The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-11-28

! blacks from the Antilles, with Hindoo
coolies who had fioated from Suez
up past Joppa and Naples across into
tle lower Bay"
The old-time sailors boarding
houses or places" as they were call
ed. all had their runners
tkilled in the game of attracting Jack
ashore, getting his money and then
dugging him and turning him over
ID the captain of any vessel short of
hands. "A quarter century ago." says
Mr.. Lyon, "if you walked along the
shore front in Quebec or New York,
or New Orleans, OF East street in
Frisco, and happened to step in a
moment for a slug of whisky, you
were apt to wake up two days out to
sea with nothing but a pair of shoes
and a dC.Ikeys breakfast, which,
in the parlanCe of the sea dog, is
merely a straw mattress.
To-day all this has changed. Sail.
ors' missions are more popular than
might be thought. considering the
roistering spirit of the frequenters.
When Jack is in port, no matter his
age, race, or religion, if he hasn't d
girl or a family, he is pretty apt to
turn up at the secTetary'S deSk-that
is. after his money has been spent
elsewhere in traditional pursuits Snug
Harbors, be it said. with their free
reading rooms and their beds, and
their general assistance. seem to be
ideal places for the mariners TO go to
-wnentheycannotSet mfwyp wypp
when they cannot get in anywhere
else and are drifting rudderless
through the surge of the city. The
use of these institutions is not a mat
ter of religion with him so mucn as
II is the necessity of keeping body
and soul together. To accomplish
this bodily comfort he is willing to
undergo little temporary treatment
for his soul. if his benefactor insists
upon administering it.
ut used to be different back in the
olden times. in the sos and earlier.
wnen they shanghaied men off James
Slip, and when Catharine street. and
Cherry and Roosevelt and Water
streets used to be filed with sailors
boarding houses instead of with the
Yiddish sweatshops and the Italian
pickle vendors OF the present day In
those days you couldn't walk north
on Water street of baImy evening
without getting into a fight. Every
door that was not a lodging house
led into saloon and dance hall and
upstairs they had an empty room or
two where a four-round bout was AL
ways in progress, the men before the
mast always being great fighters and
loving to watch a little harmless mill
You couldn't get a job downstairs as
waiter in the barroom if YOU could
not box, and you certainly would not
be able to hold your Job long if you
could not box we'll Sailors that are
getting their five dollars a night now
before New York's anaemic little ath-
letic clubs for a short go used TO
browse around from Harry Hills to
the Bucket Of Blood of 4 Saturday
night twenty years back. fight a half
dozen battles, and come away with
forty or fifty dollars in premium
money. There is a broken window
even vet down on Oliver street
through which the terrible Swede
knocked a Jamaica Niger for Darby
MCGOWAN in the spring CT '93. and
many darker house can boast its
darker feat of violence.
But If the life OF Jack ashore is
somewhat 1urid even today. when he
is on duty he is one of the finest types
of American workman. On duty he is
a sturdy workman, methOdical. regu-
lar as the ships bells. punctual az