Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-16
TARS AS COLLECTORS

I
| an you want to find an indefatigable
curio collector as Is one. take any average
biuejacket of the American navy" re-
marked a man who used to wear the blue
| Jacket uniform himself. United States
men-o'-war's men take more interest and
| probably spend more money In the eilrio
collecting business than the officers Of c.uis-.
ing ships They make their collections, as
rule, to present to the folks at home and
TO their sweethearts, but there's con-
siderable class Of American bluejackets who
engage In the collecting business for what
| there is in It by way of profit.
Every American man-o'-war that returns
to the States at the conclusion of a cruise
OF several years in foreign waters has
most OF its out-of-the-way hooks and cram
MES stuffed with the collections of the
ships company when the homeward bound
pennant Is broken out. The biiges are
sometimes SO damned with the curio chests
OF the men that the biuetackets have to
spend hours In breaking them out and re-
slowing them every time biIge-inspection
day comes around. The men belonging to
the engine room gang of a ship make use
al umes Oh one or two OF the unusued boil
| ers In which to- stow their boxes and pack
ages or curios, and when, as occasionally
I happens, the chief engineer orders these
boilers to be fired while the other boilers
! gust of the black gang is too deep for
| utterance.
Although the bluejackets are not sup
posed to have anything whatever in their
| lockers besides their clothes and small stores
and the bIuejacket is not permitted by the
| regulations to bring curios over the ships
Side, officers do not really enforce the rule
with strictness, perhaps because the regula-
ton applies to the officers as well as to the
men fora An officer who himself has
slowed away In one of the ships spare store
rooms quarter ton box of curios designed
| Tor the ornamen tatfon of his shore home Is
| pretty apt to look In another direction when
| he sees a bluetacket coming over the gang
way with bullying package of curios under
ms arm: All that the officer asks inferen-
| TALLY of the bluetaeket Is that the blue
Jacket shall so keep his collection under
cover that it shall not be revealed or STUN
bied upon when the inspections are in prog
reSs.
"But, in secreting their curios, the blue
Jackets have another purpose to serve be-
sides getting them out Of the sight of the
officers This other purpose Is the evasion
OF the customs inspectors. The extent Of
the examination made by the customs in
| spectors Of American men-o'-war arriving
from foreign waters varies with the port.
| In q very few ports the customs officers go
| over warshtps with as much thoroughness
| as they DO merchant vessels. In majority
| Of the ports, however. and notably in the
| largest, the customs search Of men-o'-war
| Is perfunctory. AS q rule, the officers. In
the strict ports, are obliged to pay duty on
| all of the stuff that they fetch home, for,
| to the direct question, Anything dutiable
aboardT none of the officers who has
collection of eurios slowed away will make
! reply No On such occasions they in
variably point out the goods for appraisal.
Often enough, however, customs officers
boarding warships will fail to put this
question to all of the officers singly, and as
| no man, officer or civilian, Is obliged to en-
danger the placidity of his physical system
In frantic efforts to help out customs Off
GERS, some of the officers get their curios in
free of duty. even In the strict ports.
But the bluejackets do not have to pay
duty their curio collections once in half
g. dozen cruises. The customs inspectors
rarely go for ard to examine the living quar-
tiers of the men, and even If they should
make q practice of doing so they would
have to do some pretty careful and labor
iotIs delving to make their visits pan out.
On boarding man-o'war the customs Off
GERS, after cursorily examining and apprais-
ing whatever may be pointed out by the
officers, generally put to the commanding
officer the question:
Men for'ard got anything dutfabIe
aboard?
Not that I'm aware Of replies the skip
per, quite truthfulIy, and the customs men
are, as a rule, satisfied with this assur-
ance.
'"Thus the bluejackets are able to watch
the customs officers boats sheer off from
the ship with their countenances wreathed
in broad grins, and in a short time they
are all below, breaking out their boxes
and packages, preparing TO SEND them
ashore by the bumboatmen at the first OPP
portunity. The bumboatmen are of inesti-
mable service to the bluejackets in getting
their curio collections ashore without at
tracing attention, and when big ship
arrives IN home port they make consider
able money as carriers Of curtos for the
bIuejackets. @@A
Folks in American cities who purchase
beautiful pieces of bric-a-brac and articles
of vertu in little isolated collectors shops
at prices away below the market, and some
times phenomenal1y low, cannot. of course
know that in very many cases the reason
for this cheapness Is that the articles were
brought to the United States IN American
men-o'-war, free of duty, by men for'ard.
Yet this Is pretty often the case. and the
business Is on the increase.
Before shipping vessels bound on ex-
tended cruises in foreign waters many old
timers make it a point to enter into ar
rangements with dealers in curios and thus
they are enabled to add a big slice to the
pay they receive from Uncle Sam
Even IT, upon their ships return to this
country, they should happen to be nfpped
by the customs men and forced to pay duty
on their purchases (and such thing hap
pens only once in great while), they can
make considerable profit upon their trans
actions, for the sailors engaged in this bust
ness are great bargain getters and infinitely
closer buyers than mere tourists who pick
up curfos abroad.
These enterprising bluejackets do not
buy offhand the first things thew see when
they go ashore in foreign ports In japan.
for example. the man-o'-war's man in the
curio trade doesn't rush ashore at Yoke
hama, or Kobe, or Nagasaki, and clean
out the merchants stalls at one fell swoop
Before leaving the states his curio dealers
have provided him with a detailed list of
just the sort of'stuff and how much OF ii
they want. With this list In his pocket
the trading bluejacket get shore liberty
and, instead of buying any of the curios he
Is commissioned to get in the ports at which
his ship lies. he makes up-country trips
In the interior cities and towns the curios
are about four times cheaper than they are
in the ports, and this Is one of the facts
that the man-o'-war's man OF business acu-
men gets on to at the very outset OF HIS
curio buying career. Most of the articles
he purchases are comparatively small in
bulk and he ls able to fetch them off to
his ship without much bother. The blue
jacket who is in the eurio collecting BUSH
ness for profit is generally able to make
arrangements with one of the ships yeo-
men. who are in charge of the ships store
rooms. for the slowing of the goods
1T Is on the China station that the blue
Jacket trader picks up the stuff that nets
him the most profit. In the interior towns of
China, Japan and Korea the people even
yet. seem to have little appreciation of the
modern commercial value of superb exam
pies of the arts of their ancestors. and In