Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1910-06-04

eSSssSS5ssE.= slop chest charge had been deducted
from his wages. they handed him
the balance, pitiful little pile of
small silver and told him to get out
1t was against the law. of course, but
he didn't know that.
He was set adrift, almost without
money, in land of strangers.
hostile land, too. for the gendarmes
in front of the Office eyed him with
disfavor- He desperately lone
felt the grip of circumstance keen upon him. As
ndered about the strange streets he discovered,
in the lining of his coat envelope until then
ed Its contents four onehundredd dollar bills
is note:
o Make FsSe foa Ksgt arc of wo 1s
ee it M o9 BACK 2nsy er o @ rifs dead
broke, Quit BOOKING and R E + % s1siy ~
The friendly faces of Uncle Sans greenbacks
gave him courage. He made plans and acted
them then and there. Meeting that English mate
in the street, he gave him most artistic beat
ing paid fine. and took the next boat for Lon
don town Incidentally he forgot all about his de-
sire to travel six seven thousand miles and kill
the sailortown kings. What spasm Of virtue caused
them to give him back his money he never knew.
They were not noted for doing such things.
That the kings continually escaped punish
ment was small wonder. The men injured never
had chance to tell their stories until they
ashore in some foreign land. Consuls in foreign
ports could not libel ships detain captains
their unsupported word The ships papers were
always straight. at any rate the face of them.
The most that could be done to report the
the other side of the earth never heard
echo of it. The witnesses against them scat
tered the and prosecution could
touch them.
The United States district attorney and his staff
did their best to keep the Shermans within the let
ter, at least, of the shipping laws but they had
hard sledding In the kings indicted
Charlie Marsden, the star witness for the prosecu
ton. locked up in Jail for safekeeping. Charlie
Marsden disappeared. The jailer told story of
masked men. guns and general confusion. but could
identify having taken part in the Jail
delivery With the witness gone, prosecution halt
ed. Long afterward Charlie Marsden came back
and told moving tale. He had been bound,
gagged and carried aboard a ship just she
sailed. When released at sea, he was told that
he had been regularly shipped and was led sorry
life aboard. In foreign ports he appealed in vain
to consuls who showed him his name-forged of
course..on the ships articles and laughed at him.
When he finally worked his way back to Irvington
his story awakened interest and new prosecutions
begun The Sherman boys had well-pafd
lawyers who dragged out the with adjourn
ments and legal tangles. Irvington was too busy
to be long excited over the wrongs of few sail
Prosecution faltered and paltered along its
usual dismal way, and what at last brought the
sailortown kings up with a round the
united public opinion of Irvington directed against
them.
Irvington suddenly walked to find itself a blot
the map. Unexplained dead men are no good
advertisement for any town; neither mysteri-
disappearance of strangers within its gates to
desired, If their friends make fuss about them
Captains who refused to be held for extrava-
CANT blood money, and to play villain at small
profit, avoided the port Business was falling on.
Upper Irvfngton hit where it lived and the
Sherman boys were notified to quit
The kings of sailortown have abdfcated. Steam
vessels make voyages short that advance
notes" longer prizes Seamen's unions
have given a measure of protection to deep
sailors who seem to have fewer rights and
more hardships than most The bullying cap
buckle mate and the boarding master have
all been singed by the feeble and tardy fire Of
United States maritime law. The railroads had
their share in the revolution But what really
caused the Sherman boys to become private citi-
zens was the wrath of upper Irvington. When 1t
was hit it's pocket and its self-esteem-that up
set the kingdom of the sai1ortown tyrants-