And no sooner he's
provided for than he turns you on. You youngsters don't seem to mind
whom you get into trouble."
"It was my turn now to stare with surprise and curiosity. He hadn't been
talking loud but he lowered his voice still more.
"Don't you know it's illegal?"
"I wondered what he was driving at till I remembered that procuring a
berth for a sailor is a penal offence under the Act. That clause was
directed of course against the swindling practices of the boarding-house
crimps. It had never struck me it would apply to everybody alike no
matter what the motive, because I believed then that people on shore did
their work with care and foresight.
"I was confounded at the idea, but Mr. Powell made me soon see that an
Act of Parliament hasn't any sense of its own. It has only the sense
that's put into it; and that's precious little sometimes. He didn't mind
helping a young man to a ship now and then, he said, but if we kept on
coming constantly it would soon get about that he was doing it for money.
"A pretty thing that would be: the Senior Shipping-Master of the Port of
London hauled up in a police court and fined fifty pounds," says he.
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