Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-03

This man is John Stenzer. well-known
German. He found himself In hard luck
about six years ago. and knowing very lit
tie English at that time and being perfectly
ignorant of the methods employed by
some of the oyster boat owners for Sc
curing their dredgers he naturally became
an easy victim for the willy agent of one OF
these companies.
The account this man gives of his kidnap-
ing. of the awful hardships that he was
forced to endure. and of the revolving
scenes that he had to witness while pris-
oner, make story that Is wonderfully
thrilling and at the same time most re-
markedly pathetic. and it will no doubt
make interesting reading just at this time,
when an earnest effort is being made 10
put a stop to the outrageous treatment so
many of these poor dredgers on our rivers
and bays are subjected to.
Just SO long as the American people per-
nit INSCRIPTIONS employers of labor to per-
petrate such outrages as those referred TO
in this story on the poor unsuspecting for
eigner, just so long must the American
nation expect this foreigner to espouse the
cause of anarchy and socialism.
Mr.. StenZer's experience as given 10
Star reporter is as follows:
Deceived at the Outset.
Il was living in New York city," said Mr.
Stenzer when asked to narrate his eXpe-
Renee Il had not lived in America long
enough to understand much English and
could speak but very few words of the
language. l came here from Germany
with the determination to make this country
my home l had but little money when L
struck New York, and about the first step
/ took was to go out in search of work. AS
YOU can easily ina CINE, | found this was no
snap job. l can assure you that l pity the
foreigner who has to make his own way
in a strange land, without money ana
friends and knowing little of it's language.
"One day after l had tramped for hours
In search of work and found nothing, my
attention was called to an advertisement
in one of the city papers stating that men
who would call at certain employment
bureau could get a good out-of-town job
thought this was my chance, 80 lost no
time in hunting up the agency. When
found it l discovered that L was not the
only man looking for place. The room
was full of men, and all of them seemed to
be of foreign birth, many of them Germans
like myself.
'.The man in charge told us that the job
was a good one and would last US through
the entire winter If we cared to work that
long. He said that it was in the bush cut
ting wood and that we would get board and
bed and So, a month, but that in order to
secure the job each man must give him s..
I'VE thought this fair proposition, and
without a kick. Then we were directed to
get our buds together and take a certain
train for Baltimore. We lost no time In do
ing as we were ordered. and a few hours
later found the whole crowd steamng out
of New York. We were accompanied on the
trip by four big, strapping fellows, whose
appearance did not make very favorable
impression upon us. They seemed overly
anxious to keep US i'll our seats, and II we
a desire to leave our car for a
breath stations along
the way they made some excuse to prevent
our going out We began to consider our
selves practically prisoners, and did not
feel in the best of humor.
When we reached Baltimore we were
hustled from the car into a big covered
wagon that looked very much like moving
van. only the ends were closed and had
windows in them.
This not only prevented our getting
away, but did not permit of our asking any
questions of people on the streets. We were
rushed from the station to the wharf and
on to a boat in jffy. We thought this
mighty queer way of doing things, and
became more suspicious than ever. And
then when we looked our boat over we felt
pretty certain that some sort of trick
had been played on US, and naturally We
began to complain. We should have re-
turned to shore, but the crew had lifted
anchor Immediately after we came on
board and the boat was away out on the
bay before we fully realized our situation.
bush was located he seemed to be puz-
bled. and when we explained as best we
could he pretended to be very much sur
prised, and claimed that he had supposed
all along that we knew what business we
were employed to follow. Then he gave us
to understand that 1t too late for us
to back out. and if We had any kick COM
ing we must settle with the man who got
US the job. OF course. this made US hop
ping mad. but We saw no way out of the
trap and so submitted as gracefully as pos
sible.
Treated Like Dogs.
Finally the trading boat reached feet
of oyster dredgers, and we were trans
ferred to the latter. Eight of our party
were left on one boat and the rest of us
turned over to another captain. The cap
tain of the trader was crusty enough, but
after we had met the one we found we
were to work under it struck us that the
first one was an angel compared with this
new man.
when we ventured to protest against
the way we were being used, this fellow
few into fearful rage and took no pains
to hide the fact that he considered us no
better than dogs, and that he intended to
treat us such His crew a couple OF
Fellows who were partners in the business.
believe, looked us over as they would ami
mails, and when they addressed us it was
with a volley of oaths. One of these men
was the boats cook, and he was especially
ugly.
''Of course. we knew absolutely nothing
about dredging for oysters. and naturally
were rather awkward at the business But
the fact that we were inexperienced men
made no difference to our captain He
seemed to think that we ought to catch
on In ten minutes. ard because we didn't
he was furious. He stamped around the
deck, using language that fairly made the
air about him blue Doubtless ii was a
good thing for us that we understood so
little English, for l presume he called US
names that even saint would have re-
scented.
THE drag-nets. when loaded. were so
heavy that 1T was all we could do to get
them TO deck Many of the men were light
weights, and it made the poor fellows groau
terribly to land load. After Juggling away
at drag awhile they could barely stand
straight L tell you what, but 1t used to
make me feel sad when l would see some
OF the boys working to land net. They
looked as though they would collapse every
minute. l know how to sympathize with
them Tor 1t was hard work for even a big
ieiow IKE me-over six feet tall and weigh
ing at that time something like go pounds
IF we didn't haul In a drag fast enough
to suit, not only volley of oaths would
greet US. but cuffs and kicks / have seen
poor fellows Juggling their level best at a
load. but because they didn't haul in fast
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