The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1910-06-03

Hs&sHA&sS$ a witness and was dumb. After the
&xSST[ advance note" and a preposterous
gsSHess+ slop chest charge had been deducted
~=SS.@| from his wages, they handed him
= ~ the balance, a 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.
g. He was set adrift, almost without
- money, in a land of strangers. A
z hostile land, too, for the gendarmes
in front of the office eyed him with
disfavor. He was desperately lone
ana ieit the grip of circumstance keen upon him. As
about the strange streets he discovered,
ed IN the lining of his coat, an envelope. until then
oticed. Its contents were four one-hundred-dollar bills
this note:
~ 1rvington, Oct. II.
'oar oS Siy; Make msFe's tr y0ST d fn1 We E Es your y 4 gun th,.J It would oulS
boarding, masters. You would get t 4 ? and sp we hiseGeS
Rssa IT f@ al: for SSu Black %Hnf IS e eFi XSu to ss farn ns sSu ada nfp d %i
broke Quit BOOKING and S BE q man NAM
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 a most artistic beat
ing, paid a fine, and took the next boat for Lon
don town. Incidentally, he forgot all about his de-
sire to travel six or 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 so continually escaped punish
ment was small wonder. The men injured never
had a chance to tell their stories until they were
NSASAN ~ pcthO iSI6A lduu. SOuSulS III T6lku
ports could not libel ships or 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 it ended. The Sherman boys on
the other side Of the earth never heard even an
echo OF 1T. The witnesses against them were scat
tered over the seven seas and prosecution could
not 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 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 a story Of
masked men, guns and general confusion, but could
identify no one as having taken part in the Jail
delivery. With the witness gone, prosecution halt.
ed. Long afterward Charlie Marsden came back
and told a moving tale. He had been bound,
gagged and carried aboard a ship just as she
sailed. When released at sea, he was told that
he had been regularly shipped and was led a 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 over the wrongs Of a few sail
ors. Prosecution faltered and paltered along its
usual dismal way, and what at last brought the
sanortown kings up with a round turn was the
united public opinion of ~Irvington directed against
them.
~Irvington suddenly walked up to find itself a blot
on the map. Unexplained dead men are no good
/. advertisement for any town; neither are mysteri-
GUS disappearances of strangers within its gates to
: be desired, II their friends make a fuss about them.
Captains who refused to be held up for extraya-
!, giant blood money, and to play villain at small
profit, avoided the port. Business was falling of.
Upper ~Irvington was hit where 1t lived and the
Sherman boys were notified to quit.
The kings of saiortown have abdicated. Steam
/. vessels make -voyages so short that advance
r notes. are no longer prizes. fSeamen's unions
have given a measure Of protection even to deep
j water sailors. who seem to have fewer rights and
, more hardships than most men. The bullying cap.
a tain. the buckle mate and the boarding master have
all been singed by the feeble and tardy fire Of
a 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 I~ryington. When IT
I was hit in its pocket and its self-esteem-that up
!. set the kingdom of the sailortown tyrants.
D ~
4 A rHt