The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-06

to the richest ranch owner in Texas,
from the Missouri mountain girl to the
best dressed woman of fashion in Chi
cago, who is not affected by our Euro
mean trade in some way, however
slightly. New York harbor's waters
bear messages or supplies every year
to or from pretty nearly every human
being in all America.
These are the busiest days of the
year there.
1t is queer place
More than $4,000 men and women are
engaged in doing your business, ana
mine for US in New York harbor, ana
nowhere in the world are there stranger
people than may be found among them-
Yet New York harbor has had no MS
torian. Dickens wrote OF London
Thames. and Hugo, Dumas and dozen
Others have told the story of the Seine
of Paris. but New York's great harbor
and its two rivers. with enough amen
orage ground for every vessel aiioat
] on all the oceans in the world. and with
over sixty miles of docks, has not peeh
recognized by the great ones VINO nave
told true stories.
| Ii is the undercurrent of life about
the harbor which are more interesting,
and being undercurrents, they are,
some of them. as dark and devious as
| the black bottom waters of the rivers
/ which touch the oOze and twist ana
! turn among the spiles below the docks
! A dark night. Two men creep care
J fully to a slightly remote water 'front.'
such as that of Astoria or Bayonne-
/ They SLOUGH and Turk along until they
| find a small boat unguarded. Silently
| they slip it's mornings, crawl slowly IN
and row out to the deep channels where
ships pass They wait there, drifting,
until a schooner bound out to sea comes
near, with sails set or towed by steam
tug. From her stern rowDoat or
! dinky is trailed by rope. The silent
watchers become animated. They pull
quickly. but quietly, between the small
boat and the passing schooner's stern.
They cut the line The schooner passes
on. The men have set themselves up
in trade. They have secured their first
and most important tool.
Started In Trade.
They conceal their acquisition under
some dock and carefully return the
first stolen boat to its original moor
ings before daylight. 1t has been stolen
! too near home, and they would be IN
danger of arrest if they kept it. But
the schooner which owned the second
one has gone to sea, and the theft can
not be reported before they have had
plenty of time to alter the appearance
of their prize by tar. by paint, or by
mud so completely that there Will be
little chance of capture.
They are perfectly equipped now for
river thievery.
Jerry McAuley, who has turned from
the leadership of Il desperate gang of
river thieves to become a useful mis-
sionary among the sailors tells how he
and one of his boy chums in this way
got their start in the business which
they pursued so successfully for many
years. These boys, with their boat, be-
came the nucleus of what was after
ward known as the Franklin dock gang
of harbor thieves. Their rendezvous
was under a dock at the foot of Frank
lin street where the aesthetic tastes of
their leader was later demonstrated by
elegant furnishings. The expensive
carpet was stolen from the cabin of a
palatial steamboat. and the chairs and
sofas came from whatever craft were
not sufficiently guarded. The place was
amply lighted by lanterns taken from
boats and piers.
When the leader and his young
accomplice We're new at the business,
before they had learned the larger way
of gagging or sandbagging the night
watch OF a pier or vessel. they used to
loiter on the docks and. when oppOr-
tunity offered, roll a barrel or box OF
goods into the water. One would be
WdlllHS uONH Tic tue VIII llCil
boat and towed their plumber to the
Franklin dock under cover OF the night
AS it was not always easy to tell by
the looks of package whether it would
float or sink. they lost many of the
things which they dumped from piers
But this difficulty was overcome to a
considerable extent when a young
FISHERMAN Joined them and suggested
the use of oyster tongs. In time this
gang became so expert in the various
methods of graphing that it made no
difference to them whether property
went to the bottom or not. 1t was only
when women had been admitted TO this
rendezvous that the noise of midnight
orgies attracted the attention of the
police. Then. of course, the place was
no longer safe as business headquar-
tiers.
Great is the ingenuity of these