The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-12-03
THE SAILOR ASHORE
HOW JACK TAR is eo8BLED UP BY
THE LAND SHARK.

whisky the Bait That Is Used by the
Boarding House Master-His Abso-
lutte Dominion over the Seaman.
Jacks Crazy Holiday.
when a deep water sailing ship ar
rives at her home port, the men in the
forecastle, from being nothing but bedev- ]
lied scallawags, become the spoiled chill |
dren Of fortune" says Carl Hovey in
Ainslee's. 'They are men of mark; they |
are tremendously sought after; their en-
try is triumphal. In half a dozen shore
boats which have been expeditiously fas
tened to the sides of the vessel people |
stand up and bespeak the favor of the |
poor sailors. offering gifts. The sailors
knew it would be so all along, so they are
not surprised by these attentions, aatter-
ing as they are The boarding masters
have rowed down for them, and little tai
lors and inferior crayon portrait and
dance hall men have rowed down special |
ly to meet them; even the missionaries
representing wealthy and conservative
philanthropic organizations have sent en-
issaries to bring them safely in. 1t is all
but a certainty that the foolish sailors
will never be permitted to leave the ship
in peace walk to the consulate, draw
their $50 or 500 or 5000 wages and then
depart to spend it as they please.
"a sailor falls into a position when he
goes ashore like that of the foreign nota-
bility who happens to be the municipal
guest. They present him with the free
dom of the city and then turn him over
to his keepers The boarding masters are
his keepers every time. They make him
the largest kind of promises down the
bay. They can we'll afford it, since they
own him when he touches land. Not that
the fact that the common sailor is natu-
rally an absurdly helpless object in a
great city, just as helpless and absurd as
an ordinary business man would be who
should suddenly find himself thrust in
charge of a gallant, bounding bark. has
escaped the attention of our lawmakers.
BY no means. Congress has passed nu-
merous acts intended to serve as safe
guards for Jacks course ashore. Some of
these measures afford him the greatest
annoyance All are apt to be far less real
to him than the boarding masters prom
Use, coupled as it is with brilliantly label
ed plugs of tobacco and glorious ten cent
bottles of whisky He needs foster IA
Their. and he knows he wants a friend.
He finds both at once in the tiashy, red
faced, jolly, smooth talking individuals
who know exactly what his wishes are
and prove it to him on the spot.
Gas soon as a vessel passes quarantine
the small boats draw alongside, and the
boatmen, who understand their business,
make fast at once by throwing an iron
hook attached to a rope over the rail.
"'Hello, boys, what ship is this here?
one of the boarding house runners asks
conversationally. How long you been
out? Nasty bit O. sea you might "a
struck. Well, you'll be willin' to take it
easy fer awhiles. Sure, | got just the
place fer fine set O. men like you fell
lers to spend a little holiday ashore
Meanwhile the foolish sailors have
swung buckets oversize, which the lands
men fill up with the gaudy bottles OF
drink, disposing their business cards con-
spicuously. They watch the buckets with
cats eyes as the group of seamen leaning
on the rail haul them up swaying, for the
sailor who takes out the hard stuff be-
longs to the man who put it in.
"Great palavering continues on the
part of the men in the boats, responded
to freely by the sailors, after which the
boarding masters and their crowd, having
draw off and pull away.
ga short time ago they would have
scrambled aboard the vessel like pirates
and poured into the forecastle to do their
business there. They used to carry the
entire crew away with them then and
there, sometimes with the permission of
the captain, often as not without 1t. The
captain of a fine ship may be an outra-
geous bully at sea, but he is apt to be a
lamb when he comes to deal with the
crowd that own the water front. The au-
thorities, however, have put a stop to
boarding vessels in the stream.
"When the ship touches her pier, the
boarding masters are there, ready and
waiting to pick their men out.
YOU'RE McCarthy's man. says one.
"'You're Tom Bodine's man. says an
other. You've got his card
"'Step along O. me, Mustard Top puts
in third genially. You took my whisky,
friend
"And so, with little confusion, maybe
a scuffie, matters are arranged, and the
small spare, rather pallid seamen (sail-
ors in the merchant service are not the
bronzed athletes you see on men-of-war)
troop away with their large, well fed,
thick necked companions to the Cherry
street settlement of crazy boarding houses
where men convene from round the Horn,
from China, from Sydney and the Indies
for brief, ridiculously costly holiday in
the slums and rookeries long shore. The
reason why he must go with the boarding
master is plain. The law allows the ship
four days in which to pay its men. In
credit and as the man who has run the
the meantime Jack must live entirely on
casting down wants a good time and
wants it quick the bargain is soon struck,
from which he never gets away until he
finds himself at sea again minus a
months advance.
at was typical instance when sail
or lounged out of the door of the British
shipping Office in New York the other
day, having been told that the ship would
not pay until the end of the week. 1t
was only Wednesday then and the mans
face told a tale of disappointment that
was instantly marked by the loafers on
the sidewalk. 'What'll you give for a
drink one asked.
GA dollar said the sailor, Frightening
up Go dry returned the other noncha-
lently. Two dollars the sailor offered.
The land shark made him the same reply.
1t was not until the sailor had raised his
offer to So that his new friend consented,
and they went away together. When this
crew was finally paid off, it is a certainty
that the land shark was there in the din
gy old room and that he took his reward
for his expenditures at rate of dollars
to Dimes"
SURPRISED HUNTERS.