Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-08-26
JACK AND HIS GROG.
SAILORS DEVICES FOR SMUGGLING
LIQUOR ABOARD SHIP.
enEenious Schemes That Are Invented On
" to BE Squelched = What 1t Means
When Jackie Combs His Nustache with
q NIarline Spike.

States navy than among the men for
ward of any of the worlds big sea fiji
outs, said a naval officer of experience
to the writer. Drunkenness passed
with the old navy. In the days of the
old Tuscarora or the Tennessee, as the
sailors put it, it was q common enough
thing to see about three-quarters of a
ships company returning from shore
liberty in such q state that they had to
be hoisted over the side in besun S
chairs to save the trouble of CARRYING
them up the gangway. But that sort of
thing is no longer endured. Men who
go ashore after having remained aboard
ship for considerable period are ex-
pected by the officer of the deck to re-
turn just n trifie exhilarated, but they
never return quite incapable.
MEN who exhibit the slightest indi-
cations of being addicted to drink are
turned down fatty by the examining
surgeons when they present themselves
| for enlistment nowadays. The surgeons
| tell me that they can tell from man S
eyes whether he has ever suffered severe
" from excessive drinking, no matter
how long the man may have abstained
from drink before seeking enlistment.
eff men addicted to drink do happen
to get by the examining surgeon and re-
veal their weakness by going ON tears
every time they go ashore, the navy
gets rid of them by simply Bleaching
them-that is, by putting them on the
beach with their bags and hammocks
wherever their ship may happen to be
in q home port. A man cannot be
'beached' for any cause in a foreign
country.
There are, of course, any number OF
mon in the navy, and rafting fine sail
Ormen, too, who have q natural predi-
lection for drink, and these men the
officers keep an eye on for their own
good. Sailors are bound to try to snug
gle liquor aboard ship. If they drink
considerably on their shore liberties,
they know that when they return
aboard they are in for big heads when
they awaken in their hammocks the
next morning, and in trying to safely
bring n bit of liquor off to the ship they
have in mind the taking of "a hair of
the dog to sort of ease them up when
they turn to at all hands the next
morning.
Sometimes they get the liquor safe
II aboard, but generally they do not
Every enlisted man ON q United States
man of-war, except the chief master at
arms and the top sergeant of marines, is
searched ut the gangway upon his re-
turn from shore liberty by the gangway
corporal Of the marine guard, under the
inspection of the officer of the deck. for
the purpose of ascertaining if he has
any liquor concealed about his clothes.
The men have picked up some ingenious
schemes for smuggling liquor in such
way that the corporal of the guard is
fooled. For example, the men ON the
China station buy long eelskins from
the coolies, fill the skins with about
a quart of liquor and wind them around
their necks beneath the collars of their
shirts.
cit took the officers on the China sta
ton a long while TO get on to this
scheme. Then the men who felt that
they surely needed drink the next
morning after returning from liberty ,
the plan of filling a rubber
bag with liquor while ashore and of
slowing the bag next to their waist
bands. The liquor smugglers, who OBJ
served that the searching corporal only |
passed his hands up and down on the |
of their clothes, then resorted |
to the plan OF tying bottles of liquor |
with string on the inner side of their |
legs, beneath their trousers, but any |
corporal knows all about this |
one nowadays.
1.-The cox IN of the steam cutter, who |
makes dozens of trips ashore a day |
when the cutter is running boat, has |
10 be carefully watched, for he is liable |
to be tempered with by the men who |
want liquor pretty badly, and his OPP |
portunities for getting liquor aboard |
ire many. Every once in awhile, upon |
the cutters return to the ship, it is
by the officer of the deck, and /
the latter often finds liquor neatly
slowed among the cutter coal, in the
utter bilges or even in the boiler tanks.
When this happens, the cox'un of the
cutter is in trouble. He gets big rake
off from the men for his liquor snug
Cling, which accounts for the chances
le viii take.
The ships painter has to be watched
100. He is a petty officer, and he has
,harge of the ships alcohol, which is
,hiefiy used for the making of shellac
% paint the lower decks.
Some of the sailors like a dose of
Ilcohol mixed with coffee for 'toning'
md SOLDERING up purposes, and as the
hips painter is occasionally corruptible
md carries the keys of the alcohol tanks
here Is quite little drinking of this
mixture On some of the ships where old
liners predominant. The old fiat feet
AVE indeed been known to drink the
hellac after it has been prepared for
he sake of tie alcohol in it, and there
5 an expression in the navy among the
Unlisted men, If you see jackie comb
ng his nustache with marline spike,
-ou KIN what he's been at, that is
-ery significant
But for all this, as I say, there is
n exceedingly small percentage Of