, 1900-02-07
PEDDLER SHIPS.
Vessels That 90 to Many Out-of-the-
Way Corners of the World.

The man with a pack on his back,
trudging from village to village and
offering for sale at cottage and farm
house a miscellaneous collection of
wares. has his counterpart in the ocean
peddler, ranging in size from a schoon-
err trading among the islands OF the
Pacific to a steamer of 1000 or 1000
tons burden.
The ocean peddler starts out from
Hamburg, or San Francisco, the chief
home ports of the trade, with a defin-
tie object in view. Sailing from the
former city the course is generally laid
either to the coast of Africa or South
America, having in the hold a varied
assortment of goods likely to be mar
ketable in the regions visited-cotton
fabrics, trinklets, arms, ammunition,
liquors, and all spare room filled up
with coal.
As the largest profts are often de-
rived from the sale of contraband
goods, such as munitions of war to in
surgent bodies, and as detection by reg
ular authorities would lead to confis-
cation, several thousand rounds of
cartridges are probably done up in in
n~ocent-looking cases stamped Canned
Beef" and a few stands of discarded
German army rifles in packages label
ed GLASS, With Care"
The captain of such a vessel must
possess not only ability as a navigator,
but an expert knowledge of the require
ments Of his trade, in addition to a
| plausible tongue wherewith to barter
and win over the good will of an i'll
disposed official. If he Ices not own an
interest in the ship it is generally re-
quired that he shall in her cargo.
Trudging along over the ocean at a
seven or eight knot gait, saving his coal
as much as possible, the peddler opens
his trade by casting anchor in, say, a
South or Central American port, when
having squared the commandante, he
invites merchants and others to board
to inspect his stock. Duty, of course,
has to be paid by the purchaser, but
in certain cases that difficulty is often
overcome by the visitor to the ship go
ing ashore swollen out, perhaps, to
three times his normal size by as many
new suits of clothing.
The greatest good fortune that can
fall in the way OF al ocean peddler is
for an American or British man-of-
war to put into some out-of-the-way
port in which he is lying, short of coal.
Then from his spare stock he sells a
few hundred tons at as hard a bargain
as the necessity of the purchaser per-
mits him to drive.
On the Central American coast the
peddler usually times his visit at about
he opening of the coffee season-that
Is, early in the new year-so that when
he has sold out his wares he is able
70 load up, almost to the water line,
with the principal export of the coun-
Try.
That the ocean-peddling trade is not
without its dangers is illustrated by a
story told by a mate of one of those
vessels. In order to preserve his respc-
tacle character the contraband goods
are sometimes stored in places likely
to escape the yigilant eye of the GUS
toms officer, and, in the case in ques-
ton, the mates bunk was chosen as the
safest repository for certain packages
of dynamite consigned to the leaders
of a Nicaraguan revolution. All went
well until the night before the ship
was due to arrive at her destination,
when a thunderstorm occurred-the
lightning playing about the masts in
an alarming manner. The mate con-
fessed that the idea of turning in upon
a bed of dynamite under such circum.
stances was not conducive to peaceful
repose. even to one accustomed to sleeI
through all manner of dangers; but
with the reflection that If a flash found
its way to this bunk he would not BIZ
likely to be made aware of the fact hi
slumbered serenely through his watch
below, and next day delivered the
canned tomatoes safely to the con-
signee.
The ocea%n-peddling trade Of the Pa.
cific has been shorn of much of it,
profit since the interisland passenger
traffic in natives, who too often were
carried as passengers, much against
their will, to dive for pearls on tn,
great Australian bank. has been effec
tually suppressed. Still, a consider.
able trade is carried on in small article.
Of hardware, old clothes, persona
trirkets, and an occasional case of cdr,
Goods which, If seized, would turf
out to be remarkably wet.
SICK HEADACHES.
The curse Of overworkeG ~womankind
are quickly and surely cured by Karl
CIovor Roof Too tho oroot h1opd purt