Arizona republican., 1908-11-21
DEEP SEA SAILORS
 ARE DISAPPEARING
Few Traces Left of the Old Roistering Life of Jack Ashore-Shanehains and Fistieuffs Forgotten Oecupa- tions.

most disappeared, ana with nm many curious customs and practices of early days. Shanghalng-the practice or obtaining sailors by force-which un- der the less graphic name of impress ment. was the chief cause of the war of 1872 with England, has been stamp ed out except in rare instances, it's only survival being found in the oyster fisheries of Chesapeake bay There the practice of shanghaing has per sisted, according to a writer in Alp pleton's Magazine. to such an extent that the matter has recently been brought to the attention Of the red eral authorities Generally speaking. however. the old school of American sailors together with the characters tic features of sailor life ashore which gave picturesqueness to the water front section of every port city, mas disappeared forever. In New fork' the greatest port in the country, where once the pitfalls for Jack ashore were myriad, the number of shops and re- sorts conducted especially for the pur- pose of separating tars from their money. is steadily diminishing.
 OnleIlN lltlS IS ult Ao tAAS
 all conditions. While the sailor of a century or half century ago was a skilled member of an eXacting profess sion, he is now. as result of the gen eral use of steam, merely a laborer on water. needed only for the scrubbing of decks. the polishing of metal, and the handling of paint buckets.
 Just where the term shanghaing got it's origin is a matter of dispute but the best authorities agree that 1t came from the city of Shanghai, China. When the far eastern trade was car ried on by the fastest sailing shlps men could build-the famous clip pers''-sailors were artists in their professions and well paid. Shanghai was one of the great ports and there sailors after their long voyage were likely to dissipate their pay and fail to report for the home voyage. AS the value of eastern cargoes depend ed largely on prompt handling.< the practice arose in Shanghai of obtain ing men to man the vessels by force or trickery-usually by the use of drugs and drink and from this 1t is be- lieved came the term shanghaing.
 In the old days New York's water front. calculated first to get the money of Jack ashore and then to shanghai him for the regular fee formerly paid by captains. was the most picturesque and roisterous in the country. What is now the famous BOwery was then Jacks special stamping ground. and it's deterioration is held to be largely of the lNnl- cal old time sailor.
 ''The Bowery was once the F1fth avenue of the town" says the Apple ton chronicler, but beginning on South street from coenties slip. up and down the water front, the dives start ed to creep in and fill the whole lower east end of the Manhattan city They did not require much law in those lurid. buxom years. and whatever hap pened that wasn't right was hidden ] beneath the fog of navy cut, blown LID from Jacks inevitable clay pipe and was drowned beneath the plunk- 1 ety-plunk of some yellowed and crack cd piano. Sailor men were more or | less of~a luxury in the late '7O's. and the police therefore let them alone ] mat eIu bl llit DlE NllE NfAo BthNANN' | full of the sea drift of the seven oceans; Polacks and Swedes from the 1 north rubbed elbows with Chinks from Hong Kong, by way of Frisco with smoker Irishmen.' as the sailors | called the blacks from the Antilles with Hindoo coolies who had floated | from Suez up past Joppa and Naples | across into the lower bay"
 | The old-time sailors boaroine | houses or places" as they were call ed. all had their "runners'-men skill ed in the game of attracting Jacs ashore. getting his money and thcr drugging him and turning him ovci to the captain of any vessel short oi hands. "A quarter century ago." says MT. Lyon, If you walked along the shore front in Quebec or New York or New Orleans, or East street 1T Frisco, and happened to step in moment for a slug of whisky, yoJ were apt to wake up two days ou to, sea with nothing but pair ot shoes and a 'donkey's breakfast, which, in the parlance of the sea dog is merely straw mattress.
 Today all this has changed. Sail ors' Missions are more popular thar might be thought. considering thu roistering spirit of the frequenters When Jack is in port. no matter hi age, race, or religion. if he hasn't ; girl or a family, he is pretty apt t' turn up at the secretary's desk-tha is, after his money has been spen elsewhere in traditional pursuits. Snut harbors, be it said, with their fre' reading rooms and their beds apt their general assistance, seem to b. ideal places for the mariners to go t when they cannot get in anywher else and are drifting rudderles through the surge of the city. I'm use of these institutions is not matter of religion with him so mucl as it is the necessity of keeping bod. and soul together. To accomplish thi
 bodily comfort he is willing to un dergo d little temporary treatment fo his soul, if his benefactor insists up on administering it.
 Tt used to be different back in tn
 olden times. in the sos and earlier when they shanghaied men off Jame Slip, and when Catherine street am Cherry and Roosevelt and Wate
 streets used to be filled with sailors