The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1910-06-04

He was set adrift almost without
money, in land of strangers. A
hostile land too for the gendarmes
in front of the Office eyed him with
disfavor. He desperately lone
leit the grip OF circumstance keen upon him. AS
andered about the strange streets he discovered.
In the lining of his coat, envelope. until then
ced Its contents four one-hundreddollar bills
lis
~ Irvington. Oct. IT,
sy Make rsae ds s4 We kept M won n
nsa5dPF 1sJ gel @ k
pset pset an @ for Black certain adrlft dead
''S anu Your. as3!x ssass%!xy,, s,,ra,.,
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 fine. and took the next boat for Lon
don town. Incidentally, he forgot all about his de-
sire to travel six 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 some foreign land. Consuls in foreign
ports could not libel ships detain captains on
their unsupported word. The ships papers
always straight, at any rate the face of them
The most that could be done was to report the
case and there 1t ended The Sherman boys
the other side Of the earth heard even an
echo OF It, 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 in Jail for safekeeping Charlie
Marsden disappeared. The tailer told a story Of
masked men, guns and general confusion but could
Identity 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 moving tale. He had been bound,
gagged and carried aboard ship just she
sailed. When released at sea, he 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 wellpaid
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
saortown kings up with a round turn was the
united public opinion of Irvington directed against
them
Irvington suddenly walked up to find itself blot
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, IL their friends make fuss about them
Captains who refused to be held up for extrava-
giant blood money. and to play villain at small
pFoht, aVolded the port BUSINESS was railing OH.
Upper 1rvngton was hit where 1t lived and the
Sherman boys were notified to quit
The kings of sailortown have abdicated. Steam
vessels make voyages short that advance
notes" are no longer prizes. Seamens unions
have given measure of protection even to deep
water sailors, who seem to have fewer rights and
more hardshps than most men. The bullying cap
tain the bucko 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 cti
the wrath of upper Irvington When 1t
hit in its pocket and its selfesteem-that up-
Get the kingdom Of the sailortown tyrants