New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-10-03
JACK ASHORE.

1t has so long been the fashion to regard the
| sailor as an overgrown child awaiting with
| eagerness his rare opportunities to exhibit his
helplessness and gullibihty on land, that it is
| little to be wondered at that many citizens as
! sumed, a matter of course, that the three
hundred bluejackets from the North Atlantic
| Squadron who had received shore leave had
shaped their course Immediately for the Bowery
and its traditional allurements Tradition dies
hard, and it is difficult to convince the average
citizen that Jack ashore, if he wears a United
States naval uniform, is not now a rosterng,
drunken innocent at the mercy of every sharper
or harry who may try to take him in tow.
The contrast between the old and the new
has been increasingly marked since the Span
| ish war. Before that time the personnel of
the enlisted force was of a very mixed charac-
ter racially, and not great deal could be said
in its favor from an intellectual or moral point
OF view. In those days it thought good
joke to place above the entrance to the ward
room the legend, English spoken here But
with the outburSt of patriotism attending the
war came a new class Of naval recruits. Town
and country boys from all parts of the United
States but particularly from w-England and
the West sought service as man-o -warsmen,
with the result that to-day the enlisted men of
the navy are 95 per cent American citizens and
the majority Of that percentage American born,
no foreigners now Delng taken INTO the SER
vice except as servants. 1t is fairly to be pre-
sumed nowadays that the young men who wear
their country's uniform have enjoyed fair OPP
portunities of education in home and school and
are normal self-respectng citizens, albeit full
of youthful spirits which need outlet when
the mcnOtony of sea service in time of peace
is broken by q stay of few days or weeks
in port
The man who has been at sea for three
months, with little liberty from the routine Of
warship duties, and who arrives at one Of the
worlds greatest seaports with three months
pay in his pockets, may be pardoned If he is
inclined to spend his leisure and his money
somewhat exuberantly. But it is a mistake to
suppose that the bluejacket desires, above all
things, to dissipate his earnings in riot and de-
bauchery. If he does so, 1t Is in most cases
because he has nothing better in the way Of
amusement set before him, and IN his limited
leisure has little time to seek 1t. When, how
ever, rational means Of enjoyment are afforded
him he Is likely to avail himself of them to
the full
One of the influences which have, in connec
ton with the Improvement in the type of the
men offering themselves for service, operated
to effect total transformation in the enlisted
force within the last seven years is the Naval
Branch of the Young Mems Christian Associa-
ton. This organization has founded cubhouseS
in Brooklyn Vallejo. Newport News and Ma
Mia, in each of which any member is made
welcome with privileges of lodgings, music,
billiards, baths, restaurants, etc. which mean
much to a class of men who were once dis
couraged, by an abominable public and private
indifference to their welfare, from forming any
associations but the lowest. Seamen will al
ways be free hearted and extravagant but this
agency has worked the seeming miracle of
inducing many of them to save part of their |
pay In the last year the Naval Branch has |
handled in the form of permanent "allotments"
of salary Ito friends and relatives ashore and |
Of temporary savings about $4350O0
Americans travelling abroad have brought |
home stories of meeting in picture galleries par
ties Of American bluejackets deep in the study |
of their Baedekers, but the tale of a citizen !
who found himself and his daughters at a .
nearby summer resort with a party of fifty |
uniformed men on shore leave is perhaps, more
Illuminating. He cautioned the young women |
to keep clear of the neighborhood of the sea
men but after observing the behavior OF the |
man during their afternoons pleasuring, he |
sought out the personal conductor" of the
party and said: II ashamed TO say that I
feared YOUR men would spoil our days pleas
''ure but now / want to have my daughters
meet YOU and soma Of your sailor friends
Such men are credit to the uniform they
wear" Eloquent testimony from an entirely
different source TO the change which has come
over the spirit of the service is found in the
remark of an oidtimer among the enlisted men
who set out as of old, TO seek his pleasure in
the Bowery. az walked the whole length OF the /