Weekly journal-miner., 1908-12-23

2 can sailor is passing. Indeed he has
 almost disappeared and with him many
 curious customs and practices of early
 days. Shanghaiug the practice of ob.
 'auing sailors by force which under
 inc less graphic name of imprcssment
 was the chief cause of the war of 1872
 with England has been stamped out
 except in rare instances, it's only sur
 vival being found in the oyster fisher
 ies of Chesapeake Bay. There the
 practice of shanghaing has persisted,
 according to writer in Appleton s
 magazine, to such an extent that the
 matter has recently been brought to
 the attention of the federal. authorities.
 Generally speaking, however, the old
 school American sailors, together with
 the characteristic features of sailor
 life ashore which gave picturesquoness
 to the waterfront section of every port
 city, has disappeared forever. In New
 York, the greatest port in the country,
 where once the pitfalls for Jack ashore
 were myriad, the number of shops and
 resorts conducted especially for the
 purpose of separating tars from their
 money, is steadily diminishing.
 Chiefly tnis is due to the change in
 all conditions. While The sailor of a
 century or half n century ago was
 skilled member of an exacting profes | sion, he is now, as a result of the gen. cral use of steam, merely n laborer on
 water, needed for the scrubbing of decks, the polishing of metal, and the handling of paint buckets.
 Just where the term shanghaing got its origin is matter of dispute. bu, the best authorities agree that it came from the city of Shanghai. China. When the far eastern trade was ear ricd on by the fastest sailing ships men could build-the famous "clip. pers '-sailors were artists in their | profession and well paid. Shanghai | was one of the great ports and there sailors after their long voyage were likely To dissipnte tneir pay and fail | to report for the home voyage. Asl the value of eastern eargoes depended | largely on prompt handling, the prac. tiec arose in Shanghai of obtaining men Co man the vessels by force or trickery usually by the use of drugs and drink and from this it is believed came the term shanghaing.
 In the old days New York's water front, calculated first to get the money Of Jack ashore and then 10 shanghai him for The regular fee formerly paid by captains, was the most picturesque and roisterous in the country. What IS now inc famous Bowery was then Jacks special stamping ground and It's deterioration is held to be largely due 10 the disappearance of the typical old time sailor.
 'he Bowery was once the Fifth Avenue of the town" says the Apple. ton cnronicler, "but beginning on south street from Coenties Slip, up ana down the water front, the dives started 10 creep in and fll the whole lower east end of the Manhattan City. ihey did not require much law in those urd, buxom years, and whatever han. pened that wasn't right was hidden beneath the log of navy cut, blown up , rom Jacks inevitable clay pipe, and
 
 was drowned beneath the plunkety. T punk of some yellowed and cracked , plano. Sailor men were more or less 'f luxury in the late '7O's, and the | 'oiice, therefore, let them alone. That 1, md or the big city was packed full of n he sea drift of the Seven Oceans. 'oiaevks and swedes from the north f ubbed elbows with Chinks from Hong. o 'ong, by way of Frisco with 'smok. i, d irsnmen,' as the sailors called the a hacks from the Antilles, with Hindoo !, oolies who had foated from suez up = ast Joppa and Naples across into ,he ., ower bay" |. The oid'time sailors boarding housrs T plhees' AS they were evalled. all ]. ad their "runners men skilled in i, ne game of attracting Jack ashore, r, citing his money and then drueping ., I'm and turning him over to the can. ., am Of any vessel short of hands. "A n nar'er century ago." says MT. Lyon. f, IT you walked along the shore front n, Quebec or New York, or New Or. 'ans' or East Street in Frisco, snd f, to step in moment for A n lug of whiskey, you were ape to wake - r TWO days out to sea with nothing ut pair of shoes and 'donkey's ., re"kiast which, in the parlance of -, 'e sea dog, is merely a straw mat. ., 'ess. p' Today all this bas oh..l ,,