The Lamar register., 1910-06-01

be paid out of the debtors hide his wages.
Boarding masters OF this class petty
calls. They dealt In men at retail. The brothers
John and Peter Sherman. of Trvington the Pa
ctic coast. were OF another type. They dealt in
men wholesale. shipped entire Their
boarding houses were licensed by the govern
Inent. Captains bargained with them openly.
The shipping commissioner of the port winked
ut their devious ways. A crowd of thugs.
ners and hangers-on served them and thrived by
their favor. They were men OF substance and
owned controlled part of their business
cry saloon. dance hall and resort in the crooked
streets and dark alleys about the wharves. Upper
Irvington drew a deadline about the waterfront
and seldom ventured 1t outside of business
hours. Jack and Pete Sherman kings of
Irvingtons sailortown.
Every autumn a big feet OF wind Jam.
mers"-ships OF 1000 to 5000 tons register-lying
of Irvington. The wheat of the northwest
was in their holds. consigned to ports In Europe
or India by way OF the six-months' journey
round the Horn The wheat fleet Irvington
called it, and when the wheat fleet came. upper
Irvington stirred itself. sailortown reused to
vicious life. and the sailortown kings reaped
harvest of blood money
No captain shipped a crew from Irvington
I'll he had done business with the kings and paid
their price. Captain Brown, of the bark Carmar-
thaenshire. learned that to his cost. He put into
1rvington for a cargo at time when ships were
plenty and men hard to get. He uncon-
cernod. for his men had been shipped in England
and would not be discharged until the home port
reached. Captains OF deepladen vessels ly
ing In the stream eyed the Carmarthaenshire's
crew enviously. Jack Sherman quietly sent
man two aboard the "lmejuicer' to visit and
smuggle in forbidden whisky. By twos and
threes Captain Browns left him and were
hidden about saortown. The Irvington police
asked to bring them back but however hard
they looked for deserters they didn't find any.
Then dark night the rest of the crew van
ished the side. to the last man. after knock
ing the breath out OF Captain Brown and tricing
the mate up to the main fiferail And before the
astonished captain could recover breath enough
to for law" Jack and Pete Sherman had his
men shipped in of the waiting vessels and
away Next day the captain was waited on by
the kings. who blandly offered to find him a new
crew-at $50 the He roared again-to the
British consul. to his shipping agents. to the po-
lice. who sympathetic but helpless Nobody
could be found to even hint that the kings had
any hand in the affair and the shipping commits
sioner's records were clear. He had shipped no
deserters that he knew of.
get back his men, get the dogs of Justice to
even bark at the kings. he at least would pay
them no blood money for So he
Irvipgton by steamer. His bark was hauled out
into the stream and her crew kept close in her
forecastle That night she boarded by
masked men. who swept her new crew over the
bows into the stream. Gossip had 1t that some
of them were drowned. Captain Brown gave up
and paid the Sherman boys SIS instead of $50
each for crew. and put to sea in hurry
They're bleedin swine. but they're kings of