{"id":"01KG8AKTZCSN1B5FEJZWP4N9YV","cid":"bafkreicbeemk7i5sqe7gpihjqxzdd35szfulmtt3idpovrqary2k5t4o74","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7718,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7646,"text":"found it in the gutter—hush! don’t speak! give me the money, and it’s\r\nyours.”\r\n\r\n“My friend,” said I, “I don’t trade in these articles; I don’t want\r\nyour ring.”\r\n\r\n“Don’t you? Then take that,” he whispered, in an intense hushed\r\npassion; and I fell flat from a blow on the chest, while this infamous\r\njeweler made away with himself out of sight. This business transaction\r\nwas conducted with a counting-house promptitude that astonished me.\r\n\r\nAfter that, I shunned these scoundrels like the leprosy: and the next\r\ntime I was pertinaciously followed, I stopped, and in a loud voice,\r\npointed out the man to the passers-by; upon which he absconded; rapidly\r\nturning up into sight a pair of obliquely worn and battered boot-heels.\r\nI could not help thinking that these sort of fellows, so given to\r\nrunning away upon emergencies, must furnish a good deal of work to the\r\nshoemakers; as they might, also, to the growers of hemp and\r\ngallows-joiners.\r\n\r\nBelonging to a somewhat similar fraternity with these irritable\r\nmerchants of brass jewelry just mentioned, are the peddlers of\r\nSheffield razors, mostly boys, who are hourly driven out of the dock\r\ngates by the police; nevertheless, they contrive to saunter back, and\r\nboard the vessels, going among the sailors and privately exhibiting\r\ntheir wares. Incited by the extreme cheapness of one of the razors, and\r\nthe gilding on the case containing it, a shipmate of mine purchased it\r\non the spot for a commercial equivalent of the price, in tobacco. On\r\nthe following Sunday, he used that razor; and the result was a pair of\r\ntormented and tomahawked cheeks, that almost required a surgeon to\r\ndress them. In old times, by the way, it was not a bad thought, that\r\nsuggested the propriety of a barber’s practicing surgery in connection\r\nwith the chin-harrowing vocation.\r\n\r\nAnother class of knaves, who practice upon the sailors in Liverpool,\r\nare the pawnbrokers, inhabiting little rookeries among the narrow lanes\r\nadjoining the dock. I was astonished at the multitude of gilded balls\r\nin these streets, emblematic of their calling. They were generally next\r\nneighbors to the gilded grapes over the spirit-vaults; and no doubt,\r\nmutually to facilitate business operations, some of these\r\nestablishments have connecting doors inside, so as to play their\r\ncustomers into each other’s hands. I often saw sailors in a state of\r\nintoxication rushing from a spirit-vault into a pawnbroker’s; stripping\r\noff their boots, hats, jackets, and neckerchiefs, and sometimes even\r\ntheir pantaloons on the spot, and offering to pawn them for a song. Of\r\ncourse such applications were never refused. But though on shore, at\r\nLiverpool, poor Jack finds more sharks than at sea, he himself is by no\r\nmeans exempt from practices, that do not savor of a rigid morality; at\r\nleast according to law. In tobacco smuggling he is an adept: and when\r\ncool and collected, often manages to evade the Customs completely, and\r\nland goodly packages of the weed, which owing to the immense duties\r\nupon it in England, commands a very high price.\r\n\r\nAs soon as we came to anchor in the river, before reaching the dock,\r\nthree Custom-house underlings boarded us, and coming down into the\r\nforecastle, ordered the men to produce all the tobacco they had.\r\nAccordingly several pounds were brought forth.\r\n\r\n“Is that all?” asked the officers.\r\n\r\n“All,” said the men.\r\n\r\n“We will see,” returned the others.\r\n\r\nAnd without more ado, they emptied the chests right and left; tossed\r\nover the bunks and made a thorough search of the premises; but\r\ndiscovered nothing. The sailors were then given to understand, that\r\nwhile the ship lay in dock, the tobacco must remain in the cabin, under\r\ncustody of the chief mate, who every morning would dole out to them one\r\nplug per head, as a security against their carrying it ashore.\r\n\r\n“Very good,” said the men.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS9YSMC19A4WTN12TSZ1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTZV0FS4H4JN6WPJZYC3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTZV3YHN8RHHW2Q4KD42","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.388Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.584Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}