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Toyland in all its Splendor
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Graefs Hardware
Stoves and Ranges
I Xmas Suggestions
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Electrical Goods and Percolators, Safety
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PERILS AND JOYS OF RUM FLEET ARE
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BARED BY THE BRITISH RUM RUNNER
^ ^ ^ 5;: H1 >|J %
WHO JEERS AT UNITED STATES DRY LAW
Canny Scotchman Tells How Whiskey Is Sent to Ger
many- Whereby Some Juggling of Maritime Pro
cedure, Vessels Clear for America, and How
Contraband Cargo Is Gotten Ashore.
LONDON, England, Dec. 19.—Secrets of New York’s “Rum
Row” and thrilling experiences of the happy-go-lucky adventures
who nightly unload hundreds of cases of genuine Scotch whiskey
from liquor-laden vessels off New York Harbor and deliver it to
New York’s bootleggers, have been revealed for the first time by J.
Roger Barry, a canny Scotchman and one of the hundreds of Brit
ishers engaged in the “game.”
Barry has been engaged in the business for the past three
years, but not until last June did he get any real Rum-Row expe
riences. Previous to that he acted simply as an agent for a big
American operator, buying up Eng
lish liquor to stock the vessel which
the operator provided.
The “operator” with whom Barry
last did business, an American, came
over in de luxe style on a large
trans-Atlantic liner, stopped at a
fashionable West End hotel and
passed as an ordinary rich business
man on a holiday.
An agent bought up 37,000 cases
of whiskey for the operator, and the
operator bought a single screw
steamer of 3,000 tons to transport
the supply of “wet goods” across the
Atlantic. Barry signed on as second
steward, being put dowm on the
ship’s papers under that description,
at wages of twenty-five cents per
month.
Clears for America.
The boat loaded at Leith, and sail
ing papers were made out for Ham
burg. From Hamburg, by some jug
gling of maritime procedure, the boat
was able to clear for America with
her full cargo of whiskey, to which
was added, from the German port,
extensive supplies of champaign,
cognac, gin and raw alcohol.
The operator followed proceedings
until the boat left Antwerp, when he
skipped back to America on board
the Berengaria, arriving in New
York ten days ahead of the heaving
to of his rumship thus having time
to make final arrangements with
the rum-runners and customers for
the smuggled booze.
After a slow trip across the Atlan
tic the booze boat hove to thirty
miles southeast of Montauk Point,
Long Island.
On the third day, in answer to a
wireless from the boat to the oper
ator ashore, a motor boat approached
carrying the operator, in jovial spir
its. The motor boat took off two
hundred cases, and the operator
promised that a schooner would ar
rive shortly to transfer more of her
cargo.
Schooner Shows Up.
“Sure enough,” according to Bar
ry’s story, “a schooner turned up,
out of a Canadian port, and, under
standing the whole game thoroughly,
she took off 5,000 cases of liquor;
and, while the mollified crew were
toiling at their task, who should
come up but the American revenue
cutter Ceneca.
“All she could do that day was to
stand by and watch the transship
ment of case after case of liquor
from our ship into the schooner. She
was so near that I could almost
have tossed a biscuit onto her deck.
She could do nothing. We were out
side the twenty-five-mile-limit.
“All I heard was one laugh—a
laugh that seemed to scoff at the
uselessness of laws. You can buy
up the revenue men on land. They
make, in fact, nice little fortunes for
themselves. But the cutters are
Navy ships and are not to be bribed.
They do their best, but even they
have been ‘got-at’; for one night
when I was in Rum Row, Seneca,
chasing a motor boat, had her
searchlights suddenly put out of
action by someone oh board.”
On July 30 Barry’s boat received
orders to proceed to Ambrose Chan
nel still outside the twenty-five-mile
limit, where the real Rum Row is
located and where Barry came, into
contract wit lithe real rum-runners,
who take the risks, coming out to
the cargo ships in speedy motor
boats and carrying the forbidden
stores back to land, running the
g untlet of revenue cutters—and c
customs officials on shore.
In Rum Row.
“The fleet of booze ships that lies
just out of sight of American land,”
continued Barry, “numbered that
day about twenty-five vessels, most
of them steel cargo boats, tended by
schooners. v
“The liquor operators find it more
profitable to unload a cross-Atlantic
cargo boat onto a schooner or store
boat and send her back again for
more booze, rather than keep her
hanging about outside the limit for
several weeks, while the motor boats
take off their 200 cases at a time.
“As we steamed through the fleet
there floated across the water to us
cheerful hails from the other buc
caneers. The first appeared to be in
high fettle. Laws cutters and Reve
nue men; bullets and unsteady mar
kets never seemed to worry them.
“The rum-runners are the most
remarkable men I have ever met.
They are a mixture of American
business man, Barbary pirate and
athlete. Their life is hard, profitable,
lawless and dangerous, for the reve
nue cutters have orders to fire at
sight of them.
“Many of the rum-runners are
charming men. Some I met were
university graduates, who find the
life healthier, more entertaining and
more profitable than selling scrap or
shares.”
Hi-Jackers Appear.
Three rum-running pirates tried
to loot the stores from Barry’s boat.
They appeared in a motor boat, with
a plausible story and plausible cre
dentials entitling them to take off
180 cases of liquor. But they didn’t
have the code. The operator had
arranged that, on his first visit to
the boat, by tearing a bunch of dollar
bills in half, giving one-half to the
captain and keeping the other half
himself. Whenever a rum-runner
appeared who had malf of a dollar
bill the numbers of which corres
ponded with one of the halves in
the captain’s keeping, his requisition
was filled. But the pirates were
unceremoniously pushed off the boat.
“On August 11,” continued Barry,
“a fireman quarreled with our first
mate and went for him. The cap
tain walked in and knocked out the
fireman, who was put in irons. But
the crew were turbulent enough to
set him free during the night, and
the next morning he was swagger
ing about again.
“Fun and trouble came our way
throughout the month. We caught
two sharks one day. A fireman, one
of a few who had got hold of a case
or two of whiskey, fell over the side
one night. He was a fine swimmer;
but as he was drunk, the cry of
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"man overboard!” was raised at
once.
“Then came his great voice out of
the darkness: ‘Hi! Man overboard?
Where is he? I’ll save him!’ A tough
lot.’
Bad Weather. i
Bad weather wrecked more havoc
with Barry’s boat than the revenue
cutters. In fact, they were never
bothered by the law. But on August.
26 a hurricane swept them fourteen
miles away from their station, car
rying away dock cargoes of liquor,
together with wireless apparatus,
spars and iron hatchpins. Twrenty
six vessels were thrown up high and
dry on the shores,-of Montauk Har
bor. The next day Barry’s boat was
back at the old rendezvous.
"I went ashore with two lots of
cargo,” Barry continued. “The mo
tor-boat men always run in at night,
being ready, with loaded boats, by
nightfall to make the twenty-five or
thirty miles’ run into harbor.
“They run into various ports and
inlets along the Long Island and
Monmouth oast, or inside the Low
ei bay leading to New York. As far
as I could discover, they ran no risk
in ’anding their cargoes.
“Now and then a motor boat is
cap'urei The runners at -' charged
the police; the cargo is confis
cated and the boat, too —unless the
owner undertakes not to use it again
for bootlegging. Of course, ho prom
ises and sells the boat, maybe to
a bootlegging friend of his, who
merely registers it under his name
and carries on.”
Thomas Kelley, 71, killed Peter
Jackson, 82, in an English poorhouse,
because Jackson snored loudly.
Bath Brushes, 50 cents at J. L.
Graef’s. tf
—-(t ±
Judge Friend reprimanded a wit
ness and made him desist from chew
ing gum in a Chicago court.
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