Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1910-06-02

Z q witness" and was dumb. After the
advance note" and a preposterous
slop chest charge had been deducted
sz77sT-sF -, from his wages, they handed him
the balance, pitlful 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 a land of strangers. A
hostile land, too, for the gendarmes
in front of the Office eyed him with
dsfavor He desperately lone
] felt the grip of circumstance keen upon him. AS
lndered about the strange streets he discovered,
in the lining Of his coat envelope, until then
ced. Its contents four onehundred-dollar bills
lis note:
$500. r,. 1rvington Oct II.
os sir Here's dust We kept It would
boarding masters You would get drunk we needed
need al certain to turn You adrft dead
'''N'' N'' ''ON'"S anu yours Ro l truly ,,,
The friendly faces of Uncle Sans greenbacks
gave him courage. He made plans and acted on
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 were
ashore in foreign land. Consuls In foreign
ports could not libel ships detain captains on
their unsupported word. The ships papers were
always straight, at any rate on the face of them.
The most that could be done was to report the
case and there 1t ended. The Sherman boys on
the other side of the earth never heard even an
echo Of it. The witnesses against them were scat.
tered over the seven and prosecution could
not touch them
The United States district attorney and his staff
thneR ha1f
ter at least. of the shipping laws, but they had
hard shedding In one case the kings were indicted
Charlie Marsden, the star witness for the prosecu-
ton, was 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 ship just she
sailed. When released at sea, he was told that
he had been regularly shipped and 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
were begun. The Sherman boys had well-paid
lawyers who dragged out the cases with adjourn
ments and legal tangles, Irvington was too busy
to be long excited the wrongs of a few sail
Prosecution faltered and paltered along its
usual dismal way, and what at last brought the
ShlloTloWn kings up Win q EOunu TURN was the
united public opinion of Irvington directed against
them.
Irvington suddenly walked up to find itself blot
on the map. Unexplained dead men no good
advertisement for any town; neither are mysteri-
disappearances of strangers within It's gates to
be desired II their friends make fuss about them.
Captains who refused to be held up for extrava-
giant blood money, and to play villain at small
profit avoided the port. Business falling of.
Upper Irvington was hit where 1t lived and the
Sherman boys were notified to quit
The kings of saiIortown have abdcated. Steam
vessels make voyages short that advance
notes" are no longer prizes. seamen's unions
have given measure of protection even to deep
water sailors, who seem to have fewer rights and
more hardships than most men. The bullying cap
tain. the buckle mate and the boarding master have
all been sinRed 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 cit-
zens- was the wrath of upper Irvington. When II
was hit in its pocket and Its sefesteem--that up
set the kingdom of the sailortown tyrants.