The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-07-27

mourned him as dead. This Is one
instance Of many where men have
been shipped In sailing vessels by
"crimpers" while intoxicated or drug
ged and have suffered great hardshiDs
before returning to their homes. A
year ago q case arose in New York,
wherein a resident Of Mobile sued a
ships captain who had carried him to
sea from Gulfport against his will.
This man, was drugged and assaulted
by sailor boarding house runners be-
fore being placed on a ship where he
was brutally illused for several
months.
II the collector Of the port at Mo-
bile had not thwarted the attempt to
carry of the two Birmingham boys,
they would have had similar ex-
periences of hardship. II not brutality.
before they regsined American soil.
A boarding house runner who has
served time In the penitentiary be-
fore, was convicted and sentenced in
the city court this week for assault
ing two men whom he had endeavored
tain. The captain refused to take
the men and they were assaulted be-
cause they came ashore where the
runner and another "crimp" were
standing guard to keep them aboard,
this vigilance being the result Of the
runner or someone by whom he was
employed, having advance notes for
the men which would not be paid if
they did not sail in the ship. These
advance notes are the curse OF the
sailors calling and the bones over
which the vultures ashore fight. The
United States government has made
them illegal, but all foreign vessels
give them and as long as the system
lasts sailors will be robbed and lands.
men will be shanghaied, especially
where the authorities are as lax as
they appear to be In Mobile.
The local police and shertff's Office
could do much to stop the malprac-
tees Of sailor boarding house attaches
If they would. 1t is understood that
men charged with vagrancy In the in
ferior criminal court are turned over
to sailor boarding house runners who
promise to find them work. The in
tention may be good but the result is
an encouragement to fraud and rob-
berry. 1t is fraud to place man who
knows nothing about a ship aboard a
vessel as an able seaman; and the
runners who take prisoners out of the
inferior criminal court, or from any
other court, are carrying them off to
be robbed. If the robbery is not &C.
complished in one way it is in another
The story of the boys from Birming-
ham will show the ingenuity of the
"crimper" to get hands on the advance
note and keep out of the penitentiary
The police will probably say that
they have no jurisdiction, that mari
time cases must go before the United
States courts. but 1t was shown dur
ing the past week that when tele-
grams were received here calling for
the arrest Of the boys who had run
away from the Baptist Orphanage at
Greenville and even after the arrival
OF the mother of one Of the boys in
Mobile and an appeal to the police de-
partment to asst her in finding him,
the department did not move, although
the report had been received that two
boys answering the descriptions were
on ship and about to be carried out
OF the country. The boys on the ship
were not the boys wanted, but they
have mothers who grieve for them as
the mother of the orphan grieved, and
1t Is satisfaction to know that the
promptness of the United States Off
Gals when they were apprised of the
case, prevented the outrage that would
have left two mothers sad, while a
boarding house keeper and slop
chest dealer divided the price Of their
sons slavery.