Evening star., 1898-12-10
as q ruIe. satisied with the assnrnnce.

as rule. satisfied with the assurance
| Thus the sailormen are able to watch tie
customs officers boats sheer off from ,he
/ ship with their countenances wreathed IN
| broad grins. and in ten minutes they arc
| all below, breaking out their boxes and
packages, preparatory to sending them
ashore by the bumhoatmen at the first o.
portunlty. The bumboatmen are of inesti-
nIabie service to the sailors in getting thv.r
curio collections ashore without attracting
attention, and when big ship arrives in a
home port they make considerable money
as common carriers for the buejackets.
A Profitable Business.
| People in the large seaport cities who o,r-
chase beautiful pieces of bric-a-brac and
articles Of Vertu in the little isolated .ol-
lectors' shops ut prices phenomeuaIly low
cannot. of course, know that in very many
cases the reason for this cheapness Is hat
the articles were brought to the United
States in American men-of-war. free cf
duty. by mon for'ard. Yet such is the fact
and the business is constantly on the iE-
crease. BEFORE shipping on vessels bound
on extended cruises in foreign waters 1ll-
timers make IL point to enter into ar
ranGements with dealers in curios and tnay
| are enabled to more than quadruple the
amount of the pay they receive from the
government Tor their SerN ices. Even II.
upon their return to this country. they
! Shonid happen 10 he nippcd by the customs
men and forced to pay duty on their goods
Il
great While. at the smaller portsl. they can
make considerable profit upon their trans
ictiohS. for the sailors engaged in this bus
mess are great bargain getters and lntin-
lteiy closer buyers than tourists who nick
up curiUs abroad. These enterprising sail
ors do not buy off-hand the first things thew
see when they go ashore in a foreign land
In Japan. for instance, the man-o' wars.
man In the curio dealing business does not
rush ashore al Yokohama or Kobe or Nag
aSakl or Hakooate ana clean out the mer-
Grants stalls at one fell swoop Not By a
| houseful. does he. Before leaving The
United States his list of curio dealers have
provided him with detailed list of lust
the sort OF stuff and how much of IL thcy
wa9,. Nlth this list in his pocket. the
trading man-c'-warsman gets shore HS-
efty, and, instead Of buying any of tic
curlos he is commissioned to get in the
ports at which his ship lies he makes lp-
| country ufps. In the interior towns and
cities the curios are about five times cheap
er than they are in The ports and this is
one OF the facts that man-o'-warsman of
business acumen gets onto at the very out
SET OF his business career. Most of the ar
teies he purchases are small in bulk and
he is able to bring them off to his ship wita
comparatively little trouble. The sailor
who is in the cllrio collecting busiupss for
profit is generally able to make arrange
mentS with one Of the three ships yeomen
who are in charge of the ships store
rooms for the slowing of his goods.
On the China station
1t is oB the China 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 people seem
to have little appreciation of the modern
value of superb examples of the art Of their
ancestors, and in search of these old speci-
mems the bartering sailors. who In time be-
come very fair connoisseurs make qui.f
tours among the huts and houses of The
interior people. In this way they occasion
kt GtGrtnI fr ,1N L.,
ot-WarSman whose ship was in Corpan
waters happened upon magnificent pair
OF Corean vases in Seoul. examples of the
ceramic art in that country of several rer-
turies ago He bought them for song and
got $2.om for them from n dealer when his
ship reached New York
SnlrSsfng by naval sailors returning to
Inc United States from cruises on the Euro
pean station has not been carried ON so
largely IN recent years as It was when the
oid wt1d-tammers, otherwise sailing vessels
OF me lnlLed states navy cruised in the
waters on the other side; yet many blue
jacket attached to ships on the Medi;erra-
mean station picks up fairly nice thing
al II by bringing back to the United States
such StowaDle goods. for instance as fine
silks from Lyons and lace from Snain
When the Chicago, one OF ahe first ships of
the new white navy, was the haeshiu of
the European station, about a decade ago
IA coal passer named Burke with a fine eve
to business got about a dozen of his shin
mates to devote their savings of the cruise
about $1,000 in ALL to the purchase in Bar
ceIoha OF JOB lot OF a hundred and odd
line handmade black lace mantillas for
which the men-of-warsmcn paid about So,
S3ch- Burke had no trouble whatever In
dIsphsinS of the mautilaS at a ne; profif
of $50 each when the Chicago returned tD
the United States. thus doubling his own
and his shipnates' savings.
An Expert Diamond SmuggIcr.
y more remarkable case Of naval SNUG
cling happened on the European statio.,
about seven years ago. IN Amsterdam Gia-
mond cutter, who had taken passage on an
English steamer for the United States. only
to be turned back when he arrived in New
York, on the charge that his entrance into
this country would he in violation of the
contract labor law. thought cut a good
scheme whereby to gain access to this
country and ~ the same time pick up an
honest dollar two. He broached his
scheme to two or three small dealers in
diamonds III Amsterdam, with the result
that they risked about $4,000 worth of
gems 10 his keeping. The diamond cutter
went to Niilefrdnche, where the L. s 5
Atlanta, which was short-handed on ac-
count Of numerous discharges and trans
fcTs, Was lying, and applied for enlistment
as a mess attendant. lie was accented,
and. with the Sl0,Gt1 worth of diamonds on
him, he put on the hlueja cket uniform. The
Atlanta returned to the United States about
a month later and the Amsterdam diamond
cutter proceeded to put into play fine bit
of man-of-waT malingering. He pretended
to be hoDeleSSly rheumatic when the All
lanta was only has way across the Atlantic
on her cruise TO New York, and he seemed
such guileless sort Of chap that the ships
surgeons suspicious were not aroused. The
diamond cutter Was discharged for dis