bra and arti-
Giles OF vertu in the little isolated colec-
tors shops at Prices pnenomenally low,
cannot OF course know that in very many
cases the reason for this cheapness is that
the articles were brought to the United
states in American men-of-war. free Of
duty, by men or ard. Yet such Is the
fact, and the busicess Is constantly on the
Increase Before shipping on vessels bound
on extended cruises in foreign waters old
timers make IL point 10 enter into ar
rangements with dealers in curios, and
they arc enabled more than to qaadruple
the amount of the pay they receive from
the government for their services. Even
II, upon their return to this country, they
should happen TO he nipped by the customs
men and forced to pay duty on their goods
land such a thing happens only once in a
great while and at the smaller ports), they
can make considerable ! rohl upon their
transactions, for the sailors engaged in
this business are great bargain sett5rs and
INFINITELY closer buyers than tourists who
pick up curios abroad These enterprisng
sailors do not buy orfhand The tirst things
they see when they go
ashore in a foreign land. In ia
PAN for instance, the man-of-war's man
in the curio dealing business does not rush
ashore at Yokohama, or Kobe or Nagas-
aki' or Hagodate and clean out the mer-
chants stall at one fell swoop. Not by a
houseful does he. Before leaving the
United States his New York curio dealers
have provided him with a detailed list of
just the sort of stun and how much OF Il
they want With this list in his pocket
the trading man-of-wars man gets shore
liberties, and instead of buying any of the
curios he Is commissioned to get, in the
ports at which his ship lies, he makes up
country trips. In the interior towns and
cities the curios are about five times
cheaper than they ire in the ports and
this Is one of the facts that he man-of-
wars man of business acumen has gotten
ON TO at the very outset of his business
career. Most Of the articles he purchases
are small in bulk, and he is liable to bring
them off to his ship with comparatively lit
tie trouble. The sailor who is in the curlo-
collecting business for profit is generally
able TO make arrangements with one of
the three ships yeomen who are in charge
of the ships storerooms for the slowing
of his goods.
IL is on the Chinese station that the
man-of-war trader picks up the stuff that
nets him the most money In the interior
towns of China, Corea and Japan the peo-
pie seem to have little appreciation Of the
modern value of superb examples of the
art OF their ancestors, and in search OF
these old specimens the bargaining sail
ors, who in time become very fair con-
noisseurs, make quiet tours among the
huts and houses of the inferior people In
this way they occasionally make prod.
gious finds. In 1898 a man-of-war' mar
whose ship was in Corean waters happen.
ed upon magnificent pair of Corean vas.
es in Seoul, examples OF the ceramic arr
In that country several centuries ago He
bought them for song and got s.. 500 foI
them from dealer when his ship reached
New York.