The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1900-03-22
GULLIBLE BLUEJACKETS.
How Uncle SANS Jackies Are Won
over by the Rum shop Keepers
when They Get Home.

WO|lli btthi any bC lIldl
whose lives are spent in cruising the
world mp and down, and IN meeting up
with all types of humanity, ought, in
the course of time, to develop really
basaltic quality of shrewdness in deal
ing with the cheerful workers Of the
beach. Yet there is no easier prey for
the rough-and-ready CRATER" than
the bluejacket. The bluejackets are
stripped, plundered, soused in the pick
ling barrel of the ''broke-dead ones"
and hung out to dry again and again,
and yet few of them ever seem to learn
through bitter experience. Of all uni
formed men-and men in uniform in
general are accounted pretty easy by
the beach grafters-the naval blue
jackets are perhaps the most suscep-
tible 10 the cajolery, fattery, fawning
and scheming of the chaps ashore who
make a business of fattening on them.
And il would seem that the older and
more experienced the sailorman, the
easier he is.
In all of the cities of the country
where there are navy yards-eXcept
Washington, the navy yard here be-
ing no longer a rendezvous for ships
of war-the rum mill keepers who
build up clientele of bluejackets have
got the art of holding on to their
patronage beautifully worked up.
They toady to the tars, employ their
cheap Establishments in dealing with
them, and very often practically carry
them off from their ships-tied up at
the navy yard docks-by main force,
to their sawdust-carpeted wet-goods
emporiums. The proprietors of some
OF the saloons that ad join the navy
yards seem to have the paymasters'
accounts at their fingers ends. They
appear to know to day when the
discharged, as well as the amounts
the roysterers are to be paid off,
with. When ship with crew of
many men whose enlistments are
about expiring returns from for
eign station, the keeper of the rum
the job of wheedling the short-time
men, to the end of accommodating their
savings when they are discharged,
with rude diplomacy.
lie togs himself out in his best,
which generally includes dazzling
array of rose diamonds. and spends the
greater part OF a day aboard the
newly returned ship The gin-mill
man knows most of the crew, es-
pecially the old-timers among them,
and he makes himself known TO the
others. He fits around the spar deck,
with a gag here and c0ddling word
there and he likes to have the men
address him by his first or his nick
name. He sits down at rough mess
table, a nurbcr of the members Of
which are shortly to be paid of, and
he breachcs the musky breath Of
sporting life" upon all hands eating
alongside Of him. lie is n hot sport,
and the men like to be addressed IA
miiarly by such fellow. He gets
the about -to-bc-paid-oif Iaen one by
one into corners and tells them Of the
rattling good arrangements he has
they get quit of their cruise next
week He works them up into a fever
heat of anticipation, aud when he
goes over the side before evening
quarters he is pretty certain of his
quarry. He has kept the name of his
Establishment in the minds of the
crews of all the ships likely to re-
turn to Lis navy Tard by sending
them big bundles of newspapers to
all quarters of the world, and every
Christmas season he has sent out to
all the ships gaudy Christmas cards
with the name of his place stamped
in corner of them.
OF the men that he thus makes a
business of corralling before the re-
pair aft to the pay office to draw
their accumulated savings, there are
always numbers who have made de-
tailed plans to spend three months be-
fore shipping over at the homes OF
their people some of these homes be-
ing situated far inland. Some of the
men about to be paid off may not
have seen these homes for six, nine
or II wears. and for months before
their FINAL paying off they have pic
tured over their pipes the scene when,
arrayed in purple and fine linen they
finally reach their homes, with peck
cts stuffed with money, presents for
all the women folks. including sou
venirs from many lands, and good,
decent" time ahead of them. They
resolve to be decent" do these plan
ne>i Of home visits. and iiercely re-
solve not to touch a drop of rum from
the day they 80 over the side until
after they have finished their visits
at home. Many of them are men who
in their little inland homes, made
records in their young manhood as
reckless lads who seemed bound to
drink themselves to death. and they
are DESTROYS of proving to all hands
when they return home after years OF
cruising about the world, that they
have made men Of themselves in the
navy.
Well, these are the men who fall
into the nicely stretched net of the
navy ward ladder of damp goods. When