Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1903-01-22
CRIMINALS IN THE NAVY.
tlngly Shielded by Uncle Sam
While They Ply Their Arts.

"AAe AASJ cay AACAA "a 49,
II observe that the New Yory cops
corralled bluejacket off the receiv-
ing ship down at Norfolk on Suspicion
that he is a burglar the other day."
said an old-time man-o'-war's man,
who is now on the messenger stan OF
the navy department, reports the
Washington Post.
'They must have been pretty astute
fly cops to have traced the man to the
receiving ship, for the American navy
is a pretty good hdding-out place. In
the old days, in fact, the United States
navy was about the first shelter made
for by fellows who had done things
to get the police after them. They
would ship and make bit OF a cruise
and stay in the uniform until their
bunch of shore trouble had blown
over or been forgotten, and then, as
like as not, they would jump the serv-
ice and go back to their nefarious way
Of making livelihood on the beach.
While was jamming around the map
on the old frigates met up with q
lot of such chaps.
Zone of them was a crackerjack in
the counterfeiting line, and had
slipped into the service to dodge the
secret service men who were after
him for manufacturing large num-
Der of exceedingly choice and nifty
cart-wheel dollars. This fellow
shipped as fireman. After six
months of firing-this was out on the
Asiatic station-he began to tire OF
the monotony of the separation from
his counterfeiting profession, and he
began to do counterfeiting right on
board the American ship of war.
"The counterfeiter rugged himself
up regular plant down below in one
of the unused bunkers. He had
brought the dies along with him when
he boarded the ship, and he spent all
his time turning out phony dimes and
quarters and halves down in the den
which he had rugged up for his work.
mot only that, but he passed the
stuff in quantities in the foreign
ports. He would go ashore with
load of the phonies in the Chinese and
Japanese ports, and get the 'Ameri-
can silver changed into legitimate
gold by the discounting money lend
ers, and it is certain that he picked
up large amount in this way. He
went over the side of the ship in Hong
Kong and forgot to come back one
day, and it wasn't long after that be-
fore his counterfeiting apparatus
was dug up.
"Then the money-changers began to
come aboard the ship with their
means. They had ascertained that the
American silver was bogus and they
all wanted the paymaster to make good
to them. He was in shape to laugh at
them, of course, and he did. The blue
jacket counterfeiter was snagged in
the United States a few years later for
again embarking upon his profession
of manufacturing cart-wheels, and he
was sent over the road for long term.
"But one of the most ingenious
cusses in the shape of fugitive that
I ever was shipmates with was chap
who had spent most of his life as a
moonshiner in Kentucky. He had
been corralled by an internal revenue
man, who was taking him to Ken
lucky lookup, but the moonshiner
waited for the internal revenue sharp
to look the other way for an instant
and then he grabbed the officials gun
and plugged him up lot.
st was case of run for it for him
then, sure enough, and when he had
time to take long breath he found
himself curled up in hammock in the
United States navy. He shipped as a
coal HEAVIER, and he made pretty good
one.
His ingenuity consisted in the fact
that he used to manufacture mighty
effective and get-there brand of corn
liquor right there on board the ship.
He fixed up neat miniature still in an
obscure corner of one of the bunkers,
got the corn brought aboard by the
bumboat men in the different ports,
and did his moonshining in mighty
scientific manner. He didn't make the
WHISKY AO1 pAOAl, oue JuSV OCSouSC nc
wanted to keep his hand in, I sup
pose. He more than kept the officers
of the old frigate puzzled for over a
year.
"The ship would be at sea for ten
days or two weeks, and yet dozen or
so of the black gang would be found
sifflicated at all hours of the day and
night and unfit for duty. The skipper
and the first luff' tried their best to
find out where the booze was coming
from, but it was too deep for them.
The moonshiner himself never got or
rey-eyed, but just kept one O. these
mellow buns on all the time, and so he
was never snagged for being soused on
duty. He decided to stay on the beach
one day when all hands went ashore
for liberty at Pensacola, and in the
course of time his little copper coils
and other vodka-making parapherna-
liza was turned up and the thing that
had been such profound mystery to
the men of the afterdeck was ex-
planned"
Hear with Their Legs.