New Ulm review., 1899-06-14
ASTOWA.W a 7. SLEJJTH
OOO OvocATiON or AN OLD SAN FRAN
CISCO BoATMAN.

CISCO BOATMAfN.
He Runs His Prey to Water Instead
of to Earth-How the stowavays5
Get Aboard Ship and How They
Generally Come to Grief.
Down by the city's sea wall queer
man pursues queer vocation. He is
water front character" and his busi-
ness is the sleuthing of stowaways.
He doesn't run his prey to earth,
however, after the manner of other
hunters of human game He runs it to
water
This weather hardened, wrinkled man
is at once the terror and the friend Of
would be stOwaways. He is known as
Captain Jack, but his name has half a
dozen variations, all of which smack of
the salt, salt sea. These are some of
his aliases: Wharf Rat, Water Fowl,
Sea Dog, Whaler, Old Man Jack and
The Boatman. ~
His stock in trade consists of his
shrewdness in ''spotting stow" and a
battered but seaworthy old boat which
rides the water by night and day
through successive seasons. The towns
attractions do not lure him from his
long accustomed haunts among the
maSts, fgureheads, piers and piles,
sails, nets, stringerS and d-multitudinOus
varieties of merchandise that crowd
the bays edge.
nflir 1oI- ONT Of hi
shell of reserve long enough the other
day to tell a bit Of what he knows
about that venturesome creature Of
chance, the stowaway, who would
fain voyage out of port without the
previous formality of paying for pas
senger privileges.
"pve been in this business a long
time" he said. "an 1 can centrally
spot a Stow
different ones has different meth
DDS. Some hangs round the docks
afore a ship sails, offerin to lend
hand, Or proposin to work a passage
somewheres. When they find this
don't go the way they want it to, they
commence to talk big-inquire bout
sea weather, the cost of a cruise, the
time it takes to git to the islands or
Alaska or Panama. They're always
just a-goin to- make the trip. But
there's somethin so hungry an home
sick an tired lookin about 'em that it
gives 'em dead away-leastways it
does to person who's spent good
many years studyin their kind.
Others, though, wait till the last
minute, then come hustlin along as if
they was too rushed to buy ticket
or as if they had one in their pocket.
Why, I've even been asked by 'em to
row 'em out to Il ship after she'd got
clear out into the stream. If a skipper
happens to be good natured, he'll slack
up an take passengers aboard. An
after all that bother I've had to bring
'em back again, for nary red did they
have
This class of deadheads is Centrally
supplied with clothes, gripsacks, hat
boxes. steamer trunks, canes, umbrel-
las. cameras, foldin chairs an some
times a servant
Not a valetT'
Sure. That's what we sailors call
putin on terrible lot Of dog. Thems
the fellers that always has friends
'mong guvnors. rajahs, lords, dukes
an consuls, an likewise money to burn
but always across the water some
where's. l don't mind the men, but
hate to tackle a woman
women stowaways"
Sure. When the Klondike boom
was on, used to bring in as many
women as men. Some was only
Sirls-ltle slim things, goin to the
icy gold mines with no more outfit
than the thin clothes they stood in.
''Ehe easiest part OF the slows plan
IN maxim an escapeis the gittin aboard
| Nobody knows who's who the day
ships leavin port. If she's crowded
so much the better. The stow can
| hide in the hold without bein spied
But It's mighty hard to git past the
Heads, for by that time the ships
been searched an the slows yanked out
on deck"
Captain Jack spoke truly. The
| stoWaWay who passes the Heads has
run the gantlet safely-unless an in
coming vessel be at hand to convey
the intruder back again
When the final gong has been sound
| ed, the warning AL visitors ashore!'
given, the gangplank withdrawn,
| the last rope loosened and the screw
turned, the vessels interior is care
fully explored. Meanwhile Captain
Jacks weather beaten boat is speed
ing in it's wake. If stowaway be
discovered signal is sent from the
pilots bridge and Captain Jack is
| quickly alongside. A rope ladder is
| lowered, and toward it the purser or
other officer and his aids escort the
| discounted ''stow"
Every day." continued Jack, Il
fetch in men an women that want to
| git away. They're broke, an thought
they'd try their luck in some other
place. | lump most of 'em off at
Aleiggs' wharf. It's a heap easier for