The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-13
WHAT TBLUEJACKETI DOES WITH MONEY ON HIS PAY DAY Ganteen and Official News boy Give Him an Oppor-
 tunity to Spend. SOME SEND WAGES
 TO FOLKS AT HOME The Hardened Sailor is a Very Heavy Eater and
 Spends Much for Food.

''When I was told the bluejackets' pay had been raised from $17 month | to $50, I wondered what use those boys would make of the money. They :: do not pay for room or board There 1 seemed to be no way of spending l money except on leave or liberty, l which does not come often. But at | the time I was told of the raise I had not been introduced to the canteen or the newsboy.
 Many of the boys, most of them, in | fact, have this to their credit-they send money home. Many have good l sized bank accounts; others haven't a cent. A few days after pay day the improvident are broke. If the truth were found out most of this class have the canteen fever, an unsuitable sweet tooth, and are for the first time in their lives handling more than a dol lar or two at a time.
 How much business do you do here a month ?" I asked the officer in charge of the canteen, a young man, from the pay department, on one of the largest ships, where 1900 men were enrolled.
 | GOOQ weeks l QO Sl0UU, Sd1Q ne. we don't think we have done a good business if we fail to take in $250 a day. From April to August I sold out | S100,000 worth of stock. Can't keep supplied. I'm sold out of everything. Those kids want candy all the time. The other day I bought 28 cases of chocolate and it was all gone in two days. The only time I have any peace is the first day the men are aboard. They don't want anything that day. Sea sickness gets 'em all.''
 The canteen, which occupies a space perhaps 20 feet square in the center of the ship, is open three times a day for a half-hour each time. The first opening is at 7:30 a. rn., the sec
 ond at 12:30 noon and the last at 4:30 p. m. Six hundred men is the
 average number of customers each is
 sue. They buy anything from tobacco
 to candy, from soap to crackers.
 When first they come abroad those
 boys cannot get enough to eat, es-
 pecially enough sweets.
 l The change of life, of air, of work
 creates appetites. The hardened sail
 or is not heavy eater and he never
 spends his money on sweets. Malnu- triton. may be the answer in many cases among the new recruits, whose appetites seem abnormal. It is a fact that the scales show gain for every new man the first months in ser
 vice.
 ,I As I looked over the records I saw that many sailors added as much as I 10 pounds during the first month. T.
 recalled my boarding school days. We used to enter the school slender,
 shapely girls, but before the year was
 through the regularity of the life, the e plain, wholesome food and the outside
 stuffing we did changed us into young ladies of avoirdupois Tot to be men,
 tioned. Unlike us girls, my sons did Q not seem to get fat.
 I saw only two or three who might be called fat while I was with the 7, fleet. I never recall seeing a fat sailor
 ashore. Maybe they are a disgrace to
 the life and are kept aboard ship. o Those boys filled out, broadened, grew 5 like weeds, They ran to muscle. Many = of them are only 16 and the average il age is under q, which accounts for
 the growth. At the end of a few il months of their new life they cease " to put on weight and they eat less The competitor of the canteen is . the ships newsboy. Each ship has
 a newsboy. This newsie is not off. q cially a member of the ship. But he a has place all his own and >lany n privileges. The ship would be as com. l. plete without him as without it's guns
 or it's gunners. He follows ''hih ship n from one base to another. The newsie
 1 met aboard the U. s. s. - had fol if lowed her to China few years ago d Before the fleet leaves one base fol
 another if the newsboy is trustwor o thy, and he usually is, he is told to gt
 to a certain place, where he will re "a ceive instructions where next to go o At times of reace he is often carried 70 by the ship from one base to another l,, He is a character, this salt newsie
 He is young. He understands tn,
 needs and the craving of the blue n jacket.
 n He learns the special weaknesse of the different men, their preference Ia and he caters to them. Each day h. "a has new supply of something t. ,s tempt the pennies from the willing 1o pockets of the crew.
 ,n Today he may sell patriotic sill e handkerchiefs, tomorrow pictur
 pIdylHS CdTUS, the n6AI udy sets o " post cards of scenes near the base o q far away. On pay day he has a Iarg
 and varied stock. Always he has sup
 plies of magazines and newspaper
 which are the most popular. Whil
 many money-free lads grow poorer of he economies, plies his trade an VI grows richer.
 The profit he makes is his own. Tn oe profit the canteen makes is divide v, two ways. Half goes to the ship GU welfare fund and the other half to tn [y government to provide entertainmen He for the bluejackets.
 ne The two shops differ in character ar found on the shelves of the canteeI to ink, paper, cigarettes, tobacco, boxe
 of sweet crackers, candy, more can 1ls dy. Other edibles were there, and tn lot things needed by blueJacket in hi ,er private life-soap, tooth paste and tai ew cum powder The powder was fo to men only.'' It was a peculiar shade ( ge brown, supposed to match the com spi pleXlon of a rugged out-of-doors ma1 he suppose. The newsboy's store lie which is a table set up in the leas is used space, was a speciality shol it. changing it's specially with the sea re- sons and the ports
 One day I helped the officers cer
 sor the mail Thousands of letter ty were on the wardroom table to sct marked with the censor's o. K. O nv Sundays and on all legal holidays,