Glass. Book. DISTRICBCOLVABIA QFO 9—1465 l^njwunmimimi FROM JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD The Author FROM JOB TO JOB AROUND the WORLD BY ALFRED C. B. FLETCHER WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY RALPH J. RICHARDSON NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1921 MOUNT PLEASANT BRANCH • ft mi Copyright, 1916, By Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc. TRANSFER fe O. PUBLIC LIBRAE^ BBPT. 10,1040 DEDICATED TO I RALPH J. RICHARDSON J A GOOD COMPANION AND AN INTELLIGENT TRAVELLER i 5 FOREWORD The pages that follow are an account of a three- year trip I made around the world, starting from San Francisco with only a five-dollar gold piece and earning my way. My wanderings took me to Hawaii, Japan, Korea, China, the Philippines, Cey- lon, India, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, Europe, Eng- land, Norway, Spitzbergen, Sweden, and finally across the Atlantic to America. I think the book covers a new field in travel narrative in that it shows that it is possible to work one's way around the world and do so with a considerable degree of comfort. In most instances I held good positions, met the rep- resentative people of each country and travelled in moderate style. I, of course, had numerous hard- ships and adventures, which I relate. I wish to extend my thanks to Mr. Ralph J. Rich- ardson, my travelling companion on part of the trip, for the photographs which illustrate the edition and to Mr. Stanley Richardson for many valuable sug- gestions in connection with the manuscript of the volume. I also wish to express my gratitude to The Wide World Magazine for the courtesy of per- mitting me to republish the narrative from its pages. A. C. B. F. CONTENTS I Two World-Beaters . II Hawaii by Steerage III Government Inspectors at Pearl Harbour ..... IV Living as Japanese in Japan V Arrested as Spies in Japan . VI A Professor in a Chinese College VII Adrift in the Chinese Empire VIII Rural China by Cart . IX Assorted Jobs in the Philippines . X A Port-hole View of Southern Asia XI Two Tramps in India . XII A Sailor to Suez XIII An American Christmas in Jerusalem XIV Wandering in the Near East XV Greece and Rome from a Third-class Coach ..... XVI Europe on a Vanishing Bank-roll XVII From Luxury to Hunger XVIII A Resident of the Arctic Zone . XIX Mining Under the Midnight Sun XX To America as an Immigrant i 13 25 40 57 7i 86 105 115 129 144 164 179 197 210 233 249 261 276 295 ILLUSTRATIONS The author Frontispiece On the beach at Waikiki Our Kaneohe cottage .... " Grub is ready ; get your gang together ' The Steerage Trio The Gaylord, the only drag-bucket dredger in ence A restaurant where nothing but " grub " is served Bound for Japan Taisuke Murakami, our host at Nagoya The picture that caused our arrest A group of our Korean friends . Every day is wash-day in Korea . Provincial officials attending China's first track The author in Chinese garb-. A pagoda bridge in the Forbidden City Country boys of North China Sample of an irrigation system Crossing a Chinese country bridge The inn where Richardson put up for a night The house in which Richardson lived during h ploy at the prison .... A jutka or " jitney " used in Central India The Mount of Olives .... Our start for Nazareth A market in Constantinople . exist- meet is em- PAiiE 4 10 10 18 30 30 48 48 66 76 76 80 84 96 102 102 112 112 126 150 194 200 218 ILLUSTRATIONS St. John's Church, Needham Market .... 252 The author's home in Tromso 264 Tromso in summer-time 264 Pack ice in Ice Fjord 272 Twenty miles from land 272 The first load for shore 278 The ice pack from the crow's nest .... 284 The Munroe alongside the ice — 60 miles from land . 290 Longyear City, Spitzbergen — 700 miles from the North Pole 290 FROM JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD CHAPTER I TWO WORLD-BEATERS "What's the trouble? Are you seasick or home- sick?" cordially inquired Richardson, approaching a stranger who was hanging over the side of a ship bound for Honolulu. "Neither, my friend," I replied with a smile. These were the initial sentences of a dialogue which was happily destined to continue for three years. It was about an hour after the S.S. Alameda had left San Francisco for Honolulu, while leaning against the rail of the ship gazing at the receding city and turning over in my pocket a five-dollar gold piece, that I was hailed by Richardson. This gold piece was all the money I had in the world and I soon learned that the few loose coins my new friend possessed fell a little short of this amount. After exchanging a few ideas each of us discov- 2 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD ered that we were starting out on a similar expedi- tion — a trip around the world. Richardson had made arrangements with another fellow for such a tour and he had backed out. I also had planned for a companion — who disappointed me at the last mo- ment. With our partners failing us we both set out alone and by a happy coincidence took the same boat and met the first morning out of port. We liked one another's looks and decided to hook up, then and there. A combined wealth of less than ten dollars and the wide, wide world in front of us ! We agreed not to make any definite plans; we mapped out no itinerary, except the general one of around the world; we had no elaborate scheme of travel nor ideas of how we were to make our way, but decided to resign ourselves to chance and bang around, taking whatever came along. My idea was to explore the earth before I was anchored by matrimony, and Richardson wanted to see all of this world before he went to the next. We set out not as tourists — that familiar species of humanity — but as two refined American tramps. As a young boy I had vague notions of how I was some day going to "beat" my way around the world. I always pictured myself going as a vagrant. My career as a world-beater had now begun. To make the break was the difficult thing. To leave a good position against the advice of friends and start out on an expedition which seemed the height of folly to many people was not an easy step. TWO WORLD-BEATERS 3 I had heard of men beating their way amid a con- tinual round of hardships. I thought it possible to travel in such a manner and do so with a fair de- gree of comfort. It was our plan to look for good jobs and to get around in the middle course between the wealthy tourist on one hand and the ignorant, homeless tramp on the other. With our fares paid to Honolulu, by money we had saved, we had no cares, and mingled with the miscellaneous types of passengers on the ship. Forty school teachers, ranging in age from twenty to sixty, were returning to their insular positions; pious mis- sionaries were on their way to their posts after a sojourn in the States; sugar planters and pineapple growers spent hours on the promenade deck boost- ing the islands to the handful of tourists and others on the water for the first time. Seated at our table in the saloon was a Roman Catholic priest, a lean, kindly old man who was only able to eat about one meal in ten. Accompanying him were two monks, a fat one and a thin one, going to the islands to resume their labours. The amount of food the fat one could surround was not only a source of amaze- ment and anxiety to his fellow-eaters but was the cause for great alarm on the part of the ship's com- missary — for fear the supply of provisions would be exhausted before port was reached. If he had taken vows to deny himself many of the pleasures of this world he more than squared himself by the quantity of food he would devour at one sitting. 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD The six days it takes to go to Honolulu from San Francisco were spent as such days are usually spent at sea, talking and reading in the morning, shuffle- board and other games in the afternoon, singing and spooning in the evening — on the whole a civilized trip. On the morning of the seventh day we arrived in the harbour of Honolulu. After being amused by a group of native boys diving for coins thrown by all passengers except ourselves — who felt inclined to strip and join the divers — the ship was soon along- side and in a short time we were mingling with the cosmopolitan inhabitants on the streets of Honolulu. The next day found each of us enrolled on the teaching staff of two different schools. We became school teachers ! There is something rather dis- tasteful about a man teaching in the grammar grades. It is too ladylike. I would rather be caught operat- ing an electric runabout. But when one realizes that his last meal is not far away, any occupation is ac- ceptable, and school teaching proved to be one of the most attractive vocations which we pursued dur- ing the trip. Richardson affiliated himself with Mills Institute, a school under the control of the Hawaiian Board of the Congregational Church Missionary organization. The total enrolment of this institution was about two hundred students, three-fourths of whom were Chinese and the rest Japanese and Koreans. It graduated pupils of high school standing and it was in the upper division that Richardson was to work. On the beach at Waikiki TWO WORLD-BEATERS 5 He was instructor in algebra, geometry, Latin and English at sixty dollars a month and board. His work consisted of the routine duties of any ordinary teacher and, except that the school was quarantined for three weeks on account of diphtheria, nothing eventful occurred during his connection with the place. I assumed the duties of teacher of the fourth and fifth grades in Iolani School, a parochial institution connected with Saint Andrew's Cathedral, at the mere pittance of thirty dollars a month and board. Hawaiian schools are in many respects similar to those on the mainland and differ chiefly in the fact that the personnel of the pupils is much more cos- mopolitan. In these two grades there were about sixty boys made up of Hawaiians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Portuguese and but two Americans. At the end of two months under my instruction one of the American boys ran away and the other poor chap went insane — a tough commentary on the pedagogic ability of their teacher. One of the masterpieces of literature that came to my attention is too good to let fade into obscurity. It is a letter from a number of Chinese and Japa- nese pupils asking me for their report cards. It follows : "Dear Mr. A. C. B. Fletcher: Our objection in writing this letter to you that we don't want our report cards on last examination and you promise to us that you will sent out the cards on Monday, but the cards has not yet reached 6 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD us. We shall be obliged if you will sent us the re- port cards when you have accept this letter. Hoping to receive the cards early, Your disobedient pupils, H. Ah Chau, Instead of pupil." Mr. Ah Chew Mr. Jock Chay Mr. Ah Soy Mr. T. Murakami Mr. Jay Yet Mr. Lo Lee No one could resist this touching plea, so I spent one whole night correcting papers and had the report cards ready to deliver the following day. "The loveliest fleet of islands that lie anchored in any ocean," were the words in which Mark Twain once described the Hawaiian group, and the time we spent in the "Paradise of the Pacific" proved to be one of the most enjoyable periods of the trip. I have been surprised on many occasions at the ignorance displayed by people in the United States, and especially in the East, concerning the Territory of Hawaii. They imagine that the natives are a half-clad race recently descended from cannibals, that Honolulu is a semi-civilized village of Hawaiian huts and that modern conveniences have not yet found their way to the islands. Honolulu is a city of fifty thousand people, of whom a large number are Orientals and but a few thousands are Amer- icans. The Americans, although in the minority, dominate the city. Honolulu is one of the most beautiful and up-to-date cities of its size under the American flag. It has a good electric car service, hundreds of paved streets, first-class shops, three TWO WORLD-BEATERS 7 modern hotels and countless beautiful homes. There were one hundred and fifty automobiles lined up on the water front to meet the S.S. Cleveland when she docked at Honolulu with seven hundred passengers on her a round-the-world trip. There are hundreds of miles of excellent roads for motoring throughout the islands and the number of automobiles, per capita of Americans, greatly exceeds the ratio of any city on the mainland. Honolulu is a park from one end to the other. It combines all the attractive features of the tropics with the climate of the temperate zone and possesses a charm all its own. It was in this paradise that Richardson and I be- gan our wanderings. During the recesses we had from our school duties we explored the island of Oahu, upon which Honolulu is situated, and became as familiar with it as the average man is with his own back yard. We learned to ride the surf at Waikiki — the finest bathing beach in all the world. We 'climbed all the hills in the vicinity of Honolulu and visited Diamond Head and its fortifications. We took a dip in the Kalihi swimming hole, and we explored the island from one end to the other. Through the kindness of an American friend, we had at our disposal a summer cottage at Kaneohe, about twelve miles from Honolulu on the northern shore of the island. This little house was com- pletely equipped with cooking and eating appliances, beds and provisions. It was situated on the beach of Kaneohe Bay. We had the use of a sail boat, two row boats and fishing tackle. At this ideal spot we 8 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD spent many week-ends and, the whole time, we would go about clad in only a pair of trunks and devote the pleasant hours under the semi-tropical sun to swim- ming, boating and fishing. Many a time since, I have longed for another few days' stay at this little resort — to bathe in its sunshine and enjoy its out- door pleasures undisturbed by the noise and bustle of civilization. We concluded that teaching stipends would never get us around the world. Especially true was this in my case, for I was making an effort to pay twenty- dollars a month to a California real estate firm for several lots I had purchased some years before. We therefore decided to give up our schools and to rustle a more remunerative line of labour. Hearing that the United States Navy Department needed in- spectors for its operations in connection with the construction of the naval base at Pearl Harbour, about twelve miles from Honolulu, I wandered into the navy headquarters one morning and bluntly ad- dressed the first man I saw. "My name is Fletcher and I am looking for a job." The lieutenant in charge, who was dressed precisely in the white uniform of the tropics, resent- ing my abrupt manner, replied by asking sarcas- tically : "Have you been to high school?" "Yes," I said. "Are you a university graduate?" the officer con- tinued, beginning to realize that he had somewhat misjudged the applicant. TWO WORLD-BEATERS 9 "I was graduated from the University of Cali- fornia in 1907." "Well, then," said the lieutenant, assuming a dig- nified attitude, "an examination is to be held on Wednesday of next week for several positions as sub-inspectors of dredging, and if you will fill out an application you can take it." I filled out the docu- ment, which contained the regular useless and char- acteristic red tape required to get within approaching distance of a government position. "What does the examination cover?" I inquired. "It is contrary to the rules to answer such a ques- tion," was his reply. "But a man ought to have some line on what he is going up against. For all I know the questions may be on theology," I said with a smile. "Can't you give me a general idea what the test will cover?" The officer then informed me that the examination would include several questions on dredges, blasting and explosives and the use of a sextant and a pro- tractor, and would test the applicant's knowledge of geometry and arithmetic. After expressing my grati- tude for the information I wandered out into the street with my hopes somewhat shattered. As I aim- lessly sauntered along the water front leading from the Naval Station, I began to ponder over the vari- ous items to be included in the examination. The more I reflected the lower my hopes descended. I couldn't tell a sextant from a churn, a protractor was as strange a device to me as a doctor's forceps, io JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD and I knew no more about a stick of dynamite than a turtle does about music. But in spite of this apparently insurmountable wall of ignorance, we both agreed to take a chance at the examination, and I was designated to gather the in- formation. I borrowed a sextant from the skipper of a ship lying in the harbour and practised with the instrument in the vacant lots of the city. I made several trips to Pearl Harbour and studied the dif- ferent types of dredges at work in the channel, draw- ing diagrams and taking notes on each. I obtained a book on explosives and among other volumes I came across a publication entitled "Inspector's Hand- book," which contained most of the information we desired in concise form. While I was busy gathering data for the approach- ing examination, Richardson was earning two dollars a day on a job he had picked up from the Hono- lulu Telephone Company. His tedious duties con- sisted of installing a switch-board in the company's new building, and he spent his ten long hours a day in the monotonous task of connecting an endless num- ber of small metallic fibres. At the close of his sec- ond day on the job he struck his boss for a lay-off. "You have only worked two days and now you ask for time off. What do you want it for?" asked the oily-looking foreman. "I am scheduled to take a civil service examination to-morrow," was Richardson's reply. "A civil service examination ! Going to quit me, eh ? Not if I know anything about it. You're fired. Upper: Our Kaneohe Cottage Lower: "Grub is Ready, Get Your Gang Together" TWO WORLD-BEATERS n Come and get your time right now," exclaimed the enraged telephone boss. "That suits me all right," said Richardson in an indifferent tone. He received his four dollars and walked unconcernedly out of the place. That evening Richardson, four dollars richer, spent several hours under my instruction, and I made an effort to prime him full of the information I had collected for the examination. Promptly at nine o'clock the next morning we were both on hand at the Naval Station, equipped with a banana each for lunch, to take the six-hour test. There were seven other aspirants representing seven types of the hu- man species, from a shabbily dressed stevedore to a foppishly attired bank clerk, and each had little or no knowledge of the nature of the test which was about to begin. After the examination had been in progress about an hour, Richardson and I were the only ones left — the other poor beggars had given up in despair. With our coats off, we answered the nine questions in the required time and afterwards retired to the lawn, where we were asked to demon- strate our practical knowledge of a sextant. We were instructed to measure off four red flags, which were so arranged that they formed a circle with the point on which we stood as a pivot. We were given ten minutes to perform this feat. Richardson han- dled the instrument like a veteran. I was unable to locate the final flag through the lense of the sextant on account of a multitude of red banners flying from a man-of-war lying alongside of a dock 12 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD near-by. After fumbling around in a vain effort to find the right red flag in the maze of the ship's signals, and realizing that my ten minutes were fast fading away, I decided to take a long shot and do a little guess work. I took my vernier reading from the biggest flag I could see. It turned out to be a good guess, for I learned afterwards that my entire circle read three hundred and sixty degrees, one second. The next day we were both notified that we had passed the examination — Richardson, the student, receiving a mark of eighty-six per cent. — and my- self, the instructor, eighty-five per cent. We were now eligible for appointments as sub-inspectors of dredging on the Pearl Harbour Naval Base, in the employ of the United States Navy Department at $3.60 a day and board — with double pay on Sun- day. This made an average of one hundred and ten dollars clear money a month. CHAPTER II HAWAII BY STEERAGE Passing the examination was only part of the procedure through which we had to go to obtain positions as sub-inspectors of dredging on the con- struction of the Pearl Harbour Naval Base. The next step was to get an appointment from Washing- ton which was not to be had until there was a va- cancy at the harbour. The naval authorities in Honolulu could give us no assurance when an open- ing would occur, so we decided to visit some of the other islands while awaiting developments. We wished to see Kilauea, the only active volcano in the Hawaiian archipelago, on the island of Hawaii, about one hundred and twenty-five miles south of Honolulu. We also wished to see Haleakala, the largest extinct crater in the world, on the island of Maui. We sailed on the S.S. Wilhelmina for Hawaii, accompanied by a fellow school teacher by the name of Hammond. Richardson went as a member of the crew while Hammond and I were steerage passengers at three dollars a head — as we supposed. No one came to collect our fares, so I reluctantly offered the money to the purser who refused it — for he knew we were poor men. We returned under 13 i 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD similar good fortune, making a total of two hundred and fifty miles of travel, including meals, for noth- ing. Richardson's duties consisted of bucking around one-hundred-and-fifty-pound sugar sacks, and he re- ceived little sympathy from his two travelling com- panions who sat leisurely by and made fun of him. He proved to be a very poor workman, for after the ship was well under way he shirked his duties to such an extent that he enjoyed all the comforts and leisure of steerage travel. We were the most aristocratic steerage passen- gers that this ship or any other ever had. Instead of conducting ourselves like cattle, as fourth-class passengers sometimes do, we mingled with the pretty girls of the first-class, took deck chairs which usually retail at a dollar a trip, explored the boat beyond the steerage line and when the steward emerged from the lower deck and in the presence of all the passengers shouted, "Grub is ready, get your gang together," the three of us dropped down the hole and lined up alongside of the trough and proceeded to place away the food which was served in whole- sale quantities on tinware. Our iron-piped bunks were free from bed-bugs and other inhabitants, but the hairy blankets were tormentors all night long. It was a rough trip and it was fortunate that none of us Was seasick. It would have been extremely awkward, for no provision was made for receptacles of any kind which are necessary under such cir- cumstances. Our bunks were ten feet from the port holes, which were twelve feet from the deck, ancj HAWAII BY STEERAGE 15 in order to do the usual thing through one of these apertures it would have been necessary to procure a ladder, and even then we should have run the risk of getting our heads caught in the port holes and of being unable to draw them out. One's imagination can picture the steerage steward being greeted in the morning by three bums hanging lifelessly by their heads from three successive port holes, with their legs dangling in the air. Richardson was determined to meet two attractive girls on the first-class promenade deck. One of them was seated in front of her stateroom looking like an unlaundered towel and doing her best to retain a recently devoured meal. Richardson prinked before the steerage mirror and walked briskly along the deck to the point where the young lady was sitting. He stopped short and bluntly asked, "Are you seasick?" "Don't I look it?" she replied with a smile. This was the entering wedge and soon Richard- son introduced his fellow travellers. The steerage quarters were immediately deserted and we spent the rest of the trip on the promenade deck with the women. One of them proved to be the daughter of an high official of the Oceanic Steamship Company, which at that time was contemplating placing on a line of steamers from San Francisco to Australia. We met her father who, on hearing of the plans of our trip, which we enthusiastically related, said that in the event the new line was put on he would see that we got to Australia for nothing. Unfor- 1 6 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD tunately for us, our time to depart came before this line was inaugurated. We landed at Hilo on the island of Hawaii early in the morning, and bought a third-class round-trip ticket for $1.60 to Glenwood, twenty-two miles dis- tant. From Glenwood we walked the remaining nine miles to the Volcano House in two hours and fifteen minutes, rising two thousand feet and beat- ing the stage by twenty minutes. The road was a good thoroughfare through tropical forests of tree ferns, twenty feet in height; of ohia lehua, a tree belonging to the same family as the eucalyptus; koa or Hawaiian mahogany; wild bananas; papaia, wa- ter lemons, palms and wild roses. On arriving at the Volcano House we had something to eat and then set out across the lava beds for three miles to Hale- maumau — the active pit of the volcano — where we spent the night in a shack perched on its edge. Kilauea is one of the "seven wonders" of Amer- ica. It is situated on the slopes of Mauna Loa, a barren mountain rising gradually from the sea to a height of thirteen thousand five hundred feet. The Volcano House, or tourist hotel on the hillside, com- mands an excellent view of the crater with its desert of lava, of the swirling smoke of the pit and of Mauna Loa, rising majestically in the distance to its dome-like summit. Vesuvius is a large broken cone on the top of a mountain. Kilauea is an enormous cavity about seven miles in circumference and several hundred feet deep on the side of a mountain. The crater is HAWAII BY STEERAGE 17 a large lava bed cooled in peculiar and fantastic formations and it is about four miles in diameter. Across this dreary desert is a winding trail which leads from the Volcano House to the pit. Along this path there are immense fissures in the lava from which constantly rise volumes of sulphur smoke ooz- ing out from the very bowels of the earth. As one approaches the pit the enormous column of smoke, which rises from it, is always present as a guide to his destination and at night it is a tower of light which spreads its rays for miles. Halemaumau, the pit where the molten lava is raging, is about four hundred feet in diameter and at the time of our visit the level of the liquid fire was about six hundred feet below the floor of the crater. There is a pit within a pit, the top of the inner forming a shelf within the outer; and it was on this ledge that Mark Twain had the thrilling experience of rescuing a companion who had fallen through the lava. His account of this adventure is given in "Roughing It," and he relates in detail the difficulty with which he emerged from his peril- ous situation after wandering blindly about amidst the fumes of sulphur in search of a path to safety. To-day none but the foolhardy venture below, as it is very dangerous. Richardson, Hammond and I explored the whole region, and we sat for hours on the edge of the precipice and watched this lake of molten lava — splashing, surging, tossing, gurgling, flowing — ever restless and ever beautiful. This mass of writhing fluid looks like hell as 1 8 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD pictured by the old-time fire and brimstone preach- ers. It appears to be flowing in a continuous cur- rent, coming from one side and disappearing at another. As floating pieces of lava cool and crack, a series of red hot fountains bursts through them, rising to a height of twenty or thirty feet. In the midst of this restless mass of Satanic fluid is a large stationary rock which reposes in its infernal posi- tion as peacefully as a cow in a pasture. Out of this awful chasm there arise clouds of sulphur smoke which conceal the bed to a great extent, but as there is always a strong constantly changing wind we were able to get good views of the whole scene. It is extremely fascinating to sit on the edge of this pit and watch the incessant dashing and splash- ing of the glowing lava. It impressed even such homeless tramps as ourselves. One's thoughts drift back to the time, a century ago, when Mrs. Pele — the Hawaiian Goddess of volcanoes — was misbe- having to her full capacity, when the present outer crater with its cold and peaceful lava beds was one living mass of furious fire, when its rays were so brilliant at night that it illuminated the sky and sea for a radius of four hundred miles and the lava flowed at will down the mountain-side to the sea and extended the coast of this volcanic island. An interesting story is told by the natives. Sev- eral years ago when Kilauea was unusually active there was great fear that the lava would flow down the mountain-side and bury the town of Hilo. The Hawaiians in their frenzied fright appealed to Prin- ■ HAWAII BY STEERAGE 19 cess Ruth for help. She, accompanied by the ladies and gentlemen of the court, proceeded to the vol- cano and with great ceremony, this portly and corpu- lent woman (it is said that she weighed three hundred pounds) stood on the edge of the pit and threw a live and disgusted pig into the midst of the burning cauldron, whereupon the boiling lava imme- diately subsided and the village of Hilo was saved. The regular tourist rate from Honolulu to Ki- lauea is $59.50, which includes round-trip by boat, railroad fare from Hilo to Glenwood, stage charges to the Volcano House and board and room while there. Admitting that we missed a considerable degree of comfort, nevertheless, we saw all that the average tourist sees and at a cash outlay of only $2.10 each. Huddled in the steerage of the Mauna Kea (one of the small steamers of the Inter-Island Steam "Nav- igation Company) with a score of Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiians, we left Honolulu for McGregor's Landing on the island of Maui to see the extinct volcano Haleakala. The trip was a night's journey and, as no sleeping accommodations are provided in the third-class of Hawaiian steamers, we bunked on the soft side of a coil of rope. The ship arrived at McGregor's Landing about five o'clock in the morning and we went ashore feel- ing anything but rested after a most wearisome night. We made a bargain with a Chinese hack driver to carry us to Kahului, eight miles across the island. After breakfast we boarded a little narrow gauge 20 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD train for Paia, a sugar plantation village a short distance up the coast on the slopes of Haleakala. We purchased a supply of provisions at the planta- tion store and were soon started on the twenty-mile climb to the top of the mountain. Haleakala is just over ten thousand feet in elevation and the trail to the summit ascends on an average of five hundred feet to the mile. A trip up Haleakala proved to be far from a pleasure jaunt. The first part of our walk from Paia past the huge sugar factory lay through the great cane fields of the Maui Agricultural Company, the second larg- est plantation in the Hawaiian Islands. The cane was being harvested and the Japanese cutters were as busy as bees all about us. About ten o'clock we reached the four-thousand- foot level. The cane fields began to disappear and our path wound its way among banana farms and taro patches. We helped ourselves to mangoes, pa- paias and guavas along the way. We ate our lunch at a Chinese store. The real climb began after midday. We left fertile fields and were soon follow- ing the trail across the middle slopes of the moun- tain. There were few trees and the sun shone down from a cloudless sky. Our gait was easily under the speed limit, only about two miles an hour. It was a hard stony road over which we had to travel. As we ascended the view began to widen out on every side. We could look back over the cane fields to the Pacific and see the breakers rolling ashore. Above us towered the mountain, the summit now and HAWAII BY STEERAGE 21 again lost in a fleecy cloud. We almost forgot the hardships of the climb with such a picture before us. Although the ascent from Paia to the top can be made in a single day, we decided to break the jour- ney about half way, spend the night and start out refreshed for the last stretch. We stopped at Idle- wilde and put up in the summer home of a Kahului friend. We made an early start. The trail was plainly marked with guide posts, each tenth of a mile. Idlewilde is eight miles by trail from the sum- mit and the ascent from this point is over five thou- sand feet — seven hundred to the mile. The first three or four miles were comparatively easy, for we were fresh and the footing was good. About the fifth mile the real work began. The trail became steeper and steeper until it seemed straight up. We began to strike loose, volcanic dirt and sand. We passed the timber line and the stubby bushes with which the side of the mountain is covered afforded no protection from the sun. It was real mountain climbing — or just plain unadulterated work. The high altitude made frequent stops necessary for breathing spells. Our progress was slow. The last three miles took over three hours. The view was magnificent. Forty miles of the Maui coast were spread out at our feet. To the south the island of Molokai loomed out of the sea. Two or three steamers were making their way through the Maui-Molokai channel towards Hono- lulu. The air was clear, almost Rocky Mountain clearness — an unusual condition for Hawaii. 12 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD A mile from the top we collected a large bunch of fire wood for use during the night. The wood probably weighed one hundred pounds — fifty pounds each. In a half an hour it had increased to four hundred pounds. We began to lighten our packs. We reached the summit with five pounds each. The last half mile took one hour. The air was rarefied and we had to stop every few hundred feet for breath. The trail, beside being much steeper than heretofore — if such a thing were possible— was cov- ered with sand, causing us to slip back a foot for nearly every step we took. Suddenly the view of the great crater burst upon us. It is a sight I shall never forget. We had reached the top of the trail and were walking along a low wall of rock towards the mountain house. We came to a break in the rock and in an instant Halea- kala appeared before us. Imagine a hole in the top of a mountain. Let this hole be twenty-seven miles around and from two to three thousand feet deep, the sides abruptly slop- ing. Scattered over the level floor of this hole, picture twenty extinct volcanic cones or craters, the smallest forty feet in height, the largest about a thousand. This, in brief, is Haleakala. The sight is a grand one to-day, with all the craters extinct. What must it have been a thousand years ago when, according to geologists, Haleakala was active and the great crater was one mass of flame and liquid rock? We spent the night in the mountain rest house. This small stone cabin is provided for visitors to HAWAII BY STEERAGE 23 the summit. We curled up in our blankets — but not to sleep. The fireplace balked and the smoke went everywhere but up the chimney. We stood it as long as we could and then concluded that we would rather freeze than be smoked to death. We threw the fire outdoors and spent the rest of the night in a cold but smokeless cabin. A bucket of water in the room was frozen over with ice a half inch thick. We didn't sleep a wink. In the morning we saw the greatest of all sun- rises — a Haleakala Sunrise. The great crater had filled with clouds during the night. In the grey morning light one could imagine that he was look- ing over an immense body of water. Clouds had settled around the mountain so that the view of the ocean was shut off. We seemed to be standing on an island with clouds all about us. The first rays of the sun were caught up by the mass of mist in the crater. In an instant the great pit was turned into a sea of fire. Back and forth flashed the light as it was reflected through the abyss of fog. In an instant it was all over. As the sun rose the clouds began to take flight, like giant birds, and in a few minutes the crater was empty. We rolled rocks over the edge and watched them go bounding down the two thousand foot slope to the floor of the crater. When a boulder in its flight struck another, imbedded in the side of the moun- tain, pieces dashed up like a fountain and the noise was like the muffled discharge of a cannon. It only took us a little over four hours to make 24 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD the twenty miles back to Paia. We scarcely felt tired that evening, but the Following morning I thought I was a hundred years old. The constant pounding of our heels on the hard trail affected the muscles in the back of our legs and for two or three days we could hardly walk. If human beings ever have springhalt, we surely had it. We returned to Honolulu by the Mauna Kea. All went well in the steerage and we arrived in the morning. Instead of going to the wharf, the ship anchored at the quarantine station. We thought this was something unusual and one of us asked an officer the cause. Bubonic plague, one of the most feared of all diseases, had appeared on Maui — only two cases — and all the steerage passengers were to be landed at quarantine and inspected by the port doctor before being allowed to go ashore. We were steerage by environment but not by heredity. Within two minutes we had business in the engine room. We tarried there a brief moment and went on deck — the first-class deck. Every one was in a rush and our appearance was not even noticed. We knew several of the passengers and at once entered into conversation with them. Soon the ship's boats were lowered and the first- class passengers — and two steerage — were landed at the wharf. In ten minutes we were on shore, two travel-stained, tired and lame, but cheerful looking tramps. Haleakala was a wonder. It was worth travelling steerage to see — even worth taking a chance on the plague. CHAPTER III GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR On our return to Honolulu there still was no word from the Naval authorities as to appoint- ments at Pearl Harbour. We decided to stand by a few weeks longer in the hope that an opening would soon occur. As our money was running low it was necessary for us to obtain temporary jobs to insure that we would get food each day and have a place to rest our heads at night. Richardson soon fell into the berth of sales-clerk in a photograph shop on the main street of Honolulu, selling kodak supplies and fixtures at twelve dollars a week. I was not so fortunate. I scoured the town for days for something that paid a living wage. I applied to the City Health Department, hoping to get a position as mosquito inspector, ambling about town with a can of oil on my back, pouring the liquid on the various duck ponds which are operated by Chinese and Japanese and which are prolific incu- bators for this tropical pest. I sought work as a checker of sugar as it is loaded on ships in the harbour. T made application to the three news- papers in the hope of being taken on as a reporter and I canvassed all the houses in the wholesale dis- trict. No one would have me. However, I knew 25 26 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD one job I could get but I was standing it off as long as there might be prospects of obtaining something else. But finally I had to take it. A re-enforced concrete jail was under construction on the water front and one afternoon, after several hours of searching in vain for work, I sauntered around to this structure. I found the Irish foreman, assumed an empty appearance and said, U I am hungry." The good man immediately agreed to take me on as a labourer at $1.50 a day. I appeared the next morning attired in suitable raiment for the work I was about to take up and was assigned to my post. The building had been in course of construction several months and had reached the point where the concrete had set and the forms were ready to be dismantled. Equipped with a pinch bar, I worked on a scaffolding with a dozen native Hawaiians and a score of Portuguese, removing the forms from the walls and ceilings, x^fter several days of this fascinating pastime I was placed on the end of a shovel mixing concrete on the roof and propelling a wheelbarrow laden with cement. Pushing two hundred pounds of concrete in a primitive wheelbarrow on the top of an Hawai- ian jail under the glaring and penetrating rays of the tropical sun with school teacher's hands was no joke. Blisters the size of nickels arose on my fingers; my back became lame, my feet swollen and every muscle in my body as tender as a baby's. To reach the apex of misfortune I ran a rusty nail through the sole of my shoe into my foot. This INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 27 was a fat load of discomfort to carry for a meagre $1.50 a day. But I had to eat. In the meantime a vacancy occurred at Pearl Harbour and Richardson received an appointment. After swearing that he would support the Constitu- tion of the United States, the laws of the territory of Hawaii, the Ten Commandments and what not, he was duly authorized to exercise the duties of sub- inspector of dredging. Richardson's one per cent, better mark in the examination put him on the dredg- ing job three weeks in advance of myself and during this period he earned seventy-five dollars — a costly one per cent, for me. After several weeks as a hod-carrier, I also re- ceived my Pearl Harbour appointment, which had been cabled from Washington, and I at once aban- doned the concrete business and — from hard labour — joined Richardson in a life of leisure as a govern- ment inspector. The United States Government was spending sev- eral million dollars in developing Pearl Harbour, a beautiful land-locked bay on the island of Oahu about ten miles from Honolulu. Under the super- vision of the United States Navy Department a dry- dock was being constructed, a naval station was to be built with shops, barracks, parade grounds, ma- rine hospital, etc. In order to make this natural harbour accessible the government was having the channel dredged to a width of six hundred feet and to a depth of thirty-five feet. The work was under contract to the Hawaiian Dredging Company, 28 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD who employed, at this time, about six hundred men. The task was being performed by six dredgers, each of a different type, — a clam-shell, a dipper, a con- verted schooner, an electric hydraulic, a steam hy- draulic and a drag-bucket. These machines were superintended by experienced men from America, but the general run of their crews was recruited from the riff-raff of the earth. Drunken sailors, bums and tramps, good-for-nothing Europeans, worthless hulks, swearing Britishers and high sea wanderers blew into the camp and were taken on — to remain but a few days — when new recruits would come along or men would be enlisted from the pa- trons of the waterfront saloons of Honolulu. As deck hands, launch men and any sort of unskilled labour they were set to work, only to be replaced in a few days by a bunch equally as worthless and degraded. It was common occurrence for the whole outfit on a dredge to quit at midnight and be re- placed in a few hours by a crowd obtained from the drunken ranks of the low-down dives of Hono- lulu. They would arrive at the dredge, laden to the shoulders with booze, howling drunk, some of them fighting mad, and before they were all landed from the launch it was an unusual thing if two or three had not fallen overboard and had to be fished out. However, beneath the uncouth externals of many of these men was a heart as big as a fortune, an unselfishness one would hardly surmise and a disposition which it would be difficult to duplicate. The headquarters for the camp were located in INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 29 Watertown, a little settlement at the mouth of the harbour, whose inhabitants, numbering about five hundred souls, were made up of Hawaiians, Jap- anese, Russians, Chinese, Portuguese and a score of Americans. This small camp contained one store and fifty or more houses where the employes of the dry-dock, machinists, launch hands, labourers and native fishermen lived. According to its regular custom, the Government employed inspectors to see that the work was done properly. Call them what you will — spies, loafers or parasites — each name characterizes some phase of the job. Such appellations are no reflection on the personnel of the force, however. There were fifteen of them and it would be hard to find a more interesting set of men grouped together in one spot. The several epithets by which they have just been designated are not due to any failing of theirs, but to the nature of the job, whose chief demands on the inspectors were to look intelligent, maintain the dignity of the Government, and draw pay. There were among these fifteen inspectors an ex- dentist of Honolulu, one of the finest fellows on this earth; an ex-lawyer, a brilliant and sterling man, an ex-doctor, whose Irish wit was of the rare and clever variety; an ex-professor of Whittier College, California; an ex-sailor and several non- descripts. Besides upholding the dignity of the Gov- ernment each inspector was supposed to have a thorough knowledge of the channel, its width and depth, to inspect the dredging, to supervise the dump- 30 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD ing of the dredged material and to submit a daily report to the head inspector. This was the layout with which Richardson and I had decided to cast our lot for several months. With our wages averaging one hundred and ten dollars a month, we figured that in a short time we would have a fair amount of coin laid aside which would enable us to go on to the Orient and bring us safely to another point where we could search for work. When off duty the inspectors lived at Watertown in quarters provided for them by the Hawaiian Dredging Company and ate their meals at a restau- rant conducted by Chinese. While on duty they slept and ate on the dredges which were located from one-half to two miles from shore in the channel. On each dredge there was set aside a room for in- spectors' quarters. These compartments on most of the dredges were furnished with two iron bunks for beds, several dynamite boxes for chairs and a greasy deck of cards for amusement. The occupant was never lonesome nor idle, for when he had nothing to do, which was most of the time, he could spend the weary hours reducing the number of rapidly multiply- ing bed-bugs. These dredges were literally alive with this human pest and as soon as we would reduce the flock to the point of comfort a new bunch of recruits would be ushered in with the arrival of another crew of men from the waterfront of Honolulu. The mess rooms with crude tables covered with oilcloth, with tinware and lack of service, could exhibit at meal S*>r * ' Upper: The Gaylord, the only Drag-bucket Dredger in Existen Lower : A Restaurant Where Nothing but "Grub" is Served CE INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 31 time the most unappetizing display of food ever placed before any man. Stewed tripe — weeks old — lamb stew, clam-chowder, bread apparently made of cement, butter with a stench so strong that it out- classed the odours of the other provisions, fermented tomato catsup and hot cakes with the consistency of horse pads, greeted the unwashed eaters three times a day. The eaters themselves were a curious exhibi- tion of mankind. The men employed on the dredges slept and ate their meals aboard and when they gathered in the mess room, as well as at all other times, the language and stories that wafted across the board were fit to hypnotize the devil. One morning as Richardson, somewhat late, was seating himself for breakfast the Chinese waiter, approaching the table, inquired automatically and in an interrogative tone, "Mush?" "Yes," said Richardson. "No mush," was the Chink's reply. This is a sample of the mental capacity of the Oriental servants on the dredges. How could indi- viduals with such brains cook anything fit for a white man to eat? These Chinese cooks and flunkeys were a greasy, unsanitary set and always wore aprons which looked more like those of a blacksmith than those of a kitchen artisan. The inspectors' time was so arranged that every second day we had thirty-two hours off and these we used to devote to various forms of recreation. In addition to renovating an old sail boat which 32 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD we resurrected out of the mud flats of the harbour of Honolulu, we went swimming off the pontoon lines of the dredges, hunted on the Government re- serve or attended native luaus on the beach. The most interesting diversion was shark fishing. We always had a line out from each dredge in quest of both the hammer-head and man-eating sharks. On one occasion one of the crew observing that one of our lines was being jerked uttered a cry of "shark!" and in a moment we were all on deck pulling in the rope to land our catch. On the end of the line was a ten-foot man-eating shark and as we got the monster alongside the dredge one of the Hawai- ians, an expert swimmer, dived off the deck and proceeded to tie a rope around the body of the fish to enable us to hoist him aboard. The shark struggled and whipped about with his tail to such an extent that the native was unable to manipulate the rope with one hand, his other being employed in an effort to restrain the movements of the big creature. After several vain attempts to tie on the rope, the Hawaiian held the tail of the shark be- tween his teeth and thus, with the use of both hands, placed the line around the shark's belly and he was raised on deck. We at once set to and stripped the fish of all its flesh and in the course of a few hours the captain of the dredge was the proud possessor of a walking stick made from the circular bones of the spinal column of the shark. Such a cane is a novelty and a beauty. My roommate was an inspector, named Smith, INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 33 who had originally come from the back country of the State of Oregon. Each time he returned from Honolulu I observed, as he removed his coat, a revolver strapped over his left shoulder. "What is the pistol for?" I asked him one day. "I need it in my business," was Smith's reply. "What business are you in?" I inquired, a little curious. "I am travelling with another man's wife," said Smith. "That's rather dangerous business, isn't it?" I ventured, refraining from offering any advice to a man older than myself and one whom I knew but slightly. "The man is on my trail and I am ready for him," said Smith. I dismissed the incident as the boasting prank of a youth. Some months after- wards, however, the city of Honolulu was awak- ened from its daily routine by a shooting scrape which took place on one of the main streets at nine o'clock in the morning. Smith's talk was not mere youthful boasting. His assailant fired five shots at him, one catching him in the hip, and Smith re- plied with a generous bestowal of lead, firing several shots, one of which lodged in his opponent's lung. The first report was that Smith had killed his man. This was not true, however, and the two were taken to the hospital for treatment. Sentiment in Honolulu ebbed high against Smith and, when he recovered sufficiently to leave the hos- pital, it was impossible for him to obtain the three 34 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD thousand dollars' bail for the charge of "assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to commit murder" which was lodged against him. He spent one night in jail and his fellow inspectors finally came to his rescue. Although not approving of his actions, we felt that now was the time to help the man when he was down and especially as Smith appeared very regretful. Richardson and I put up two hundred and fifty dollars each of the bail. The case dragged on for months and was not set- tled until after our departure from the Islands. Sometime later we learned that Smith was fined one thousand dollars and dismissed from the service of the Government. Such was my roommate. He may have been foolish, but no one could accuse him of being a coward. He was a likable fellow and had a world of good qualities. After a couple of months on the job as inspectors Richardson and I had a few dollars in our pockets and, feeling rather reckless one day, decided to pur- chase some sugar stock in the hope of making a stake and thus being enabled to continue the trip in comparative luxury. We each bought ten shares of the Oahu Sugar Company's stock at thirty dol- lars a share. In order to do this we had to borrow one hundred and fifty dollars each from a Honolulu bank. While we were building castles in the air concerning the big pile we were going to make, the slump in the market, usual when amateurs begin meddling with stocks, occurred and our shares dropped six points. With the drop of our stocks INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 35 came a drop in our hopes and we could picture our earnings of the past months vanishing as we stood helplessly by. We concluded that if there was no other way out of our financial difficulties we could at least stay on the job and earn what we had lost. In addition to our bail money for Smith and our loss on our high finance I had, either out of the goodness of my heart or because I was an easy mark, loaned out over two hundred dollars to ac- quaintances of mine who had put up tales of hard luck. With our finances in this state our trip for the present began to look somewhat dubious. How- ever, everything turned out all right and we climbed out of our financial tangle with profit. The last week of our stay in Hawaii we were both released from Smith's bail, our sugar stocks had gradually risen to two points higher than the figure at which we purchased them and I collected every cent of my loans. We had now been at Pearl Harbour several months and were anxious to be moving, so we started a vigorous campaign to make a getaway. Honolulu is simply a port of call and crews are not made up there and for this reason it is a poor place in which to be stranded, for it is next to impossible to sign on as a sailor on any ship. When off duty at Pearl Harbour we went to Honolulu and canvassed all the likely looking vessels for passage to either Aus- tralia or the Orient. The reception we received at the hands of the captains and stewards varied from the painfully courteous to the hardest of treatment. 36 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD The skipper of a United States Army transport took us into his cabin, told us stories, gave us a drink but, true to his duty, refused to give us a lift across the Pacific. The steward of a Pacific Mail liner, whom we unfortunately caught ten minutes before the boat sailed — a busy time for a commissary chief, — disposed of us in short order. Seeing a man who filled the description given us, I hailed a greasy- looking fellow as he was hurriedly ascending the gangway and asked him, "Are you the steward?" "Yep; what do you want?" "May I have a minute of your time?" "No, sir, only a half a minute." Our case looked hopeless. "What are the chances for two of us to get a job?" "None. I have had enough of fellows like you. Get oft the gangway before I have you kicked off," shouted the chief cook as he beckoned to several deck hands to enforce his threat. There being noth- ing else to do, the two of us withdrew amid the laughter of the people on the pier who witnessed the dialogue. We retired to the opposite side of the wharf where we sat down, smoked a cigarette and talked the matter over. We felt pretty much subdued. We were novices at the game of procuring mari- time jobs and the old sea dogs with whom we had to deal knew it, but we concluded that the only way to get experience was to persevere. We started the INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 37 trip as tramps and now, for the first time, we realized that we actually were tramps; but we always clung to the idea that we were of the refined variety. Our next attempt towards obtaining passage was on a British tramp coal steamer plying between Honolulu and Australia. I was especially eager to go to Sydney because a friend of mine, touring the southern continent, had procured a job for me with a draying company in that city. The British tramp was to be painted on her return to Australia and as men were needed Richardson and I were signed on and our duties outlined. They consisted of knocking off the old paint on the side of the ship for twenty-one days. The skipper informed us that the boat was to get under way the following after- noon and that we ought to report for duty in the morning. We were on hand the next day but only to be disappointed, for there was no ship to be found. We learned that it had received orders to sail at once for Seattle and had left at midnight. We were now left in the lurch. We had tendered our resignations to the Secretary of the Navy and had severed our connection with the Pearl Harbour operations. To diminish our chances for passage to the Orient there was nothing going our way upon which there was the remotest chance of getting a job. Although we felt rather opulent after several months' work as inspectors we were reluctant to look up the rates to Yokohama on the regular liners — but decided to do so. We found that on the fol- lowing day the Asia, an intermediate steamer of the 38 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD Pacific Mail Steamship Company, was due from San Francisco en route to Japan and that the fare was seventy-five dollars. This was a huge sum to part with at one blow, but when compared with the regular first-class fare of one hundred and fifty dol- lars on the larger boats looked like a saving. We also figured that by the time we had spent several months floundering around Australia, in spite of the money saved getting there, we should arrive in Manila several hundred dollars out. With these considerations we decided to take the Asia to Yoko- hama. We had spent a number of weeks in getting our baggage together and had reduced it to a scientific minimum. We agreed only to take a suitcase and a small hand bag each. In addition to these Rich- ardson was to bring his camera. Our baggage con- sisted of the following wearing apparel and fixtures: two suits of clothes each (one on our backs), one pair of heavy shoes, a cap, six soft shirts, two flannel shirts, a pair of overalls, a dozen socks, six sets of underwear, a dozen handkerchiefs, a rain coat, a few toilet articles, diaries and some stationery. The trip was not to be a dress affair and all hard boiled shirts, linen collars and evening clothes were dis- missed from the start. Even with our wardrobes reduced to this half civilized minimum, it required systematic packing and almost superhuman strength to close our suitcases. We closed up our affairs in Honolulu, put our money into American Bankers' Travelers' cheques, INSPECTORS AT PEARL HARBOUR 39 ate a few farewell meals, drank a few final toasts and were in readiness to depart. The Asia was scheduled to leave at five in the afternoon. I was on the pier a few minutes before the appointed time, but there was no sign of Richardson. Five minutes to five — and Richardson had not arrived; four, three, two and one minute to five — and Richardson was nowhere to be found. Five o'clock — and no. Richardson. The lines of the ship were being loosened from the pier. I was on board; after hav- ing made arrangements with some navy men to have the government launch bring Richardson out to the Asia while she was turning in the stream or to tell him to meet me in Yokohama. At two minutes after five o'clock — just as the ship was getting under way — Richardson came running down the wharf armed with a suitcase, a small leather bag, a camera, a rain coat, a hair brush extending from one pocket, a bottle of tooth powder from another and a half a dozen small bundles hanging from any place where they could stick. The gangplank was lowered and he came aboard, while a handful of friends placed several Hawaiian leis about his perspiring neck. The Royal Hawaiian Band played Aloha Oe, the ship got under way and we began the second leg of our trip with seven hundred dollars each in our pockets. CHAPTER IV LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN The Asia proved to be a good ship and lazily ploughed her way across the Pacific in a manner to indicate that this trip was simply one in the cycle of many more to come. But this was her last, for on her return from Manila, she encountered a heavy fog off the coast of China and went head on into a large rock and anchored herself securely with her nose in the air and her stern submerged in the sea. Her passengers and crew were all saved and, after being pillaged by Chinese pirates, she was whipped off by the waves and sank into the water, a total wreck. Ten days of ocean travel spent with educated Japanese returning home, with United States Gov- ernment employes bound for Manila and other human beings of assorted sizes and miscellaneous occupations, and we reached the shores of Japan. From one of the Japanese on board we obtained a prospective itinerary. We made arrangements with Mr. A. Miyawaki, a young American-educated Japanese, who was returning to his native land after an absence of eight years, to accompany us for ten days. Miyawaki was a charming little fellow and 40 LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 41 had been assistant in dairying at the Kansas State Agricultural Experiment Station. We figured that with him as a travelling companion we had acquired a valuable guide. Although Japan was nearly as strange to him as it was to us — for he left when a boy — he knew the language, the lack of which knowl- edge we soon found to be a great obstacle. There are two ways to travel — one in luxury as a tourist, the other in discomfort as a tramp. What on earth is there so vulgar as the affluent, loud- voiced, inquisitive, lazy, coin-displaying American tourist? He splashes through Europe or the Orient with a Baedeker in one hand and a ten dollar bill or its equivalent in the other, glances at the cathe- drals and temples, eats a near-native meal especially arranged by Thomas Cook and Son, puts up at the expensive European or American hotels and flits from country to country — and imagines that he has seen all there is to see. Nearly every tourist on arriving in Japan goes directly to an Occidental hotel where he lives in Western fashion and luxury at Western prices and seldom, if ever, comes in con- tact with the natives. Richardson and I were not tourists but refined tramps. We decided to avoid religiously the Amer- ican and European hotels for two reasons — first, for economy, and second, for the interesting things we would see and learn. The man is fortunate who can get off without paving eight yen (four dollars) a day at the average Western hotel in an Oriental city, while around the corner at a Japanese inn it is 42 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD possible to get a room and two meals for from one to three yen a day. There is not the same amount of comfort and luxury as is offered by the Occidental hotel, but there is a thousand times more interest. The Asia arrived in Tokyo Bay and the city of Yokohama loomed up before us. After a short customs examination, through which I managed to smuggle some American tobacco — for I had learned something of the inferior qualities of this commodity in Japan — we took a rickshaw each, from among the hundred or more that were waiting at the pier, and were off up the street. Miyawaki, our Japanese friend, accompanied us. Our rickshaws drew up to a Japanese inn and Miyawaki soon made arrangements for our rooms. We sat down on the little porch and took off our shoes, leaving them on the sidewalk along with a score of others, and put on a pair of slippers. After we were robed in kimonos, a dainty little maid pat- tered in with a tray load of provisions. She knelt down and spread before us the evening meal. Rice represented the bulk of the food and there were raw fish, a bowl of soup with one egg in it, a dish of boiled bamboo shoots, a plate of sweetened beans and a little receptacle containing some black flavour- ing sauce. The meal was concluded with several small bowls of tea. Richardson and I flew to this assortment almost like animals, we were so hun- gry. The little maid was much amused at our awk- ward efforts to manipulate the chop-sticks. Rice was LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 43 especially hard to handle with these two strips of wood. Richardson and I became so fond of rice before we had lived^long on that staple that we thought we could never again eat a meal without it. The Japanese understand how to prepare it and cook it in such a way that each grain is dry and separate from the others. The average dish of rice in Amer- ica tastes and looks like a mass of library paste. Life in a Japanese hotel is a continual round of novelties and interesting experiences to the unini- tiated Western traveller. Before entering the guest must remove his shoes — a more sensible custom than that of the Occident of removing the hat — for which tracks in the dirt? With a pair of house slippers to replace his shoes, the guest is ushered into his room, a compartment without any furniture except a Japanese screen and a picture or two. In winter there may be a stove, which consists of a small circular receptacle resembling a jardiniere and containing ashes — in the centre of which are a few live pieces of charcoal. As soon as the guest is in his room the proprietor enters with a blank form which is to be filled out and which gives a complete record of the new arrival — his age, occupation, home, reasons for being away from home, destina- tion, etc. This information is turned over by the inn-keeper to the chief of police and thus a close tab is kept on every visitor to a Japanese city. After this formality, the maid enters the room with a kimono and if you give her a chance will completely 44 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD disrobe you. There are no chairs; nothing but a little mat upon which you coil in tailor fashion. There are no beds; retiring appliances consisting of a thin mattress and quilts which are spread out on the floor at bed-time each night and taken up again in the morning to be placed in compartments in the wall of the room. There is no dining table but in its place is a little tray, sometimes elevated on legs, brought in from the kitchen at meal times. There are no knives, forks and spoons, nor plates. In fact, everything that one would expect to find in an hotel is missing and some other device is in its place. Probably the most unusual feature to the Western traveller is the accommodation for taking a bath. This generally consists of a fair-sized room in which are a dozen or more little round wooden tubs where men, women and children all gather at the same time and unconcernedly perform their daily ablutions. This, briefly, is the lay-out which a traveller finds when he stays at a Japanese hotel. As much of a novelty as it was for Richardson and me to experi- ence the sensations of this kind of inn, it was an equal novelty for the Japanese to have us as guests. We often encountered considerable difficulty in con- vincing the proprietor that we really wished to stay at his hotel. In addition to the handicap of carry- ing on a conversation without the use of a language, for we knew nothing of Japanese, we frequently had to overcome the hotel man's notion that we were trying to play a joke on him. Once in the LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 45 hotel we were constantly the centre of attraction and source of interest not only to those employed about the place but also to the other guests. In our first Japanese hotel we acted as awkwardly as a cow on a polished floor. When it came time to go to bed Richardson became greatly embar- rassed as the pretty little Jap maid in a conscientious effort to perform her duty began to disrobe him. She first removed his coat, at which he gave no indi- cations of disapproval. She then began releasing his shirt and, as she proceeded, Rich's brow began to colour. He didn't murmur until she commenced to separate him from his trousers, which so startled the modest young man that he exploded with such a blast-like tone, "Whoa, Bill," that the poor girl, frightened nearly to death, took refuge in flight. Richardson continued the remainder of his disrob- ing without assistance. Privacy is unknown in Japan. Everybody knows every other person's business and little or no at- tempt is made towards secrecy. The walls of a Japanese house are built of heavy paper or very thin wood and the intimate conversation in one room can be heard in the next. From an American point of view the Japanese are immodest. In some ways they are more modest than we are. They think no more of exposing their bodies entirely nude than Europeans do of displaying their ungloved hands to a crowd. But this is not necessarily im- modesty. Modesty is a mental attitude and not the conforming to a certain code of rules. 46 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD The bath-room in a Japanese hotel is often the most public part of the building. Especially is this the case in the country districts where Western influ- ence has had little or no effect. Although it is now a national regulation that the opposite sexes are not allowed to bathe together, this law is not en- forced in the country towns and even in some of the cities. Japan is a nation of bathers. There are said to be thirty thousand public bath-houses in the city of Tokyo alone and at five o'clock each evening thousands of people can be seen with towels over their arms wending their way for their daily wash. It is at this time that all the guests — men, women and children in the hotel — gather in the bath-room and splash about like a lot of youngsters, laughing and enjoying themselves. If we wanted to be clean we had to cast aside our provincial American ways and bathe in Japanese fashion. Richardson rather objected to this. On one occasion he went to the bath-room and returned almost immediately. "Have you finished your bath already?" I asked. "No, there are a lot of women in the tub," he replied, disgusted. "Why let them bother you? If they stand in your way you will not get a bath is long as you are in Japan. If the women don't object I am sure I don't," and, saying this, I went down stairs to the bath-room, where I performed my toilet with half a dozen men and women, in true Japanese style. Yokohama is the seaport of Tokyo and possesses LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 47 little of interest except the novelty of being the first Japanese city in which the traveller lands. We spent a day in Kamakura, a sea-side resort about twenty miles away, where we saw the Daibutsu, a bronze statue of the Great Buddha. Tokyo is but a few hours' ride from Yokohama. We arrived at the busy Shimbashi station and in a few moments were lodged in our second Japanese hotel. It was in this hotel that I upset all the social regulations by using soap in the bath-tub. As the same tub of water is often used by all the guests in the hotel, it is considered a great breach of eti- quette to climb into the bath and soap one's body in a civilized manner. This soaping process is sup- posed to be carried on before getting into the tub and the body is to be thoroughly rinsed off by means of dippers or basins before entering the bath for a final soak. I was not aware of these minute de- tails of Japanese bath procedure and went at this cleansing operation in the Saturday night fashion customary in rural America. The result was that all the succeeding bathers had to wash in soap-suddy water. I was completely ostracized. We were fortunate to visit Japan during the season of the year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Ueno Park, probably the most popu- lar resort in Tokyo, was a forest of these trees, laden with millions of sweet-scented flowers. Thou- sands of people gathered each afternoon in this public park to rest and enjoy the beauty of the blos- soms for which Japan is famous. 48 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD It was in this park that I decided to give up smok- ing. I had paused on one of the walks and was rolling a cigarette with some "Bull Durham" I had smuggled into the country, when a Japanese police- man came up to me and, with a few words which I did not understand, unceremoniously took the "makings" from me. I stood half stunned with sur- prise. I soon realized that I had exposed my to- bacco to confiscation, disregarding a warning given me by a Japanese passenger on our steamer across the Pacific. I had previously tried the cigarettes sold in the native shops but couldn't become accustomed to them. Relieved of my American supply I decided to give up smoking altogether — for a time. To- bacco is a government monopoly in Japan and there is a prohibitive duty on all foreign importations of it. One evening we visited the Yoshiwara, described in the guide books as the most famous tenderloin section in the world. It is a considerable distance from the business portion of the city and consists of about one hundred houses. There are nearly two thousand women in the district and during the evening they sit behind iron barred windows, similar to an American dry goods display window. Seated in a row, in front of several elaborately decorated screens, eight or more tastily dressed women of each establishment spend their time smoking or painting their faces, while the curious crowds flock by and look them over. What struck me more forcibly than anything else was the character of the sightseers. I LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 49 saw a middle-aged man with his eighteen-year-old daughter leisurely spending an hour in this section. Two mothers with infants on their backs were in- terestedly going the rounds and a young married couple was a pair that came to my notice. Thou- sands of people flowed to and fro on the narrow streets and for a moment I thought the whole of Tokyo had congregated in this place for the evening. I was told that the Yoshimara was at one time oper- ated by the municipal government of Tokyo but that now, due to the influence of the British and American Salvation Army representatives, it is car- ried on independently but is closely watched and regulated by city officials. Japan is a land of beautiful memorials to her dead heroes. At Nikko to the north of Tokyo we spent a delightful week, where resting among the cryptomeria on the hillside, are the bodies of Ieyasu and Iyemitsu, two Shoguns of the Tokugawa Dy- nasty. These two tombs are the objective points for thousands of pilgrims each year. In addition to the natural beauty of the spot and the mausoleums of these rulers of mediaeval Japan, there are a dozen or more interesting buildings and temples dedicated to various saints and containing collections of relics and Buddhist scriptures. These edifices represent the best in Japanese art. Richardson and I walked to Lake Chuzenji, which lies in the hills, about ten miles beyond Nikko. We started early on a bitterly cold morning and ascended the beautiful mountain-side by a wandering and pic- So JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD turesque path. The lake was nearly entirely frozen over. There was, however, an open space near the shore and prompted by a notion to do something to startle the simple people who lived in the village on the bank of the lake, we disrobed and took a dip in the icy water. It was impossible for two human beings to take such a cold plunge and do so in silence. The temperature of the water was indicated by the shrieks we made as we splashed about. These calls attracted the attention of the people near-by and in a few moments two score or more of men, women and children assembled to see two insane foreigners dabbling about like idiots in water that was several degrees below. Japanese trains are very similar to those of Amer- ica. If I were asked to state the most striking dif- ference between them I would say — the politeness of the officials and the train crews. We were on our way from Tokyo to Nagoya and were seated on one of the two long benches which run lengthwise in the car. I had made the acquaintance of the native passenger next to me. Presently there appeared at one end of the coach a man in uniform whom I rec- ognized as the conductor. He called out and then made three deep bows, at the same time making the sucking sound of etiquette common in Japan. All the passengers responded to the conductor's courtesy by bending their heads, and making this peculiar hissing noise. I thought everybody had suddenly begun to eat soup. This painful and rather dis- gusting performance continued for nearly two min- LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 51 utes. Finally, every one sat at attention. The conductor in a clear and reverent voice said some- thing, bowed and departed. My curiosity was aroused and I asked my native acquaintance what had happened. He informed me that the conductor had announced that the next station was Toyohashi. What a contrast, I thought, to the American brake- man who brushes his way through a crowded day coach, shoving people aside and treading on their feet, and with a rasping voice announces the next station in such a way that no one can understand him. At first we found the language a big obstacle and it required much patience and often over an hour to make our hotel arrangements. On account of our association with the natives, however, we soon picked up a small vocabulary and this we acquired scientifically. Richardson had about one hundred words in his head and I had an equal number, and in neither set were there duplications. This is a case of applying the principles of efficiency. Rich- ardson learned to count to one hundred and was the financial conversationalist, while I confined my knowledge to brief and snappy literary efforts. We would enter a shop and select an article, and I would then inquire the price of it in Japanese and Rich- ardson would interpret the shopkeeper's reply. By this team work we were able to navigate in a lan- guage which takes years to master. A characteristic impracticability of most Oriental languages, and as much so of the Japanese as any, 52 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD is the large number of words and phrases neces- sary to make a brief statement or convey a simple idea. There is a great deal of formality, set phrases and polite sayings, which must be complied with, before the speaker gets down to the point. What an American can say in half a dozen words will require as many sentences in Japan. We were con- tinually confronted with this. On one occasion we wished to ascertain where a certain street was and Miyawaki inquired of a passer-by. After talking to him for nearly ten minutes, only stopping when Richardson suggested that he knock off, he trans- lated the conversation to mean "The next street." At Nagoya I looked up Taisuke Murakami, a young Japanese who had been one of my pupils in Iolani School in Honolulu and who had since re- turned to Japan. He was attending a military academy in Nagoya. Richardson and I visited this institution and were received with much considera- tion and respect. Through Murakami we were given a good entree and were curiously inspected as samples of American pedagogues. We spent the evening at a motion picture theatre where an American reel illustrated the uninterest- ing details of an American love story. When it came time to settle our hotel bill I found that my friend Murakami had paid for both Richardson and myself. I didn't like him to do this, for I knew he couldn't afford it. It was a sample of* Japanese hos- pitality. This trait of the Oriental compels me to sermon- LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 53 ize. Occidentals, and especially Americans, consider that they are superior to the rest of the world. We often feel that our ways are the only ways, that our customs are right and that those of other peoples are wrong. After one has visited many Oriental countries and has had time to get their point of view and to understand their ways he begins to doubt the reasonableness and feasibility of many of our American customs. He certainly gets over that feeble notion that our way of doing things is the only way. The Japanese have their faults, but no one can accuse them of being prudes, of having false mod- esty. They are a more modest race of people than Americans. They have no foolish notions about concealing the human body, but their average of morals is every whit as high as that in America. We talk a great deal among ourselves of our won- derful hospitality, but when compared to this qual- ity in the Japanese we don't possess the first principles of this virtue. Our hospitality is of a collective variety. Our cities will entertain most lavishly and we will give them our support as long as we don't have to come in contact with the recipients. In our homes we only entertain our friends or per- sons with worthless pedigrees. But the supreme test of hospitality is when one is willing and glad to take in the total stranger, a foreigner perhaps, and house and feed him as a member of the family. Imagine an American family taking into its house- hold a pair of strange Japanese who were travelling 54 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD through their city. It is futile to consider it. But this is exactly what the Japanese did to Richardson and myself in many instances. Absolute strangers to us — and we to them — they extended to us the most cordial invitations to come to their homes and enjoy their hospitality indefinitely. Many of these we accepted and always departed full of amazement at the wonderful exhibitions of kindness and hos- pitality. Kyoto is the prize of Japan. It is a city of six hundred thousand inhabitants, only fifty of whom are foreigners and these mostly missionaries. The result of this small number of Occidentals is that Kyoto still retains its Japanese charm and has very few of the vulgar and commercialized features of the West. The city was celebrating the seven hundredth an- niversary of the Jodo sect of the Buddhist religion and its streets were crowded with thousands of peo- ple from the surrounding small towns and country districts. All the places of worship were thronged with pilgrims and the huge Hongwanji Temple, the largest in Kyoto, was a bee-hive of peasants who flowed in and out to bestow their gifts and offer up a prayer. Kissing seems to be largely a Western custom, for such a means of showing affection is not used in the Orient except by a mother to her child. It was in Kyoto that Richardson and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the practice into Japan. While buying provisions each day in the bakery, LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 55 grocery and fruit shops, we would slyly creep up and place our lips to the rosy cheek of the shop- keeper's wife or daughter. They hardly knew how to take us. None of them was offended. Some looked at us with pity, thinking that we must have some affliction like the St. Vitus' dance, which took the form of flying towards women's faces every few minutes. Even the husbands of these women took our advances in a matter-of-fact way and considered our osculations simply one of our many idio- syncrasies. While in Kyoto Richardson and I put up at the native Y. M. C. A. building which had just been completed. We occupied an unfurnished room which was placed at our disposal, free of charge, by the advisory secretary, an American. We slept on the floor and were well used to the absence of furniture. One morning Richardson casually remarked that the American secretary had offered him a teaching job in China and that he had turned it down. "Why did you do that?" I inquired. "Because I did not want to separate from you," was Richardson's reply. "Nonsense," I said, "we are not married, and if we wait until we get comfortable berths together in the same town we shall never get anywhere. Open up the matter again and land the job if you can." Although we each still had plenty of the money which we had accumulated in Hawaii, we were will- ing to stop off and work for a short time and become 56 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD better acquainted with a city and its people. So Richardson took up the matter again with the Y. M. C. A. secretary and received the position. It was to teach in a middle or high school in Tientsin at a salary of seventy dollars a month. I agreed to accompany him to Tientsin and from there go on through China alone and meet him sev- eral months later in Manila. Before leaving Japan we got into serious trouble. CHAPTER V ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN For two weeks we led an indolent life in Kyoto. Then the craving for the trail struck us again and with the help of an American, who had long resided in Japan, we mapped out an itinerary that would carry us into a remote country, penetrated by less than half a dozen foreigners. In the early morn- ing we set out from Kyoto on foot, and we did not know that we were plunging headlong into an ad- venture which would reverberate clear into the De- partment of State at Washington before we again mingled in the bustling crowds of Kyoto. On the shore of Lake Biwa we boarded a steamer and sailed fifty miles to the village of Imasu. A night in a Japanese inn, and we walked twenty-five miles, the following day, to Obama on the Sea of Japan. We passed through an endless chain of pic- turesque villages. Our entrance to these small towns was a great source of interest to the inhabitants, who rushed to the doors or windows of their shops and houses, or poured into the streets to look us over. They scanned our clothes with the frankest sort of curiosity. They were especially impressed with our heavy leather shoes which they examined carefully, usually turning away to hide their smiles. 57 58 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD In village after village we caused a cessation of business and household duties until we were out of sight. Our advent and departure were probably the main topic of discussion the rest of the day. At Obama we devoted a full hour to vigorous ges- ticulation with our hands before we could convey the idea into the head of an inn proprietor that we wanted a bed. That night we slept on the footstool of adventure. At dawn we sailed out of the narrow cove into the Sea of Japan. The coast on this run is a beauti- ful panorama of bays and inlets supported in the background by richly wooded hills. Green and pretty villages stud the shore. Richardson was taken with the beauty of these villages. He unslung his camera and snapped a picture of one of them from the steamer deck. The kodak was barely back in its case before a deck hand skipped to the captain's cabin and made a report. The captain summoned Richardson posthaste. The whole ship bristled with excitement. It developed that we were in Maisuru Bay, the chief naval base of Japan, and therefore one of the zones in which it is unlawful to take pictures. Rich- ardson refused to get excited. He gave the captain the roll of film, together with his Kyoto address, requested him to have it developed, destroy the il- legal picture and return the others. The captain said he would. We thought the incident was closed. But it wasn't. It had just begun. In a few min- utes our steamer was at the dock and we went down ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 59 the gangway to board a train for our return trip to Kyoto. I had sunk comfortably down into my seat and opened a book when a Japanese in uniform rushed up waving his hands and shouting at me in his native language. "Beat it," I said. I thought he was crazy. The excited officer stood moving his hands in a manner which would indicate in a Western country that he wanted me to remain where I was. The impatient man finally left the car. Richardson came in. "What in blazes is the matter with that Jap? He must be drunk," I said. "He's a cop. We are both under arrest for that picture," said Richardson. "The captain reported it to the police." The officer in uniform came back twisting his hands in the air like an insane man. I didn't real- ize that these movements were equivalent to the American beckoning sign, so I remained seated. He lurched over and gripped my shoulder. Richardson had gone out. I got up and in three seconds found myself with him in the midst of two hundred incensed natives. Other police and a couple of military officers had come up. Richardson's camera had been taken from him. We stood in the midst of this gathering while the uniformed officers held a conference. We couldn't understand a word. They finally led us away. For an hour Richardson and I, accompanied by two policemen, marched abreast. We concluded that they had decided to walk us to death. At last 60 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD we arrived at an edifice from which a Japanese flag was flying, and in front of which two sentinels stood on duty. This was the military police court and prison. We were ushered in and were greeted by half-a-dozen officers in uniforms who bowed and bobbed around with as much ceremony as though we were two caliphs of Bagdad. They were the politest lot of policemen we ever saw. The military judge was on the bench and we were taken into his presence with many smiles and sa- laams. We tried to tell the judge that we loved the Japanese people very dearly and we wanted to go back to Kyoto. He couldn't understand a word. No one else could. We had nothing to do but wait for an interpreter, whom one of the clerks of the court was sent out to obtain. The Japanese were very serious. We were not impressed and made irreverent remarks about the judge and the court officials. We waited until noon and as we were hungry we made this fact known by means of writing, for one of the clerks could read English, after a fashion, but could not speak it. Permission was granted us to dine. Richardson asked the court to pay the bill. The request, after an half-hour conference, was re- fused. We set out with two policemen to a Japa- nese hotel where we ate a fifteen-minute meal in an hour and a half while the two officers remained on guard at the door. In the afternoon the "interpreter" came. We expected to see an American or, at least, some one ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 61 who understood the English language. Instead there stood before us a little Jap who looked like a miniature pugilist and knew about as much English as a two-year-old child. He started his cross-exami- nation by the regular preliminary bows and genu- flections and kept at this performance for so long a time that when he began to speak we expected a masterpiece. His first utterance was, "I am sorry the ^-vent has happened." "So are we, old top," put in Richardson. "But cut out this nonsense. We have a date in Kyoto." Richardson might as well have been talking to a parsnip. The cross-examination finally got under way and proceeded laboriously. We were asked every con- ceivable question, — our names, ages, nationalities, occupations, parents' names and their occupations, our reasons for being away from home, the length of time we had been away from the United States, where were we going and why, had we ever been convicted of any crime in America, our reason for taking the picture, our domicile and acquaintances in Kyoto. These and many more questions were asked us extending over a period of six hours. Under the heading of occupation, we stated that we were school teachers, being the first and most harmless vocation we could think of. Right here, the court found a huge inconsistency. This vocation did not compare with the records received from the hotel registers. Every guest, on arrival at an hotel, is required to give his occupation when registering 62 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD and this is turned over to the police with the other information. Richardson and I, not having any definite vocation, signed up under different callings in each hotel. We dug up all the antiquated and unusual means of earning a living that our imagi- nations could muster. The list included ventriloquist, crutch-maker, chiropodist, clairvoyant, boiler-maker, hypnotist and wig-maker. The judge confronted us with this array of honourable vocations, which he had obtained from the police records, and demanded an explanation. Richardson rose to the occasion. In a short time he had us out of the trap. He ex- plained that English was very flexible ; that it was a language replete with synonyms; and that it con- tained numerous words which meant the same thing. He went into a lengthy dissertation in which he thor- oughly convinced the judge that crutch-maker, chi- ropodist, etc., all meant school teacher and that each simply emphasized a different phase of the vocation. The questioning convinced the court that it had little hold on me except as an accomplice of Rich- ardson. The latter was the man caught in the act. On my suggestion they allowed me to return to Kyoto accompanied by an officer. Richardson was held all night for further examination. I arrived in Kyoto about midnight and immedi- ately retired. In the morning I met the advisory secretary of the Y. M. C. A. who had heard of our trouble by telegraph, as the Maisuru authorities had referred our story to him for verification. The news of the incident had spread throughout Japan. ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 63 Great crowds gathered in front of the Kyoto news- paper offices where bulletins announced that two American spies had been arrested at Maisuru and that in their possession were found pictures of bat- tleships, sketches of harbours and plans of forts. The newspaper accounts described us as poor men, due to the fact that Richardson, expecting he would have to put up a bond, said he had but twelve yen, when asked the amount of money he had. The re- port that we were poverty stricken was also due to the fact that we wore blue flannel shirts, the proper attire for walking — but not one in which the Jap- anese are accustomed to see Americans. The press reports also referred to us as suspicious looking characters and stated that we did not take the mat- ter seriously, as we jested in the courtroom. The following account under the heading, "The Spy Scare — American Photographers Arrested," was taken from an English paper in Kobe and is a trans- lation of an article which appeared in a Japanese journal : "We learn from a Maisuru despatch to the Asahi that two foreign passengers on the Daiichi Hashu date-maru which arrived at Maisuru at 9 : 20 A. M. on the 2 1 st from Obama, photographed the first section of the Maisuru Naval Station when the steamer approached the entrance to the harbour of Shim-Maisuru. They took over ten pictures, which distinctly showed even the warships in the harbour. The action was observed by some mem- bers of the crew of the steamer and, upon arrival 64 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD at Maisuru, they reported the matter to the Mai- suru gendarmerie station through the Maisuru Water Police. Gendarmes immediately appeared on board the steamer and arrested the foreigners and conducted them to the gendarmerie station. Upon examination they were found to be two Amer- icans from California named Richardson (aged 24) and Fletcher (aged 26). Mr. Richardson, continues the despatch, is the son of a doctor, and was teach- ing at a school in Honolulu. In October he left Honolulu with Mr. Fletcher for a tour around the world, and they arrived at Yokohama on the 1st instant. Proceeding to Kyoto, they took up their quarters at the Christian Institute at Sanjo-dori, and on the 19th instant left Kyoto for a tour in the in- terior. They took a steamer at Otsu and proceeded to Imasu and Obama. They spent two days at the latter place and left there on the morning of the 21st by the H ashidate-maru for Maisuru. They stated that they had no ulterior motives in photographing the Naval Station, but, concludes the despatch, their behaviour when they took the photographs was sus- picious. The fact that the two foreigners were not very well dressed, and had no more than twelve yen in their possession, appears to have aroused sus- picion. Eventually they were handed over to the Procurator's office, where they are now being exam- ined by Procurator Ogata." On the morning after my arrival in Kyoto I was interviewed by the Chief of Police of that city, as- sisted by an interpreter. During the examination ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 65 the door opened and outside stood Richardson who had been escorted from Maisuru by an officer. We, however, were not allowed to get together and dis- cuss the matter for fear we would frame up a story. The Chief of Police first finished with me and then called Richardson in for a session. We were advised by the American secretary of the Y. M. C. A. not to volunteer the statement that we had been in the employ of the United States Navy Department in Hawaii. He said if the Japanese authorities got this information, it would be very difficult for us to prove that we were not spies and in that event the case would have to be handled by the American Embassy. This, he thought, would mean our detention in the country for a couple of months. Fortunately, a question of this nature was not asked us. Accounts of the affair were printed in all the lead- ing papers of the Far East, including Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines. The Associated Press obtained the news and the dailies of the Pacific Coast in America displayed several columns of distorted accounts. A Honolulu journal considered it of suf- ficient importance to give it the following full front page headline: "Honolulu Men Languish in a Jap- anese Jail." This was not all. The news had found its way to Washington, and our little incident of Maisuru Bay set the wheels of diplomacy of two nations in motion. My brother, reading the Associated Press reports in the San Francisco papers and imagining 66 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD that we were being subjected to Oriental tortures in a Japanese jail, telegraphed the State Department at Washington. He received the following reply from Mr. Huntington Wilson, Acting Secretary of State at that time, under President Taft: "Depart- ment telegraphed Embassy at Tokyo to-day to ascer- tain facts and endeavour to secure your brother's re- lease." The ambassador in Tokyo got in touch with the situation and replied that Richardson and I were being well treated and that as soon as proved inno- cent would be liberated. This information was sent to my brother by the State Department. In the meantime we were battling with the Jap- anese authorities in Kyoto. We wanted to get back our camera. It was a regulation to confiscate all cameras which had been used in taking illegal pic- tures. We finally convinced the police that we had no ulterior motives and, after promising to leave Japan at once and giving an itinerary of our route out of the country, we were released. The Kyoto Chief of Police returned the camera, with an im- pressive speech, and the two of us retired from the courtroom without ceremony, while the numerous officials nearly broke their backs bowing. By a mis- take the objectionable picture was left in the camera and we departed with the film of the little Maisuru Bay village in our possession. Nor did the incident end here. We left immedi- ately for Kobe, and from there took the Inland Sea trip as far south as Miajima. We had supposed that all the nonsense over our arrest had ended and that < D o Q w u ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 67 we were free from the pest of Japanese police. But there was more to come. We spent a day at Mia- jima, undisturbed by officials, the first time in several days, for the reason that we omitted to put this place on the itinerary. From Miajima we went by train to Chimeneseki and thence across by boat to Fusan in Korea. Being still in Japanese territory we were greeted by two policemen, who had received a cable to watch out for a couple of Americans and keep them moving. After a few hours in Fusan, un- der competent guards, we went on to Seoul. We arrived after dark, and as our train was pull- ing into the station we saw two policemen on the right hand side of the track. We stole a march on these officers of the law by getting out on the left side. We scrambled around the rear of the train and were soon in rickshaws and in a few minutes were registered guests of a Japanese hotel. The proprietor sent the usual records to the police sta- tion, but before the officers were detailed on our trail we were up and out at an early hour the next morning. We went to the Y. M. C. A. where we were the guests of two young Koreans. The police spent the day looking for us and did not locate us until evening, when they found us dining at an American private home. They had evidently been given instructions to watch every movement we made, for during the rest of our week's stay in Seoul we were each accompanied by an officer. To add to our reputation as undesirable citizens, 68 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD a Japanese guide, travelling with a Thomas Cook and Son party on our train into Seoul, reported to the police that there were two suspicious looking char- acters on board. This information, coupled with our already unsavoury reputation, made the officers exceptionally vigilant. What, we could do to harm the innocent inhabitants of Seoul or damage their meagre possessions is a mystery. Day and night these little fellows kept watch. They marched by our side as we took in the sights of the city and at night two of them were stationed on the steps of the Y. M. C. A. building to see that we didn't make a midnight getaway and shoot up the town. They went so far as to regulate our en- gagements. We were invited to be guests of a prom- inent Japanese family during our stay in Seoul but the police issued an order that we could not accept. They gave as their reasons that we were moving about too much and that it would be embarrassing for a respected household to entertain two criminals. I had received an invitation to dine with some English friends and had accepted, determined to keep this engagement even if doing so caused inter- national complications. While the policemen were at their posts on the front steps of the Y. M. C. A. I left the house by the back door, climbed over the fence, jumped into a rickshaw and was on my way. After a good meal and a pleasant evening I returned to the Y. M. C. A. about eleven o'clock and walked up the front steps between the two officers. From a semi-doze they were instantly transformed into two ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 69 of the most excited and enraged men I have ever seen. The characteristic etiquette of the Far East was forgotten and they bestowed upon me numerous epithets which, if translated, would probably have taught me all the profanity in the Japanese language. I left them on the steps and went to bed. This incident made the police especially watchful next day, but in spite of their precautions we played horse with them. We had had enough of this non- sense and decided to leave Seoul without notifying our escorts. We framed up a scheme for our escape which we carried out in such a manner that it ap- peared as though we were experienced crooks. Through an American we made arrangements to ship our baggage to Chemulpo and, relieved of our belongings, we thought we could make short work of the police. It was about ten o'clock on a dark night. We were in a native shop buying fruit. The police stood at the entrance engrossed in conversa- tion. "Now is the time to make our getaway," I said. "I am ready," said Richardson. "What's your plan?" Our train would not leave for an hour. In a few hurried words I suggested that we slip out the back door, light out separately for the station and meet as soon as we could. "All right," said Richardson, "if we can't outrun these short-legged pests we are no good." We stole out into the alley and made a dash, each in an opposite direction. The shopkeeper 70 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD called to the police but our flight had been too sud- den for them. They stood petrified. The moment's hesitation was all we needed. By the time they had come to a conclusion that they should pursue us, we were out of sight. We ran down alleys, hurdling fences and seeking the dark streets. Richardson plunged through some one's private yard, mutilat- ing the flower beds, tearing his trousers on the gar- den fence and before long was at the station. I completed the home-stretch of my escape by grab- bing a rickshaw, placing the coolie in the seat, giv- ing him my hat and playing the part of horse myself. It took ten minutes' persuasion and five yen to induce the man to agree to such an arrangement. A coolie will do anything for money. In this way I sauntered down the street, unnoticed, pulling an Oriental over- come with amazement. Two blocks from the sta- tion I discharged the rickshaw and walked towards the freight yards. In three-quarters of an hour we found one another and crawled into a box-car to wait for the departure of our train. The police had lost the scent and we were free. We spent a few hours in Chemulpo, the first real freedom we had enjoyed for weeks. From Che- mulpo we took a steamer and after a day at Dairen in Southern Manchuria, en route, we turned our at- tentions to China and forgot our Japanese troubles. CHAPTER VI A PROFESSOR IN A CHINESE COLLEGE China proved to be a land of surprise. As we began our travels in this vast empire we little real- ized that we were on the eve of an interesting chain of experiences. I intended to press on and, as a simple tourist, see the country. I had no idea of searching for a job. My tentative plans were to be upset and I didn't have the remotest notion what the next few months had in store for me. We landed at Taku, a small seacoast town and port of Tientsin. We were soon passed through the customs officials and started for the railroad station a half-mile distant. Several Chinese coolies solicited the job of car- rying our two suitcases. We turned them over to an old fellow who tied them together with a rope and swung them over his shoulder and walked along a few paces behind us. When we reached the sta- tion we purchased two third-class tickets to Tien- tsin. This expenditure took all our loose money ex- cept a small Korean coin, an American ten-dollar gold piece and our bankers' checks. The coolie turned over our bags with his hand extended for his compensation. We did the best we could and offered him the Korean coin, worth about two American 71 72 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD cents. He refused it. The only other coin we had, the American ten-dollar gold piece, was too much for two tramps to separate themselves from for such a small service. However, we offered the coolie this money. The coin was strange to him and he refused it also. We then made an effort to ex- change the gold piece for Chinese currency but there were no money changers about. Our coolie friend could not understand our failure to pay our debts. We had done everything we could think of in the line of money, so we opened our bags and offered him pieces of wearing apparel, articles from our limited toilet sets and steamship time-tables. He refused them all. There was nothing for us to do now but to stand by and wait for our train which was due in about an hour. The patience of the coolie became exhausted and he exploded in an un- intelligible wrangle of Chinese. We could not un- derstand him nor could we explain matters to the poor fellow. He finally called a policeman. This gentleman arrived and began quietly and deliber- ately pouring out the musical chatter of his native tongue, and seeing no response from us in the way of coin he, too, blossomed into an excited oration. The station master came out and joined the chorus and in a short time we were surrounded by a score or more celestials whose denunciations became more and more frantic. We were helpless. The climax was rapidly approaching when our train pulled into the station. We hurried aboard our car and started off for Tientsin, leaving the poor coolie unpaid with PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 73 his madly shouting compatriots who collectively made such a disturbance as the little village of Taku has probably never witnessed before or since. At Tientsin we went directly to the Y. M. C. A. where Richardson reported for his school teaching position. We met the man in charge who informed Richardson of his duties, which were to begin in a few days and which consisted of teaching physics at seventy dollars a month in a middle or high school. While at lunch we met a clean-cut, jovial Chinese by the name of Samuel Sung Young. He spoke ex- cellent English and I soon learned from him that he was a graduate of the University of California with the class of 1904, I having graduated in 1907. This placed us on an intimate footing at once. Young was curious to know what we were doing so far away from home. I explained that we were out seeing the earth and in a joking way asked him if he knew of any loose jobs. He replied in the negative but asked for my address in Peking where I expected to be the next two weeks. I little thought that my question was the beginning of one of the most in- teresting experiences of the trip. Young was in Tientsin on business from Tang- shan, a small town about two hundred miles to the north, where he was president of the Tangshan En- gineering College, one of the Chinese Imperial Gov- ernment's Schools. The Tientsin Middle School, in which Richardson was to teach, proved to be a large modern brick building, its class rooms and laboratories fairly well 74 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD equipped with the latest Western appliances. One of the requirements for entrance into this school was a speaking knowledge of the English language. Oth- erwise Richardson would have been more useless than he was. Physics was an almost unknown sci- ence to him, but he concluded that if he could not bluff it out that he was an authority on the subject he was willing to take the consequences. During the time that Richardson was connected with this institution the first annual track meet of the schools of North China was held on its athletic grounds. The contest was planned and supervised largely by Americans and the Chinese took a great interest in it. Many schools in the northern part of the Empire sent teams, and several thousand people attended the meet. Among the distinguished spec- tators, who occupied a box, was the Viceroy of Chili Province with a score of attendants. Richardson worried the old fellow almost to death by taking several pictures of him and his cortege. Richard- son was ordered to stop. The Viceroy was more worried, however, by the report of the starter's pis- tol and when the first shot was fired all his attend- ants gathered closely about him. Even after it had been explained to him that the cartridges were blank he issued instructions forbidding the use of the weapon altogether. The poor old gentleman was afraid that some one was going to take a shot at him. The following week he sent an order to all the schools in his province prohibiting track meets in the future. Imagine the Governor of New York PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 75 issuing such an order. He would be hooted out of the state. Richardson's duties started on a Monday and I took my leave, intending to spend a couple of months travelling through China and meet my side-partner in Manila. I went to Peking where I put up at the Y. M. C. A. for one dollar a day. I spent two weeks in this very fascinating city doing the rounds in a most tourist-like fashion. While sitting one afternoon on the great altar of the Temple of Heaven, reflecting on the fact that I was a lonely tramp wandering aimlessly through a land of strange people, I was approached by a slight male figure with a missionary caste of countenance. The man sat down and began to talk to me. He had one of those piping voices which always excite in me the desire to fight. This person, with the unfortunate and aggravating voice, was a Baptist preacher of the hardest shell variety. We spent the rest of the day together sight-seeing and at evening we agreed to meet the following day. For two weeks the Bap- tist and I trudged about the interesting city of Pe- king, visiting the Temple of Heaven, the Temple of Confucius, the Legation quarters and all the places of importance in the Tartar, Imperial and Chinese cities. The old fellow proved to be an in- teresting character in spite of his voice and my in- clination to swing on him changed to a feeling of respect and admiration. From Peking to Hankow but one fast train runs a week. This train makes the trip in a day and a 76 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD half, running both day and night. The other trains travel only in the day-time, stopping on a siding at night, and require three days for the journey. I was at the station ready to leave in a few minutes on the fast train when I heard what I thought was my name being shouted about the depot. This star- tled me for, outside of the Baptist preacher and a few men I met at the Y. M. C. A., I knew no one. The name was shouted again and, seeing that a Chi- nese boy was the source from which it was emerg- ing, I went to the lad to ascertain what it was all about. The boy handed me a telegram which read, "Chance for teaching till summer can you stay over wire reply." This message was from Samuel Sung Young, the President of the Tangshan Engineering College, whom I had met in Tientsin. The telegram didn't mean very much and I had only five minutes in which to make up my mind before the train de- parted. "Chance for teaching" — teaching what? I came to the conclusion that if I could not teach Chinese youths Hebrew or anatomy or anything else, I was no good. "Till summer" — what did that mean? Summer in China might not begin for six months. I decided to take a chance on that. The most serious difficulty, however, was that there was no mention in the telegram about pay. While I was reflecting on these matters the train whistle blew and it was time to act. I decided to wait over and investigate the position. I wired Young, "Teach what and how much?" The next day I received a reply which read, "Taels two hundred reply." I f ~*i*mt.i Upper: A Group of our Korean Friends Lower: Every Day is Wash-day in Korea PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 77 was as much at sea as ever. How much was two hundred taels? I soon learned on inquiring that it was the equivalent to one hundred and twenty-five dollars gold. But was that amount to be paid monthly or for the period lasting "till summer"? No mention was made of the subject I was to teach and the whole affair was an uncertain proposition. I rather liked this uncertain feature, so wired my acceptance and took the next train for Tang- shan. Shortly after night-fall I swung off my car at Tangshan and was greeted by President Young and Professor Shen Yen Jee, one of the instructors in the college. Jee, a Cantonese, was a graduate of the University of California in my class and we had been good friends. To meet him was a great sur- prise. It was nearly like coming home. The welcome I received was as enthusiastic and cordial as any one ever had and the hospitality ex- tended has never been surpassed and seldom equalled on this earth. We hopped into rickshaws and were off to the college grounds. President Young's man- sion was a fine two-story brick building. I was in- troduced to Mrs. Young, a charming little Chinese woman, who spoke good English which she had learned at a Church of England school in Hong- kong. I was also introduced to Miss May Wu, Mrs. Young's sister and a bright young girl of fifteen. Miss Young, the president's sister, and a very fine woman, was also present. But probably the finest of all were Mrs. Young's two dear little 78 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD boys — one two years old and the other a three- months' old baby. The situation was a great novelty to me and such enjoyable and interesting things came in such rapid succession that it all seemed like a beautiful dream. We soon sat down to dinner and the many good but odd dishes which were served nearly baffled me. The chop-sticks, the sole appliances for conveying the food to one's mouth, unless one employed one's hands — which would be a greater breach of eti- quette in China than in America — were handled by me with a certain degree of facility, for I had ac- quired considerable dexterity with these implements in Japan. Jee and I talked of old acquaintances at college and we all had an enjoyable evening be- fore retiring. The Tangshan Engineering College is the leading Imperial Government scientific school in China. Its ten or more buildings are of red brick and are thor- oughly equipped with the latest classroom fixtures and laboratory supplies. There was an undergradu- ate enrolment of two hundred and fifty boys and a cleaner or finer set of young fellows cannot be found anywhere. The faculty number thirty, one half of whom were Chinese and the other English or Scotch. President Young's house, which was part of the col- lege plan, was enclosed in a compound of its own. In front were a pretty garden and a first-class ten- nis court. The interior was furnished in Chinese fashion with a strong American tinge to it, for Young had been educated in America. There were a half- PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 79 dozen servants and the household was conducted in a manner in keeping with the dignity of the presi- dent of a college. My bedroom was a large well- ventilated apartment containing a Chinese bed, upon which had been thoughtfully placed a pillow and bed- clothes common to the West. All the members of the household were dressed in Chinese costume. This Oriental apparel is very picturesque and demands the utmost care and taste on the part of those who wear it, both men and women, to be in style. The intricacies of Chinese dress are more complicated and require more at- tention, time and skill to be in accordance with the dictates of fashion than do those of the American woman with her manifold garments and her ornate headgear. The meals were purely Chinese and I soon became accustomed to rice as the main food-stuff and almost forgot that such articles as bread or butter ever existed. The most monotonous meal of the day was breakfast. This repast consisted of rice and meat — a sort of stew, one day, and the next we would sit down to bowls containing endless strings of a substance somewhat similar to macaroni. This al- ternating diet was a poor substitute for the usual fresh eggs, coffee and pancakes of the day's initial meal in the West. The noon and evening meals fur- nished a much larger variety and there was a more favourable chance for an American to hook nourish- ing food out of the assortment. Such delicacies as fish eyes, shark fins, bird's nest soup, lime-cured 8o JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD eggs, finely chopped and highly-seasoned chicken, vegetables and rice — in numerous forms — comprised the bulk of the menu. Novel and interesting as all this was to me, I was quite ready, after a month's stay in Tangshan, for a porterhouse steak, some bread and butter and a piece of pie. I learned my duties the day after my arrival. I was to be substitute professor in English, History and Economics, have charge of the college gymna- sium and assist in the library, in place of one of the regular teachers who was absent on leave for a month. No new light was thrown on the subject of salary and this matter remained obscure until the time came for my departure. The classroom work was interesting and Chinese pupils are about the same as the general run of such creatures in any American city. One of the requirements for ad- mission to the college was that each student should have a speaking knowledge of English. This knowl- edge on their part was not very profound, however, and I would talk along at times with such rapidity that the poor chaps could not understand a word. When off duty I spent many an interesting hour talking to Mrs. Young about (to me) the peculiar ways of the Chinese — their marriage customs, their family life and social ideas. I frequently made vis- its to the village of Tangshan where I wandered in and out of the quaint markets, ate in Chinese res- taurants or attended a religious ceremony at one of the many temples. I occasionally dropped into a theatre where the custom prevailed of entering with- 5 u o s o o ... f f*JFT PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 81 out paying admission, the cost of the show being collected after one had been present a few minutes making up his mind whether the performance was worth seeing or not. A Chinese play sometimes lasts for weeks and its claim to a continuous performance beats that of the American picture show. Some of the audience sit on the stage. The orchestra is also on the stage and produces the most unearthly collection of dis- cordant sounds conceivable. The actors, dressed in the most hideous combination of colours, shriek and yelp in tones ranging in variety from the mellow voice of a female Quaker to the gruesome calls of a coyote. Most interesting among the features of the theatres were the conveniences furnished by the proprietors for their patrons. There was a con- tinual shower of wet towels hurled through the air over the heads of the people — by a man on the stage — to boys stationed in various parts of the theatre. One of these moistened rags was passed along each row of seats and the perspiring occu- pants swabbed off their faces and naked bodies. The facility and skill with which these towels were thrown and caught and the utter disregard of all rules of hygiene on the part of the crowd in the common use of the fabric were marvellous. Many of the Chinese instructors connected with the college had had their queues amputated. Mo ■ — one of the proctors — however, took pride in his greasy pig-tail and refused to part with it. I sug- gested to him one time that if he did not cut it ojf 82 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD I would do so myself. One evening when Mo was playing Chinese dominoes at President Young's house I determined to tie a tin can to his queue. It required some patience and a little time to carry this out so as not to give Mo any idea as to what was taking place. The rest of the Chinese were in on the joke and gave me what assistance they could, while continuing to play their game. After an hour's work the feat was accomplished and on the end of a heavy cord attached to the proctor's queue was a rusty old Standard Oil can. The Chinese usually play at their games until very late and as I wished to go to bed early I had to hasten the climax. I did this by having a servant announce a hurry call for Mo. The proctor, thinking there was trouble in the boys' dormitory, made a dash towards the door with the oil can dangling behind him. The instant he discovered the can he realized that the servant's call was a sham and in a rage turned on me whom he at once suspected of the mischief. I thought my last day had come and that I was to be mauled to pieces by the frantic handling of an en- raged Oriental. He plunged towards me like a huge tiger. Fortunately for me the rest of the company appreciated the joke and came to my rescue. The angry man was calmed and a tragedy was prevented. It was about this time that I received the follow- ing letter from Richardson in Peking: "The job in Tientsin has gone up in a balloon. Particulars later. Let it suffice to say that my Honolulu discipline got the boys on their ear and in the absence of the prin- PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 83 cipal they struck. To avoid complications I beat it. No tears." This is the only information that I re- ceived concerning Richardson's sudden flight from Tientsin until I reached Manila some time later. I then forced him into the admission that he was vir- tually fired. Chinese students have the disconcerting habit, when their teachers do not suit them, of going on a strike. It seems that Richardson tried to in- augurate a civilized system of discipline which proved to be such a sudden and revolutionary change to the laxity that had prevailed in the classroom, up to the time of his advent, that the students rose up in a body and rebelled. They all went on a strike and pro- ceeded to the acting principal of the institution and issued an ultimatum that either Richardson had to leave or they themselves would quit the school. Their decision was final and the acting head of the school informed Richardson that under the circum- stances he would have to go. Richardson said that such an arrangement suited him, and that afternoon he resumed his journey. One of the most delightful Chinese that I met dur- ing my stay in Tangshan was Mr. Sze Ping Tze, who was a graduate of Cornell University and at this time Locomotive Superintendent of the Imperial Railways of North China. He was also an high official of the Kaiping Coal Mines. Several years ago he was private secretary to Yuan Shi-Kai, later President of the Chinese Republic. I spent many pleasant evenings with Mr. Sze and became well ac- quainted with him. On one occasion I said to him, 84 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD "Give me a job as conductor on one of your trains running from Peking to Hankow." "Why do you want it?" he asked. "When I get to Hankow I will quit and I shall then be several hundred miles farther along on my trip — at your expense," I replied with a smile. Sze thought this was a great joke and, laughing, said, "Why, I can do better than that for you; I will give you a pass." "All right," I said, "I won't forget that and when the time comes for me to leave Tangshan I will re- mind you of it." "What's more," continued Sze, "I will give you a letter of introduction to my brother in Hankow. He is vice-president of the Chinese Steamship and Navigation Company and I am sure he will give you a pass on the Yangtsze River from Hankow to Shanghai." "Fine business; and maybe I will be able to get a lift there from some one that will shoot me through to Manila," I concluded, feeling that the conversa- tion had been a very profitable one. When the time came for my departure from Tangshan Sze was true to his word. President Young gave me a railroad pass from Tangshan to Peking, distance of two hundred miles; Sze's pass from Peking to Hankow was over nine hundred miles and the letter to his brother brought the third pass down the Yangtsze River to Shanghai, a dis- tance of nine hundred miles more. As a result I ob- tained free passage for two thousand miles in China The Author in Chinese Gari PROFESSOR IN CHINESE COLLEGE 85 — and all first-class. If all the circumstances were reversed, what chance would a young Chinese, work- ing his way in America, have of teaching in the University of California, living with the president of the college, getting a pass from an high official of the Southern Pacific from San Francisco to St. Louis and thence down the Mississippi to New Orleans? For my services as substitute professor in the col- lege I received one hundred and twenty-five dollars (gold) plus my room and board and this, together with the railway and steamship passes I obtained, made the month I spent in Tangshan a very profit- able one. I prized more highly, however, the unique experience of living with a high-class Chinese family and the insight I had of Chinese home life. But above all I value the good and loyal Chinese friends I made. CHAPTER VII ADRIFT IN THE CHINESE EMPIRE President Young accompanied me from Tang- shan to Peking, to which latter city he made frequent trips in connection with his position as member of the Imperial Government Boards of Education and Transportation. I had planned to take the slow train from Peking to Hankow, which runs only in the day-time and goes on a siding for the night. This train would leave at eight the following mornr ing and, as we arrived in Peking in the afternoon, I had the evening to spend there. All American-educated Chinese are known as "re- turned students" and about a dozen of these fellows were guests of President Young at dinner at the Wagon Lits Hotel to meet me. As they were all graduates of American colleges and spoke English they employed this language exclusively, when they were together, in order to keep in practice and also to cement this common bond which existed amongst them. Mr. Ponson Chu, one of the number, dis- played a Psi Upsilon Fraternity pin on the breast of his Oriental costume and this emblem immediately attracted my attention, for I was a member of the same society. Chu was from the Yale chapter with the class of 1909 and he and I became brothers at once. 86 ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 87 After dinner we rented rickshaws for the eve- ning and the Chinese started out to "show me the town." This was a rare opportunity; for it gave me access to places of which, alone, I should not have known the existence. We hopped into our rickshaws and were on our way. We passed the Legation compounds, went through the massive and imposing Chien-Mien Gate and in a few minutes were lost in the swarms of roving humanity in the Chinese City. We found our way through the nar- row streets crowded with vendors, wrangling mer- chants, camels and what not. Finally we came to our first stop, a bohemian cafe — to describe the place in Western parlance. This cafe, which repre- sented the best thing of its kind in the capital, was a quaint old building composed of several rooms in each of which were a few tables. We seated our- selves at three of these tables and ordered refresh- ments — which consisted of tea and dried watermelon seeds. Shortly, a bevy of young Chinese girls, em- ployed by the institution, came in and sat with us, partook of the food and engaged in the conversa- tion so far as their limited mentalities would permit. These dainty little creatures, ranging in age from twelve to sixteen years, were neatly dressed in tight pajama-like garments. Their hair was greased and cut in such fantastic designs and they were so men- tally deficient and so bashful that it was hard for me to realize they were human beings. One of our number put in an order for a Chinese orchestra and in a few minutes an old fellow appeared with an in- 88 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD strument somewhat similar to a violin. This mu- sical contrivance had but one string. The sounds it emitted, after its operator got into action, were enough to drive the most placid man insane. To complete the musical bedlam a confusion of discor- dant tones was added by the voices of several female singers who rendered a number of selections at the request of one of our party. We visited several establishments of this sort and in one of them I was treated to the sight of see- ing two Manchu Princesses accompanied by their eunuchs. These women entered with their male attendants, hanging languidly on their arms. The women were tall, graceful creatures — each smoking a cigarette, and were dressed in beautiful one-piece robes of rich blue colour. Their hair was done up in the characteristic Manchu fashion on a frame- work extending from the rear of the head. They were beautiful women. The following morning I was at the station ready to board the slow train through China to Hankow. As there were no dining arrangements on these trains I came fully provided with provisions. Ex- tending from each coat pocket was a loaf of French bread; canned goods disfigured the symmetry of my trousers in front and two bottles of beer added to my unshapely appearance in the rear. Foreigners very seldom take this- slow train and the passenger list consists exclusively of natives who are making short trips. I had just seated myself in my compartment when ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 89 an Englishman entered and asked if I would mind if a Russian shared quarters with me. I had no ob- jections and the Russian came in. The train pulled out and as soon as my new travelling companion had his luggage adjusted I attempted to engage him in conversation. The man could not speak a word of English and I knew nothing of Russian. I was in for three days of silence, I thought. We resorted to gestures and drawing pictures. In this way, I learned that my new friend was an artist, and I informed him by the same means of my purposes in life. To confine myself to the truth it must be stated that the Russian knew two words of the English language and these were, "President Taft." I dis- covered this when he took from his little travelling trunk two small glasses and a bottle of Benedictine. He poured out the liquor, handed a glass to me and, drinking a toast, said, "President Taft." I would not be outdone so I returned the compliment by toasting a name which I thought ought to be the Rus- sian for Nicholas. The artist recognized it and his face was one radiant smile as he drank his glass. These were the only words which passed between us during our three days together and they were made coherent with the bottle as a welcome inter- preter. The painter had, among his belongings, a large pamphlet with Russian phrases on one page and the English equivalent on the other. By means of this booklet we were able to exchange ideas. Sometimes, 9 o JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD however, it would require almost an hour to put across a simple thought. The first night we stopped at Tchang Te Fou and I made arrangements with the station master for the Russian and myself to sleep in the car. Most of the interior cities of China are surrounded by a wall and the railway stations are usually outside of this wall and often a couple of miles away. Before retiring the Russian and I had agreed, by means of the English-Russian pamphlet, to enter the walls of Tchang Te Fou and see the town and at the same time get something to drink, as the water on the train was very poor. We walked the two miles from the station to the city, entered the big gate and were soon wandering up the main street. We were at once a source of curiosity as our advent was, no doubt, the chief event of the year. This city is seldom, if ever, visited by foreigners and we learned afterwards that there were only two in residence, these being missionaries. Consequently we were the main feature of interest to the simple but treacherous-looking inhabitants. As. we pro- ceeded up the street in the hope of finding a soda fountain or a saloon we accumulated a long train of curious citizens, beggars, naked children and non- descripts, who followed us and examined us with child-like simplicity. We finally came to a shop which had the appearance of a drug store. We looked over its stock for some thirst-quenching liquid. By this time our train of natives had in- creased to two hundred and they stood at the en- ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 91 trance of the shop while the proprietor restrained them from coming in. I spied two bottles of some unknown make of American beer perched on a shelf amidst Chinese medical concoctions and bought them. The Russian and I then made our way- through the crowd at the door and started down the street to the train. The gang of Chinese tacked on and a solid procession of half the population of China, so it seemed to us, marched behind us. It was beginning to get dark and, as it was no uncom- mon thing for foreigners to enter some Chinese cities and never be heard of again, I became some- what alarmed when several of the hangers-on began to beg for money and, when none was forthcoming, to pull at our coats and molest us. Two of the Chi- nese were especially persistent, one jerking the Rus- sian's coat and the other making an effort to get his hands in my pockets. What a situation! It looked as though two speechless companions in dan- ger would have to clean out the whole crowd of several hundred Chinese. The Russian gave me a look which I interpreted to mean that there was nothing to do but fight. The mere suggestion of such a thing unconsciously made me act and in a flash I swung on one of my assailants. I connected with his chin and floored him. Ideas go in and out of a man's brain in rapid succession in such moments, and I thought that the Russian and I would now have to fight the whole mob. I was mistaken. I didn't know my men, for the blow that ruined my opponent dispersed the entire crowd and they fled 92 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD in all directions like chaff before the wind. A crisis had been passed and the Russian and I made haste to the station where we safely spent the night in the train. The next day we had more trouble. This time it was with the railway police. I was showing a num- ber of photographs of Chinese to my Russian friend when a policeman came along and asked in French if he could see them. I acquiesced, thinking the offi- cer was simply interested. He wanted to show them to some of his friends in another car. I gave my consent with a nod of my head. As he had not re- turned at the end of an hour, I went through the train to find him. He was showing them to a score of his countrymen and said that he would bring them back in a few minutes. I returned to my car. Shortly the policeman appeared and gave me all the pic- tures except two. These he said he wanted to keep. I protested with him in French, for this was the lan- guage used by the employes of this railroad. He became so angry that he attempted to take back the photographs he had returned. The Russian came to my assistance and we threw the policeman out of our compartment into the aisle of the car. I took his number and told him that I would report him to Mr. Tze, the official of the railroad company who had given me my pass. The policeman recognized Tze's name and at once calmed down and said that he would return the missing pictures immediately. He did not return and I went after him again only to learn that he had got off the train at the last sta- ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 93 tion. The man was now beyond reach and I was out two of my photographs. Why he wanted them, I don't know. It is hard to diagnose the workings of some people's brains and this policeman was one of them. The second night our train went on a siding at Tchu Me Tien, a small isolated village. The sta- tion master would not grant us permission to sleep in the car, so we had to put up at a Chinese inn. A Japanese hotel is a model of cleanliness. A Chi- nese hotel is usually the reverse. This inn at Tchu Me Tien was the essence of filth, discomfort and heat. It is a safe statement to make that it was one of the most unsanitary, dilapidated and uncomfort- able domiciles on this earth. The building was alive with naked and unwashed Chinese; our bedroom was occupied by a dozen hop-head coolies; the beds were made from the hardest wood obtainable; the unsanitary toilet was only a few feet away; the ther- mometer was hovering about the boiling point; and mosquitoes were as numerous as raindrops in Ore- gon and as large as bats. With all these inconven- iences and pests, coupled with the fear of being robbed during the night by the proprietor of the hotel assisted by his guests, neither the Russian nor myself — who rested on the same plank together — got a wink of sleep. I left the Russian at Hankow and began rambling again by myself. I found an hotel in the Japanese concession of the city and there I put up during my week's stay in Hankow. I deteriorated into a sim- 94 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD pie tourist. I "did" Hankow, and I "did" Wu- Chang and Han Yang, the cities on the opposite banks of the Yangtsze River. Before leaving Han- kow I presented my letter of introduction to Mr. Tze and obtained my steamship passage down the river. I sailed on the steamer Hsin Chang. Three days and three nights on the picturesque Yangtsze as a first-class passenger, and the Hsin Chang pulled into Nanking. Although my pass was good to Shanghai I concluded to leave the ship at Nanking and go on to the coast by train. I there- fore landed, hailed a rickshaw and gave instruc- tions to the coolie to haul me to a Japanese hotel. American and European hotels were impossible for me on account of their high rates and the Chi- nese hotels were out of the question because of their filth. There are many Japanese in China and each large city has at least one of their hotels, which are always clean and cheap. The Nanking Japanese hotel proved to be a dif- ficult institution to find, for, after dragging me about two-thirds of the streets of the town, the coolie ad- mitted that he didn't know where it was. At last I saw the Japanese consul's house and directed my rickshaw man to it. From the consul I learned where the Japanese hotel was. In five minutes I was a properly registered guest of the place. I retained the service of the rickshaw coolie and with a map set out to see Nanking. I passed through the ruins of the old Imperial City where a few Man- chus still reside and out of the walls to the Ming ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 95 tombs. The rickshaw slowly conveyed me along the avenue of hideous monuments erected over the graves of the late members of the Ming dynasty. When I came to the end I alighted and ascended to the summit of the huge structure built over the sup- posed remains of Woo Hung, the first emperor of the Ming line, who died some six hundred years ago. I sat down and gazed over the distant walls to the city of Nanking nestled in the mist. There I re- mained in deep reflection. My thoughts had floated across the Pacific to places where I had friends and relatives. Just at this lonesome moment a neatly dressed Scotchman came along and sat down beside me. "What are you doing, old chap?" he inquired. "Just knocking about the country," I replied. "Are you going to Shanghai?" "Yes, I shall probably go down to-morrow after- noon." "Where do you intend to stay while there?" "Oh, I suppose that I shall put up at some hotel." "I live in Shanghai and am going there in the morning. Can't you come and stay with me?" I thanked him but declined, giving as an excuse the fact that I had some friends whom I expected to meet. The Scotchman persisted. "I should be very pleased to entertain you. If you are unable to find your friends be sure and look me up," he said. I am not of a suspicious nature but, when the Scotchman extended such an urgent invitation on so 96 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD short acquaintance, I immediately thought that he was a bunko man of some sort and that he intended to "shanghai" me. "Thanks," I concluded, "if I can't find my friends I shall look you up." Shanghai is a city of a mil- lion and a half people and, as the Scotchman — who didn't give his name — left, I dismissed the incident from my mind, never expecting to see him again. I returned to my rickshaw and was soon again within the city walls where I spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting the Gung Yuam or old Examination Hall. This hall was one of the most interesting institu- tions in my Chinese travels. It was the place where the students from many provinces came to take the government examinations in the Chinese classics. It consisted of rows of cells where the students were sealed in for several days to write their essays. There were twenty-five thousand of these cells, suffi- cient to accommodate that many students at one time, and the whole institution covered several acres. In addition to the cells there were many buildings which were used by the government officials and ex- aminers. The place was last used in 1904 and since that time has rapidly decayed and through neglect, characteristic of the Chinese, was in a poor state of preservation. It was the only one still remaining in China and it is a pity that it is soon to be destroyed. My companion on the train to Shanghai was a Japanese. With the smattering of English he knew, coupled with the fragments of the Japanese language 6* o Q 2 Q O o < Oh ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 97 I had picked up in Japan, we carried on a fairly intelligent conversation. From him I learned the address of a Japanese hotel in Shanghai and he kindly offered to accompany me to it. We arrived in the big city and in a moment were lost in the tre- mendous tides of humanity. I thought I had never seen so many people before. The Japanese con- ducted me to the hotel. The proprietor consigned us to the same room. I didn't object. I was only surprised. Shanghai was in holiday attire and throngs of people were celebrating the coronation of King George V of Great Britain. I walked the streets and watched the happy crowds. A feeling came over me that I was out of it, that my stay in the city would be a wearisome one and that while every one else would be enjoying the celebration I could not take part in it. As I was thus musing, I heard a shout from the street. "Did you find your friends?" It was the Scotch- man whom I had met in Nanking. "No," I shouted back, at once making up my mind to accept the stranger's invitation. I concluded that I had never been drugged or "shanghaied" and I was willing to take the chance. If any one made a suspicious move I would swing on him first and put up a good fight while the affair lasted. "Come on with me, then," said the Scotchman. "All right," I replied. I returned to the Japanese hotel, checked out and immediately moved into the Scotchman's apartments. 98 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD This mysterious man whom I held in such sus- picion and to whom I attributed such unworthy mo- tives was Mr. John E. Hall, a prominent importer of steel rails, and one of the most respected citizens of Shanghai. I entered Hall's spacious apartments, was introduced to several of his friends and was soon seated at the dinner table putting away one of the finest meals any mortal ever ate. Everything in the line of good food and good liquor graced Hall's table, and every convenience and comfort from bath- room to billiard table was to be found in his resi- dence. I was given a guest card to the Shanghai Club, the finest in the Far East. I had a ticket to the Corona- tion service at the Cathedral. I sat in a reserved seat and viewed the parade. I was taken to all the points of interest in the city, both by day and by night, and if there was anything on the map too good for me, I didn't know it. This was a sample of hospitality hard to beat. During my wanderings about Shanghai with Hall, I was taken, in the early hours of the morning, after the electrical parade which took place as a part of the coronation celebration, to the Carlton Cafe — a bohemian resort. As I entered this cafe, in com- pany with a dozen of Hall's friends, I was startled to hear my name called out from the midst of the huge throng of midnight merrymakers. Here I was five thousand miles from home, and, so far as I was aware, there was not a soul I knew in the city. My name rang through the air again. I looked ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 99 about and at last recognized a woman, who was standing on a table, as the source of the call. I soon discovered that she was inebriated and in a second I recalled that I had met her on the steamer Asia crossing the Pacific. I immediately went over to her, shook hands with her and exchanged the usual plati- tudes which are employed when people meet. My friend wanted to know where I had met the lady, and informed me that she was one of the most notorious women of the Shanghai underworld. On the steamer she had given her name as Mrs. Davis and there was nothing in her demeanour during the voyage to indicate that she was not a respectable woman. It was on this basis that I had met her. Presently she came over to our table and asked if I would come and have tiffin with her the next day. I accepted. "Where shall I come?" I inquired. "Sixteen Soo Chow Road," she said. "Are you surprised?" Either way I might have answered this question would have given offence, so I evaded it with an as- surance that I would be on hand for tiffin the next day. Sixteen Soo Chow Road was guarded by two po- licemen. They took no notice of me and I walked straight in and asked for Mrs. Davis. No one in the house knew her by that name. In a few minutes I found her and was cordially received. The place was in a great state of excitement, for one of the women had taken four shots at a prominent mer- ioo JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD chant of Shanghai early in the morning in one of the city's cafes. The woman was under arrest and this accounted for the presence of the policemen at the entrance. I did not like the idea of being about for fear I would be called as a witness and become mixed up in a nasty scrape which I knew nothing about. However, I decided to be a man and see the meal out. Tiffin was brought in and Mrs. Davis, for she was still Mrs. Davis to me, entertained me as would the hostess of the most respectable home in the world. After a good meal and a pleasant call I took my leave. I was somewhat wiser from my study of human nature. I also had made another friend in this world. I made arrangements with the skipper of a British tramp steamer to take me to Hongkong and before long I found myself on the shores of this beautiful island ready for new experiences. Hongkong proved to be a poor field for adventure and after seeing the sights I went up the river to Canton. In both placer I put up at Japanese hotels where I thrived on Jap- anese diet at Japanese prices. I returned to Hong- kong and after a few days along the waterfront I sailed for Manila on a British tramp. Before the ship got under way a United States Quarantine officer made a cursory examination of the crew before she would be allowed to leave for the Philippines. As he passed me he said, without stopping, that I had malaria. This was cheerful news, for a Hankow doctor had told me that I had a touch of dry pleurisy and a Canton physician had ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 101 prescribed a mixture for dysentery. I said to my- self when the American Quarantine doctor made his lightning-speed diagnosis, "This is a delightful thought; I must have all the diseases under the sun." I hadn't been feeling very well, which I attributed to the long period I had lived on Japanese and Chi- nese food and the irregular life I had been leading, so I discounted the contradictory statements of all my physicians and concluded that with good food and regular hours in Manila I would soon be in normal shape. However, I had no time to think of ailments, for the second day out found the ship in the roughest sea I had ever experienced. The captain informed me that we were on the outskirts of a typhoon and that he had changed the course of the ship in order to run away from it. Typhoons, which are com- mon to the China Sea during the fall of the year. r e tremendous whirlwinds which are often several Jindred miles in circumference and, when the weather prophets know of their existence, all ships are not allowed to leave port. Our ship, however, got under way before any indications of the typhoon were evident. If a boat encounters one of these terrific storms its chances for getting out are about one in a hundred. I was sitting on the deck talking to the ship's doc- tor when the boat gave a lurch which threw us both headlong against the railing. Before we could find something to hold to the ship pitched in the oppo- site direction and we were thrown like rag dolls 102 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD through the open hatchway upon a pile of cargo. From this point we gradually found our way to the mess-room. This was the first indication that we were in the vicinity of a typhoon. The boat was a freighter and did not carry regular passengers and, besides the crew, the extra travellers consisted of a dozen Chinese coolies, a United States cable ship officer and myself. The sea became rougher and rougher and if this was only the rim of a typhoon what on earth would the centre of it be? All night the ship pounded, swayed and lurched and the wind blew at a terrific rate. The skipper remained on the bridge and had what little he ate served to him there. In the morning the sea, instead of being calmer, as we had all hoped, was ten-fold worse and the captain announced that we were in the middle of the typhoon, and when asked what our chances were he simply shook his head. When the experienced skipr ' looked worried and considered that our prospea^ for reaching shore were small, unless something ex- traordinary occurred, I philosophically — as did all the others on board — resigned myself to the fact that I only had a day or two at most to live. We were as helpless as babes. The waves ran thirty and forty feet high and constantly broke over the ship at the two hatchways. Fifteen feet of water dashed and redashed across the deck in a mad torrent. Occasionally a wave would break over the top of the mess-room, which was perched high upon the stern of the boat, and <- i •**i fc ... i • " v.- - Upper: Country Boys of North China Lower: Sample of an Irrigation System ADRIFT IN CHINESE EMPIRE 103 the force of its blow seem to promise that one more would cave in the sides of the ship and end it all. It was impossible to serve meals and we all munched at pieces of bread or chunks of meat— or any food we could get our hands on. I had never imagined that the ocean could be- come so terrific and a ship so helpless. Each time I saw the tremendous mountains of water rush to- wards the vessel I would think it was all over. The ship would cringe, dip and twist and in some mys- terious way, half submerged, ride the treacherous monster and, having got safely by, would instantly be confronted with another equally as treacherous and terrible. To survive these waves was a miracle. With the heavy sea and the fearful wind the ship's engines were powerless and the boat was swept about like a cork. To add to our perilous situation the engine room was becoming flooded, although four pumps were frantically sucking out the water. Thus we battled with the sea for three days, not knowing when the end would come, but always liv- ing in the hope that the extraordinary thing would occur which the captain longed for. Thank God, it did occur. During the third night the wind changed and it began to rain. I never saw rain in such quantities before nor do I ever expect to see it again. But every drop was a blessing, for it did its share to quiet the waves* and it was only a few hours before the sea had abated to a point where comparative safety was reached and the ship was able to make some headway. A more thankful and io 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD happy crowd could not be found at that moment on land or sea than the few men on that ship. The first meal after the subsiding of the waves was as happy a reunion and joyous occasion as any Christ- mas gathering I ever attended. The next day the sea had calmed down to almost normal and the captain discovered that we had been driven five hundred miles out of our course. He headed the bow of his ship towards Manila and, on the morning of the sixth day, we pulled into port. We were all intact, but the faithful ship was a dis- mantled wreck. The Manila authorities had given us up as lost and our experiences took up a column on the front page of each of the daily papers. CHAPTER VIII RURAL CHINA BY CART Richardson was en route to Peking as a third- class passenger. He had just been discharged — with thanks — from his position of physics teacher at the Tientsin Middle School. After his dismissal it took him about ten minutes to gather his meagre belongings together and get out of town. In the Chinese capital he stayed at the native Y. M. C. A. which was conducted by Americans and where his travelling comrade had put up a few weeks before. His bill was one dollar, Chinese money, a day. The Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation is found in .nearly every large city in the Orient. Many- of its' plants are housed in substan- tial and well-equipped buildings and it does a most valuable work. The men in charge of these institu- tions are a fine lot and are representative of the best type of Americans. Without exception, they received us with the greatest cordiality possible and the recollection of their hospitality will long remain with us. The many secretaries we met were often invaluable to us for the advice they gave us, their suggestions and the courtesies they extended to us, and we were always welcomed to their accommoda- tions at very reasonable prices. 105 106 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD In many ways Peking was the most interesting and fascinating city of our travels. It is different from any other place in the world. Richardson circled this Oriental capital on foot. He walked along the top of the twelve miles of huge walls which surround it. Peking has a population of over a million peo- ple and is divided into four cities, viz : The Tartar City, inhabited by the middle classes; the Imperial City, within the Tartar City, where reside most of the government officials; the Forbidden City, in the centre of the Imperial City, in which the Emperors lived and where the President of the Republic of China now has his residence; and the Chinese City where the lower classes live. Surrounding the en- tire metropolis is a great wall forty feet high and sixty-two feet wide at the base. The Imperial City occupies a space of nearly two square miles and is enclosed by a wall twenty feet high. There are four spacious entrances, each with three gateways, the middle one being opened only for the Emperor or President. The Forbidden City is laid out on a grand scale and is surrounded by massive pink-tinted walls thirty feet high and thirty feet thick. Within are many palaces, private resi- dences, apartments for visitors and government offi- cials and the necessary quarters for an enormous retinue of domestics of various rank. Foreigners without permits or the Chinese, except high officials, are not allowed in this city. Connecting the Tartar and Chinese cities is the immense and imposing Chien-Mien Gate with its RURAL CHINA BY CART 107 four Oriental towers. The view from the top of this gate is one of the most wonderful metropolitan pic- tures in the world. Directly before one's eyes are the yellow-tiled palaces of the Forbidden City, whose roofs look like sheets of glittering gold under the rays of the Oriental sun. To the right are the costly and substantial houses of the Legation Quarter. Far to the left the Bell and Drum Towers loom up like Western skyscrapers. In a remote corner of the Chinese City the stately Temple of Heaven with its rich blue roof rests in the haze of the Oriental at- mosphere. Beneath one is a bee-hive of human beings. Tens of thousands pass through the Chien- Mien Gate each day. Nearly every means of con- veyance that one can imagine, except roller skates and submarines, can be seen creeping through the arched openings of the huge gate. Camels, donkeys, rickshaws, the elaborate equipages of officials, carts, men, women and children on foot, form an endless stream from the time the gates are opened at six in the morning until they close at midnight. A touch of the West is added by the roar of trains whose tracks pierce the walls of the Chinese capital with their numerous tunnels. Travelling at the third-class mountain rate of two- thirds of a cent a mile, Richardson was sharing his small compartment on a Chinese train with a dozen coolies — on his way to Tai Yuan Fu. From Peking he had made a trip to the Ming tombs and had also visited the Great Wall with a party of Ameri- can tourists. He was now on his way into the in- io8 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD terior of Shansi Province to visit some college friends who were missionaries at a small town called Fen Chow Fu. The mission station was conducted by the American Board of the Congregational Church. Richardson went from Peking to Tchang Te Fou, a distance of one hundred and seventy miles, by train. This city was where the Russian artist and I had our trouble with the Chinese beggars. From this place Richardson took a branch line to Tai Yuan Fu, about two hundred miles west, where he spent the night as the guest of a young Britisher who was a Cambridge University graduate and was then doing medical missionary work. Tai Yuan Fu was the terminal of the railroad and Richardson had to complete his journey to the mission station by cart. This Chinese vehicle had been sent to meet him by his missionary friends. In giving me an account of this eighty-mile Chi- nese cart trip, which required three days, Richard- son told me that in order to appreciate his experi- ences I must keep in mind four facts. These were : first, a Chinese cart has neither springs nor cushions; second, Chinese country roads are simply two deep parallel ruts or grooves, made by the wheels of carts (these roads are never graded and in places the ruts are two or three feet deep) ;,third, the portion of the road between the ruts was lined with rocks and boulders of every description and size; and fourth, it rained steadily the three days of his journey. He stated that, by putting these facts together and add- RURAL CHINA BY CART 109 ing a liberal allowance of imagination, I could get some idea of a cart trip in China. This uncomfortable vehicle was drawn by two mules, hitched tandem, and not once during the eighty miles did they get off a walk. An Arkansas train was a comet in comparison. Richardson's at- tendants were a driver and a servant, whom the mission station had sent. They could not speak Eng- lish. For three days my friend was slowly hauled over hills and valleys in this primitive conveyance. At times he thought his insides would be shaken to a hopeless mass; his head was snapped about until there was grave doubt in his mind as to whether it would stay on throughout the journey and he was so roughly tossed about that he thought he would be lame for the rest of his life. He would ride a couple of hours, about as long as he could stand it at one time, and then get out and walk in the rain for an equal period. At night and at noon-time he stopped at Chinese inns. "Inn" is a misnomer, however. The Chinese country inn is a stable-yard filled with mules, don- keys, dogs, pigs, chickens, babies and smells. This yard is surrounded by a long one-story building in which are the sleeping rooms, kitchens and eating compartments. All the rooms in an inn open on the yard and with their doorless entrances extend a hearty welcome to the numerous odours. Chinese hotels can be located by their characteristic aroma. A bedroom in one of these inns has no conven- iences. There is a "thing" to sit on and a "thing" no JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD upon which to place food, but it requires a great deal of intuition to know that they are respectively a chair and a table. There is a brick platform in one corner of the room for a bed. This is called a kong in Shansi Province. Beneath these kongs a fire is built on cold nights. It was at Tai Yuam Hsien, where he spent the second night, that Richardson, while sleeping soundly on a kong, was awakened about two A. M. by being nearly baked. The coolie who was acting as stoker had replenished the oven so generously with fuel that the bed resembled a crematory. For two and a half days he didn't see a foreigner or meet a Chinese who could speak English. He communicated with his servant by means of signs. As he entered each village he at once became the chief object of interest. At the inns the scene on his arrival resembled a circus procession. All the youngsters, beggars and cripples followed him into the yard and watched the "animal" eat. At Tai Yuam Hsien they became so numerous and so per- sistent in their pleas for cash that Richardson had to flash his pistol to instil some fear into them and impress them with the fact that he was a danger- ous man. This three days' journey was filled with inconven- iences, but gave Richardson an excellent opportunity to get a glimpse of Chinese rural life. The coun- try through which he passed was green and the farms along the way gave a Mississippi Valley aspect to the scenery. The methods of farming were some- RURAL CHINA BY CART in what different, however. To see hundreds of acres of wheat planted in rows like radishes and hoed by- hand was hardly American. There were no cows or horses but, instead, thousands of goats and sheep flocked the hills and valleys while mules and camels were the beasts of burden. The country was largely agricultural and there were but few walled cities, his course taking him through scores of little villages. In each of the first two days the Chinese cart made thirty miles and the third day twenty. Richardson drove into Fen Chow Fu about six o'clock on the third evening and received a very cordial welcome from the members of the American mission station. Fen Chow Fu proved to be a walled town of about fifty thousand people and the score or more mission- aries were the only foreigners. They entertained Richardson in real American fashion. The members of this little far away colony were mostly graduates of Carlton College, Minnesota, where Richardson had taken his freshman and sophomore years before going to Dartmouth. After ten days as a guest of his friend, Richard- son returned to the railroad at Tai Yuan Fu by Chinese cart. Three more uncomfortable days over the eighty-mile course with the same experiences as the inward trip and he arrived at the railroad with- out mishap. He took the first train and the fol- lowing day was in Hankow. In this city he spent a comfortable week at the native Y. M. C. A. It was at this time that one of the dreadful Chi- nese famines was ravaging the country a few miles ii2 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD distant from Hankow and thousands of people were dying of starvation. Large numbers of these home- less, naked and wretched creatures flocked to the city and roamed its narrow streets as beggars. They hardly had the strength to walk and they presented a sad sight with their fleshless bones, visible ribs and sunken faces. Real poverty was more in evidence in this section than in any part of the world we vis- ited. Human beings were huddled in tiny huts, built of rusty Standard Oil cans and located in a swamp. A whole family of six or eight would crawl in on their hands and knees to get a night's shelter from the cold and rain. During the day they would beg or attempt to sell some worthless trinkets or pieces of junk. I have seen a stock of goods spread out on the sidewalk which contained nothing but what would be consigned to the ash barrel in an Ameri- can community. Rusty nails, pieces of glass, old newspapers, rags and wornout soles of shoes were on display. In some unaccountable way the vendor fre- quently found a purchaser. It was in this poverty-stricken district that Rich- ardson played the role of philanthropist. He bought an American dollar's worth of cash — small Chinese coins with a square hole in the centre which are sold on long strings. As soon as he began giving these away a hundred or more of these poor unfortunates gathered about him and piteously begged for some of the money. Starved creatures — ragged women, half-clad and shivering children, blind boys, men on all fours, paralytics and lepers — thronged about RURAL CHINA BY CART 113 him and pleaded for some of his charity. He divided the money equally among the multitude, counting out the coins as he gave them away. He found that for his American dollar he had received twenty-seven hundred pieces of cash. Richardson was the guest of some friends who were on the faculty of Boone's College in Wu Chang on the opposite bank of the Yangtsze River from Hankow. This school is under the auspices of the American Episcopal Church Mission and is one of the leading institutions of learning in the Empire. Here he spent several days in luxury, sleeping in a warm and comfortable room and enjoying American meals. Riding below the water line on an Oriental steamer with Chinese coolies as fellow passengers is the antithesis of the comfort of an American Mission school. This was the sort of transportation Rich- ardson enjoyed down the Yangtsze to Shanghai. Three days in the midst of unsanitary surroundings and curious and simple coolies were enough to make the ordinary American quit the trip and buy a first- class ticket home. Richardson was not that kind. He was anything but a quitter and although he en- joyed a good bed, clean food and intelligent com- panions as well as any one I ever knew, he could stand hardships and discomfort without a murmur. He often appeared to like them. In the face of the most discouraging environment he would simply smile and play the part of a pilosopher. He trooped down the gangway at Shanghai with ii 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD his fellow passengers and in a few days trooped up another gangway on his way south. This time, how- ever, he had obtained a rather luxurious berth. For ten dollars he was to be landed in the city of Vic- toria, on the island of Hongkong, by the Scotch captain of a British tramp steamer. He occupied a cabin on the upper deck, had the freedom of the ship and dined with the skipper in the main saloon. The voyage was a quiet one and he had plenty of time for reading undisturbed. Richardson had tried Chinese steerage travel and found it very rough. He decided to make a change. From Hongkong he sailed in the hold of a Japanese steamer for Manila. According to his own state- ment it was the lowest stratum he had ever reached. The Japanese in the third-class quarters were an un- intelligent and inferior lot. They acted like animals; the food was coarse and half cooked; the bunks were hard and full of vermin; the quarters were poorly ventilated; toilet conveniences did not exist; the sea was rough and nearly all the passengers were sick. Aside from this, the boat was very com- fortable and it was a pleasant trip. CHAPTER IX ASSORTED JOBS IN THE PHILIPPINES The Philippines proved to be a prolific field for jobs. It was our plan to settle in the Islands for several months and add to our exchequers before going on to India and Europe. Richardson held down three jobs during our three months' stay and for a few days drew pay from them all at the same time. I filled one position and declined two others. The American who couldn't get work in Manila at the time of our visit deserved to starve to death. Many of the old Spanish laws are still in force and, before I could transact any business, I had to comply with the insular regulations and get a cedular or license. This certificate costs two pesos and must be held before carrying on any financial negotiations. I was now ready to look for a job. The first day I had a chance to sign on as a government teamster caring for and driving a pair of mules at sixty dol- lars a month. I did not accept this position, but held it in reserve in case I couldn't land anything better. The second day, the city editor of the Cable-News American said that he had an opening as a reporter at eighty dollars a month. At last I got in touch with the Bureau of Education which I learned wanted a man in its industrial department. "5 n6 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD Four others had been under consideration for several days for the position when I arrived on the scene. I interviewed the director, Mr. Frank E. White, a charming man who has since died and, as I made a favourable impression, he asked me to call again. My application was considered for a week and I conversed with several of the authorities of the Bureau. I didn't like the long time employed in coming to a conclusion on my case, for I expected to remain in Manila only a few months — a fact which I had to keep a secret to have any one hire me. One afternoon during these negotiations I was on the Luneta attending the daily concert of the Philip- pine Constabulary Band, when I was startled by a war-whoop. I looked up to see a sturdy figure dressed in the white of the tropics bounding towards me. It was Richardson who had just arrived in Manila from China. It was the first we had seen or heard of one another for three months. That evening we spent several hours relating our experi- ences since we separated. The next interview with the Bureau of Educa- tion was the final one. My qualifications evidently satisfied the authorities for Mr. White opened the conversation by saying: "Well, we have decided to take you on, Mr. Fletcher — on one condition." "What's that?" I inquired. "That you will remain permanently," responded Mr. White. ASSORTED JOBS IN PHILIPPINES 117 After all the days of negotiation the job now hung in the balance, for I intended to stay only three months at most and I wanted to be free to leave at any time. I couldn't afford to let this informa- tion loose or all would be lost. "I can't agree to anything like that, Mr. White. I assume that you reserve the right to discharge me if my services are not satisfactory and I want the same privilege to quit if I find that I don't like the work or can't get along with you or your as- sistants," I said. "Of course we take such matters into considera- tion," replied Mr. White. "You may go to work at once if you wish." "There is one little matter which has not been mentioned yet," I added. "What is that?" inquired the director. "Compensation," I smiled. "Two hundred pesos a month," said Mr. White with a laugh. This amount is equivalent to one hundred dollars. "That is satisfactory," I concluded and was con- ducted into the department where I was to work. Now that I had the job I at once began to figure out how to get rid of it when the time came. A few minutes before I had been wondering how I was going to get it. The Bureau of Education is one of the main di- visions of the Insular Government and employs nearly two thousand men and women, the large ma- jority of whom are scattered throughout the Islands n8 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD as teachers. The head office in Manila has about one hundred and twenty on its staff, and these are divided among several departments. The Division of Publications and Industrial Information was the title of the department in which I was to work and my duties consisted of issuing bulletins, editing text- books, publishing the Philippine Craftsman (a monthly magazine of the Bureau) and preparing the annual report. This last embodied about fifty financial and statistical tables and twenty or more graphic charts showing the work accomplished by the Bureau during the year. This annual report turned out to be the main part of my duties and I was assisted by eight Filipinos who compiled most of the tables under my supervision. As the Gov- ernor-General of the Islands put in a rush order for this report my assistants and I were compelled to work until eleven o'clock each evening for about a month. Immediately on his arrival in Manila Richardson started to look for a job. The first day, he met a friend from the Hawaiian Islands who was in the Philippines representing the Honolulu Planters' As- sociation in obtaining Filipino labourers for the sugar plantations in Hawaii. This man said he would have a position open in a few weeks. Rich- ardson informed him that he could not wait and would have to get something at once. The Ha- waiian planter then agreed to take an option on his time at thirty dollars a week until a vacancy ASSORTED JOBS IN PHILIPPINES 119 occurred. Richardson accepted this and remained in Manila to await developments. The duties of the job for which Richardson was slated consisted of visiting several of the islands in a small steamer, manned by a Spanish captain and crew, and gathering labourers who would be taken to Manila and thence shipped to Honolulu. He was to have a motion picture apparatus, with an operator and lecturer who would accompany him in his visits to the small villages and towns and after showing the natives the wonders and advan- tages of life in Hawaii sign them on and ship them out. During his wait in Manila Richardson was af- flicted with the common tropical malady of dengue and was confined to his bed for ten days. Dengue is a sort of tropical grippe which is conveyed by mosquitoes and attacks its victims by means of a fever, rash and sore bones in every part of the body. Probably its most aggravating features are its after-effects, for a severe case often leaves the patient in such shape that it requires several months to recover normal health. Fortunately Richardson, due to his rugged constitution and to the fact that his attack was comparatively light, was soon con- valescent and recovered without the usual lingering after-effects. Richardson soon received word from his Hono- lulu planter friend that he was to report in Cebu, a town on the island of the same name about five hundred miles south of Manila. He took an inter- 120 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD island steamer and in a few days reached his desti- nation and was ready for duty. He expected to go to work at once. But the man in charge at Cebu informed him that he was not needed and instructed him to return to Manila. There was a hitch some place. After some difficulty about expense money, which the Cebu man refused to pay and which was adjusted satisfactorily to Richardson by wiring to the Honolulu representative in Manila, he returned north, arriving on a Wednesday morning. He was paid off until the end of the week, which made a total period of one month at thirty dollars a week with no work and an interesting trip with all ex- penses to Cebu and back. He began, Wednesday afternoon, to look for an- other job and by evening he had obtained a position as shipping clerk for a wholesale grocery house at one hundred dollars a month. He went to work the next morning — Thursday. That evening, after dinner, he received a letter from the Bureau of Public Works, to which he had made application the afternoon before, which stated that he was wanted to go to the island of Mindanao, a thou- sand miles south of Manila, and take charge of the construction of several concrete bridges at a salary of one hundred and twenty dollars a month and expenses. This offer was especially tempting, not only for the increase in salary but for the oppor- tunity it offered- him to see more of the Islands — the motive for which he was travelling. The posi- tion called — so the man at the Bureau of Public ASSORTED JOBS IN PHILIPPINES 121 Works stated — for a knowledge of structural en- gineering, cement work and drafting. Richardson was not an engineer and knew nothing about such subjects. "What do you think of my accepting this job?" asked Richardson of his travelling companion when he had finished reading his letter aloud. 'Take it," I said. "But I don't know anything about structural en- gineering," he objected. "What difference does that make? All jobs sound harder than they really are. Suppose you accept it and they find in a couple of weeks that you are no good and fire you, what do you care? You will be a thousand miles farther along on the trip at their expense," I said rather emphatically. "All right," concluded Richardson. "To-morrow I will notify the grocery people that I intend to quit in the evening and I will sail for Mindanao on Sat- urday." Richardson severed his connections with the wholesale grocery house the following night and be- gan making preparations for his departure south. It will be remembered that the salary from his first position continued until the end of the week. He received pay from the grocery store for Thursday and Friday and his wages from the Bureau of Pub- lic Works began on Friday morning. He there- fore drew pay from all three jobs on Friday. Richardson didn't know a transit from a trom- bone and he knew no more about cement than a 122 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD hair-dresser but, provided with a technical hand- book, he sailed, certain that he would be a competent engineer by the time he arrived at Zamboango on the island of Mindanao — in about a week. I saw him off and interestedly awaited word from him as to how matters would turn out. I had rented a large room in the Imperial Hotel, one of the quaint old adobe Spanish buildings with iron-barred windows and folding doors, in the In- tramuros or walled city. I had been living in this room for a few weeks when the proprietor, evi- dently thinking that it was too large for one person to occupy, placed another man in it without con- sulting me. As the new arrival appeared a good fellow, and also because I received a reduction in my rental, I made no objection. My new room- mate was a man about thirty years of age by the name of Edwards. He had been a second-class yeo- man in the United States Navy and, after serving several years, had bought his way out. According to his own statement he had enjoyed the reputation of having been the biggest drunkard in the Asiatic Squadron and in this contention he was upheld by members of the navy who knew him. He now, however, had been on the water wagon for six months and intended to remain there. It was only a few days after the advent of Ed- wards that the proprietor, evidently still consider- ing that the room was too large to be wasted on two persons, intruded a third. This man's name was Lakebank, and since (as in the first case) he ASSORTED JOBS IN PHILIPPINES 123 appeared to be a decent sort of chap and the pro- prietor again reduced the rental, we concluded to allow him to remain. We all, however, agreed that he was to be the last. Lakebank was a rough, uncouth fellow with one of the finest dispositions in the universe and a heart as big as the ocean. He was chauffeur for one of the high officials of the Insular Government. The three of us got along very well together. One evening as Edwards and I were eating the eternal chicken dinner of Manila, Lakebank arrived with a most disturbed look on his face. His eyes were nearly popping out of his head. I at once saw that something was wrong and inquired what the trouble was but received only a wink in reply. I took the hint and put the matter off until after dinner. Lakebank, who was very nervous and ex- cited, then informed me that he had seen a man on the street, that afternoon, whom he recognized as his sister's husband and who, nine years ago in the United States, had left her on the night of the birth of their little girl. Later it was discovered that he had gambled away all her savings. He had never been seen or heard from, and was supposed to be dead, until Lakebank came face to face with him on a calle of Manila. Lakebank learned that his brother-in-law was going under the assumed name of Polly. We discussed the matter for some time and I of- fered a number of suggestions as to how to handle the situation. The next day, Lakebank, acting on i2 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD our conclusions, went to the office of Mr. Polly, who had a good position with the Insular Government, and stated that he wishedlo speak to him alone. "Go right ahead. Everything my stenographer hears is confidential," said Mr. Polly. "No, I want her out of the room," insisted Lake- bank, "for I have something of a very serious na- ture to say to you." "Don't mind her," repeated the man, "I assure you that everything you say will be kept a secret." "All right then," and looking him squarely in the face Lakebank said, "I am James Lakebank, your brother-in-law. Your name is Ham, not Polly." "Yes, yes, you are right; no one should be pres- ent," muttered Ham nervously and, as he staggered towards the door, he added, "Come with me." The two men left the office and wandered out on the street, both in silence, until they came to a secluded spot in an adjacent lumber yard where, sheltered from view, they sat speechless. "What are you going to do about it?" Lakebank finally asked. Ham then opened his heart and in tears stated that he had never spent such remorse- ful years in his life as those which had elapsed since the night he left his wife. He explained that he went directly to Chicago, enlisted in the army and was detailed to Manila, where he had been ever since. He said that if his wife were willing he would join her again and, to show his good faith, would give Lakebank five hundred dollars to send ASSORTED JOBS IN PHILIPPINES 125 her so that she could come to San Francisco and meet him there. If she did not want to see him, she could keep the money for whatever purpose she wished. He inquired affectionately about the little girl who was born the night he deserted and whom he had never seen. He stated that he had saved several thousand dollars and that, if it was his wife's wish, he would return to America, resume his right name, join her and begin life all over again. Lakebank did not know whether his sister would forgive Ham, or not, but informed him that he would write her of their meeting. The case inter- ested me and I was eager to know the outcome. It would take several months for letters to be ex- changed between Lakebank and his sister and the matter would not be settled until nearly a year after my departure from the Islands. Many months after- wards I heard from Lakebank. Ham returned to America, met his wife and little girl in San Francisco, were reunited and were happily situated in the States. One evening I was much surprised to see Rich- ardson come bounding into my room. "Where did you drop from?" I inquired, as- tonished. "Just blew in from Zamboango," said Richard- son. "I have had enough of these islands. Are you ready to beat it to-morrow?" "Any old time suits me. To-morrow if you say so. "All right, to-morrow we go." Richardson then related his Mindanao experi- 126 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD ences. On his way south on the steamer he did all he could to prime himself full of engineering knowl- edge. He discovered among the passengers an engineer whom he put through a severe cross-exami- nation. After seven days he arrived in Zamboango and, reporting to headquarters, was instructed to go to the Insular Penitentiary about twenty miles down the coast. At the prison his duties were outlined to him. What a drop from structural engineering they were ! His "bridge building" consisted of act- ing as foreman in charge of one hundred and twenty convicts who were hauling wheelbarrow loads of sand and filling in a gulch near the prison buildings. The penitentiary was situated on the shore of the island of Mindanao and was one of the Insular Gov- ernment prisons. The institution consisted of sev- eral one-story, cement-walled and thatch-roofed houses which, in addition to containing the cells for the convicts, had rooms and accommodations for the guards and officers. The prisoners were largely recruited from the Moro tribe, nominal Moham- medans, with whom the United States has had much trouble. There were also a few Filipinos and a number of Chinese. Richardson was comfortably situated in one of the cottages which were provided for the officials of the prison. The entire group of buildings was within a few hundred feet of the ocean and was buried in a luxuriant jungle of palms and evergreen trees of the tropics. Each morning at six o'clock the convicts, attired ki/ c en 5 W c g Q > o Q a; < X o X o D o w H ASSORTED JOBS IN PHILIPPINES 127 in their striped uniforms, were conducted by a num- ber of armed guards to a ravine across which the prison authorities had planned to build a bridge. The preliminary work of filling and grading was being done and it was to oversee this work that Richardson was assigned. All day long, under the tropical sun, he supervised the hauling, filling and levelling. It was a position a ten-year-old boy could have held. As the work progressed he, no doubt, would have had to use his knowledge of bridge con- struction. Fortunately, for those of posterity who are destined to use this bridge, he did not remain to complete the work. Ten days on the job and he was notified that he was to be transferred to another part of the Islands. He was instructed to report to Manila for orders. His removal was due to the fact that the Manila office had sent six men to Mindanao when only four were needed and as he was the last to arrive he was naturally the first to go. He took a boat and reached Manila after an absence of one month dur- ing which he received one hundred and twenty dol- lars and expenses and two thousand miles travel, visiting many of the island ports en route. As the Bureau of Education authorities had as- sumed that unless something extraordinary happened I was a fixture in my position, I expected to be thrown out when I notified them of my intention to leave. It also would look as though I were afraid that I could not pass the civil service examination which was scheduled for the next day and which 128 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD I had to take to become a regular employe — for I was only a temporary man up to this time. The shortness of the notice might also cause trouble for, as we were to leave the Islands that day, I could give only a few hours' notice. On second thought I concluded that the Bureau could not justly object for I had come at a time when it was badly in need of a man to issue the annual report and I had finished this volume, having put in much overtime on it with- out extra remuneration. However, everything passed off smoothly and, instead of being forced to stay or being kicked out, I was treated with the greatest kindness and con- sideration by every one from Director White down. I never before left a position with so much good will on the part of my employers. Mr. White ex- pressed his regret and stated that he had planned to soon promote me and give me an increase in sal- ary. He added that if at any time he could be of service to me I should not hesitate to call on him. That evening Richardson and I sailed in the hold of a ship for Hongkong. After travelling through Japan, Korea, China and the Philippine Islands we left Manila with more coin than we had when we de- parted from Honolulu eight months before. We each were now worth about eight hundred dollars. CHAPTER X A PORT-HOLE VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA With our eight hundred dollars each we felt somewhat flush. We realized, however, that it would probably be a long time before we could ob- tain positions that would pay us as well as those we had left in Hawaii, China and the Philippines, and we foresaw that we might have difficulty about getting work in Europe that would even pay our expenses. For these reasons, although now com- paratively opulent, we decided to continue the steer- age route. We sailed from Hongkong in the forward part of the French Mail liner Caledonien for Saigon, Indo- China. Our only companions in the steerage on this three-day trip were thirty Japanese women of the underworld going to settle in he Petit Paris, as Saigon is frequently called. The meals on this steamer were not bad in quality for steerage fare but were not numerous enough. The first meal of each day took place at nine o'clock in the morning and the second and last was served at eight in the evening. Each eater was allotted a piece of bread — the sturdy production of some French cook — a bottle of wine, meat and potatoes, and in the evening 129 130 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD a pudding of some sort. We spent the long hours between meals reading or conversing to the best of our ability with the Japanese prostitutes. The Caledonien began winding her way up the Mekong River to Saigon, about fifty miles inland. French Indo-China is a beautiful spot and Saigon with its fifty thousand inhabitants, many of whom are French, is indeed a miniature Paris. It is a gay little town with many substantial buildings, numer- ous cafes and ornate theatres. Scores of quaint tables, at many of the restaurants, are placed on the sidewalks and sometimes out into the street, com- pletely closing it for traffic. At these tables hun- dreds of pleasure-loving French people sit during the afternoons and evenings, tranquilly sipping their wine. They chat and laugh as though they didn't have a care in the world. The natives of Cochin- China are Annamese, a similar people to the Chinese. Both the men and the women dress their hair in a knot on the top of their heads, and as they both wear trousers it is difficult for the new arrival to distinguish the sexes. The steerage quarters of the Caledonien were crowded to their capacity by the large number of Frenchmen and women who came aboard at Saigon. In order to make room for his countrymen, the steward moved Richardson and me from our state- room, in the forward part of the ship, to a cabin between the engines and the kitchen. We did not realize what sort of a place it was until it came time to retire. It was hotter than Hades and there was A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 131 no more chance for a breath of fresh air to get into this dingy compartment than for light to pene- trate a photographer's dark room. One glance was enough. We made our beds on the bow of the ship. We were rudely and suddenly awakened by the French steward, who was as mad as a man could be when he saw his clean bed-clothes on the dirty deck, covering two crusty Americans. He grabbed the sheets and blankets, uncovered us with one jerk and left us clad in only our night clothes to scramble nearly the length of the ship, through the steerage crowds, to our stateroom. This French steward was a most irritable being and was continually worried at the actions of Rich- ardson and myself. He would fly off into a fearful tirade of French when he found us taking a bath in the first-class passengers' tub, or when he saw us steal food from the breakfast table to sustain us until the evening meal, or when he discovered us asleep in a different part of the deck each night with the clean bed-spreads. He became so cranky that he even called us down when we spotted the coarse cloth on the table in the mess-room. He be- came so needlessly exasperated at whatever we did that Richardson and I devised means by which we could provoke the old fellow. The Caledonien spent a day at Singapore. This was the hottest day I ever experienced and the sun's rays seemed to have more penetrating powers than usual. I thought I should liquefy from the way in which I perspired and only for my thick pith hat, 132 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD which protected my head and neck from the sun, I surely should have been a victim of sun- stroke. Richardson and I had planned a trip to Java but gave up the idea and went directly to Ceylon. The Caledonien dropped anchor in the harbour of Co- lombo and we were taken ashore in a small boat propelled by one oar at the stern. We obtained rooms at the Y. M. C. A. at sixteen cents a day. This rate did not include bed-clothes, which all travel- lers in Ceylon and India have to furnish themselves. We each bought a blanket which we carried strapped to the outside of our suitcases. If it were not for the intense heat, I would agree with Mark Twain that Ceylon is the most beautiful island in the world. Eliminating its temperature, it is Paradise on earth. With it, it is Hell. Co- lombo is built about several small lakes whose shores are a very jungle of graceful palms and other dense tropical plants. There is a beautiful driveway along the beach which is the promenade for the wealthy of the place and, during the afternoon, one can al- most imagine that he is on some fashionable Euro- pean thoroughfare from the numerous grand carriages and well-groomed horses which pass. Rich- ardson and I swept back and forth on this lengthy boulevard in our rickshaws. We continued into Cinnamon Park, where most of the Europeans live. We had foolishly agreed to pay our rickshaw coolies by the hour. My man became so apparent in his efforts to loaf that I remarked to Richardson that A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 133 he was the slowest and laziest horse I had ever driven. "Mister, I'm a man, not a horse," said my coolie angrily and in excellent English, stopping and drop- ping the shafts of the vehicle. I never was so startled in my life. This was the first horse that I had ever had speak to me. I had become so accustomed to rickshaw men with whom. I could not communicate that this man's clear and to-the-point remark completely confused me for a minute. "Then you are the poorest man I ever saw," I finally said, "and if you don't show some signs of a horse very soon, you will find yourself out of a job." My threat to discharge him had no effect in in- creasing his momentum. Richardson and I dismissed both men, paid them off and returned to town on foot. After a short trip to Kandy in the interior of Ceylon, we sailed for India. It was a night's jour- ney to the little seaport town of Tuticorin and we took second-class passage. The two hundred or more naked coolies of the , steerage were walking down the pier towards the shore. Richardson and I were following close be- hind. Presently a man in uniform uttered a shrill call. The two hundred coolies stopped and sep- arated into two columns. The uniformed man beck- oned to us to come on. "Gangway for two white men," had evidently been the nature of the call. 134 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD We were not used to such treatment. We were generally included in those swept aside. We were now in a land where the native, if he doesn't re- spect the white man, at least pretends that he does. This ceremonious entrance into India struck us as funny and we giggled our way down the double line of salaaming Tamils and Singhalese. "It's too bad you're not a Christian," remarked a strange and simple looking man as' I, smoking a cigarette, was waiting for my train at the Tuticorin station. "Why?" I asked, blowing a cloud of smoke in his face. "Just think of all the good you could do while travelling around the world." "How do you know that I am not a Christian?" "I was simply putting out a feeler," he said, some- what embarrassed. "I think I am a Christian but, probably, not ac- cording to your ideas." "Perhaps." "What is a Christian?" I asked, interested to know what the man's ideas were. "When a man is saved he is a Christian." "Isn't it rather difficult to know when such a happy state of affairs exists?" My train drew into the station at this moment and the theological dia- logue was brought to a sudden conclusion. I left this simple but well-meaning person, my pocket full of his pamphlets. He was a member of the sect of "Plymouth Brethren" working by himself convert- A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 135 ing the heathen. If he uses no more tact on the natives than he did on me his efforts should be flat failures. I was told by a prominent missionary that there are many such persons in India who are labouring independently of an ecclesiastical organ- ization, the results of whose work are not very sub- stantial. Leaving our baggage at the station at Madura, Richardson and I rode in a springless cart to Pasumalai — a distance of about three miles. This cart was pulled by two bulls who were spurred on to greater speed by their naked driver who sat on the shafts and cruelly twisted their tails. We were going to call on the Rev. Dr. J. P. Jones, a promi- nent Congregational missionary and author of books on India, and have him outline an itinerary for us. Dr. Jones was leaving on an inspection tour of several of the mission schools in a nearby jungle, as we arrived at his house. He asked us to accom- pany him and also invited us to spend a couple of days at his home. We explained that we had left our baggage in Madura and that, although we ap- preciated his kindness, we did not want to impose on him. He insisted and sent a coolie to Madura for our bags. It was about noon when we left with Dr. Jones to visit the schools. The three of us rode in an- other seatless and springless cart drawn by two bulls. We passed through several small native settlements and towards evening came to one of about two hundred inhabitants. It was a thief caste village. 136 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD Stealing was the sole trade of all the men. They made no pretence at doing anything else. Although closely guarded by the British police they were suc- cessful in robbing and looting the neighbouring vil- lages. Each night at twelve o'clock there was a roll call but, even after this hour, they would grease their bodies in order to slip from the grasp of their pursuers, get away and carry on their work. A number of shirtless women were threshing shocks of wheat as we entered the little settlement of mud huts, each with its thatched roof. Naked children were playing in the streets. Our advent soon became known and the village drummer, squatted by the school house, announced our arrival and summoned the people to come and meet us. It was hardly a minute before we were surrounded by two hundred or more odd and inquisitive-looking people. If I had not known where I was I should have thought myself in the wilds of Africa. The black bodies of the naked men glistened in the sun- light; the young boys and girls, clad in nothing but the happy smile of youth, hovered about us like a swarm of butterflies, and the almost nude women, remaining a little aloof, stared at us with eyes of intense curiosity. Every man in this interesting group was a thief. I began to get worried for fear one of them might steal my watch or the few coins I had in my purse. Dr. Jones allayed my fears when he informed me that there wasn't a pick-pocket among them. A hun- dred thieves and not one of them a pick-pocket! A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 137 This was strange. I couldn't understand it. I had thought that this means of appropriating another man's possessions was fundamental and indispen- sable to the profession. I discovered also that these robbers never used pass keys, pistols, flash lights or gas pipes as means to hold up their neighbours. They didn't have such things. Now the mystery of a hundred thieves with no pick-pockets was solved. There were no pockets to pick. Their victims wore no clothes and they had had no training along this line. They didn't know a pocket when they saw one. Dr. Jones led the way into the small mud-walled school house. The room was full of naked boys and girls. The fathers and mothers crowded in at the rear of the little hall. They were an interesting and simple lot of savages. Richardson and I were given seats of honour near the teacher's desk and a wreath was placed about our necks. Dr. Jones asked for a report from the native teacher and also questioned several of the pupils on their lessons. He then explained to his audience that Richardson and I were Americans travelling around the world. He went into detail defining an American. He asked the chief of the village, a much whiskered and hairy- chested man, if he had any message to give us. "Tell them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and they will get around all right," were the chief's words of greeting as interpreted by Dr. Jones. "Why don't you believe in Him yourself?" asked the doctor. 138 JOB TO JOB AROtJND THE WORLD "Don't waste your time on us old fellows. We are past saving. We have been thieves all our lives and you can't change us now. Do all you can to help the children and you will be doing a good work," was the chief's reply. All the natives gathered in the street in front of the school for the customary foot races which Dr. Jones held on each of his visits. There were four races: one for the boys; one for the girls; one for the women and one for the men. They were all eager to take part for the doctor distributed a few coins as prizes to the winners. The rivalry was intense and, at the conclusion of each race, there was much confusion with many disputes as to who finished first. Dr. Jones insisted on being the judge and all were informed that they must abide by his decision or all the games would be called off. That evening we enjoyed the hospitality of Dr. Jones. I slept in a comfortable bed, protected by a fine mosquito net and cooled by the breeze of a huge punka — which was operated by a coolie woman who sat on the porch all night and pulled the rope. In the cities of India foreigners use electric fans and in the rural districts a native-propelled punka. It is so intensely hot in some parts of the country that if the coolie goes to sleep on the job the for- eigner immediately awakens. Twenty thousand people die each year from snake bite in India. I awoke to find a small reptile in my room. The floors of the houses are built close to the ground and the doors and windows are often A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 139 left open for ventilation. Snakes are so numerous that they frequently find their way into the huts of the natives and occasionally into the houses of the foreigners. Railroad travel in India is the cheapest I have ever known. From Madura to Trichinopoly is a distance of about one hundred miles. We rode native third-class and our tickets cost us but eight annas (sixteen cents) each. There are five classes of travel on Indian trains: first-class, second-class, intermediate, European third-class and native third-class. The trains are divided into compartments with a capacity of from twelve to twenty-four passengers. The first-class seats are covered with leather cushions and the seats of the other classes decrease in softness to the hard and cold benches of the native third-class. The first-class accommodations are used exclusively by British officials, missionaries, resident Europeans and tourists. The native third-class is a cattle train. These bare stall-like compartments are crowded with naked coolies — men, women and children — who are jammed in by the train guards like dried prunes. I have seen coolie after coolie slammed into one of these compartments, already full to the roof, until I thought the poor beggars would all die of suf- focation. The first-class fare is usually twelve or fifteen times greater than the native third-class. Our tickets from Madura to Trichinopoly would have cost us about $2.50 each for first-class. 140 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD The cheapest possible fare from Calcutta to Bom- bay, a distance of over fifteen hundred miles and a three-day trip, is about $2.80. This rate is for native third-class accommodations. The first-class fare would be about fifty dollars and the intermedi- ate classes would be proportionately graduated in price. Richardson and I usually travelled native third- class. We were always able to get an empty com- partment, which we would monopolize to the ex- clusion of the natives. We ordered the poor chaps away as though they had no right in their own coun- try. Conductors do not stay on the trains but re- main at the stations where they take up the tickets as the trains arrive. They proved to be a negli- gent lot and frequently failed to collect our tickets. Richardson saved his uncollected fares and found that they totalled two thousand miles. We were in India two and a half months, travelled over five thousand miles and our railroad fares were only $24.40 each. We rented bicycles in Trichinopoly. These vehi- cles were the most decrepit and ancient pieces of machinery in active service on this earth. Rich- ardson's wheel had lost its back pedal feature. In other words, it was impossible to put on the brakes. He could not stop himself unless he fell off or came to a hill. We rode through the crowded streets of Trichinopoly. Rich was a reckless rider. I thought he was trying to kill a native child. With his un- controllable bicycle it is a mystery to me how he A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 141 avoided running down several of the thousands of naked little babies who played in the dust of the street. Every moment one of them would dash in front of him. I expected that we should land in jail charged with manslaughter. Neither Trichinopoly or Tanjore has European hotels and the caste system excludes the unclean foreigner from the native inns. For twelve annas (twenty- four cents) we obtained a clean room on the second floor of the station. It contained a large bed, an electric fan and a private bath. We ate our meals in the station restaurant. Such prices and arrangements are hard to beat. Life seems to be a battle for coin. I could write a volume on the number of street fights I have seen in different parts of the world over the matter of a few cents. A Japanese coolie will wrangle for an hour over a sen. I have seen a score of Chinese grapple for a cash piece. It is hard to tell what a Filipino wouldn't do for a centavo. However, I think, a native of India can kick up more fuss over a two-cent piece than any man alive. Richardson and I had returned from the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Madras where Saint Thomas is said to be buried. We had made the trip in a double-seated rickshaw drawn by one man. By arrangement in advance the coolie had agreed to make the journey for ten annas. This, we were told, was a generous amount for the distance. I felt that he had had a hard time pulling two heavy men so I gave him a rupee, over-paying him six 1 42 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD annas. He wasn't satisfied and bellowed for more. Richardson and I ignored him and went to our room on the third floor of the Y. M. C. A. building. The coolie followed us up the three flights of stairs. He had worked himself into a genuine state of anger. At first it was a pretence. We locked him out in the hall, where he remained at our door for twenty minutes pleading and begging for more money. I made up my mind that he could pursue me to Amer- ica or haunt me the rest of my life, but I would not pay him any more. I could be stubborn myself. He realized that I had made a mistake in over-paying him in the first place and he now thought that I was a tenderfoot and that I should sooner or later yield. The Y. M. C. A. authorities finally put him out of the building. The incident did not end here. It became the main topic for discussion among the coolies of Ma- dras. Each time we ventured on the streets a dozen of them would molest us and trail after us jeering and shouting a lot of jargon which we did not under- stand. They became regular pests and life in Ma- dras grew almost unbearable. We stood firm and resolved not to give an anna more even if we had to fight every coolie in Southern India. In a few days we left for Calcutta. We rode from the Y. M. C. A. to the railroad station in a bus. As we alighted at the entrance of the station, we were sighted by a group of coolies who made a mad rush at us from across the court. Others dropped their rickshaws and came plunging towards A VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 143 us from all directions like a huge flying wedge. We scrambled into the station, forced our way through the ticket gates, climbed aboard the first car and in two minutes were speeding towards Calcutta. That angry mob would have annihilated us in about five seconds. CHAPTER XI TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA At Calcutta we lived in comfort. We were the guests of college friends of Richardson's. In Japan and China we stayed in native hotels and were con- stantly in contact with the people. The caste sys- tem of India barred us from mingling with the Hindus, even if we had desired to do so. It was impossible for us to eat at their restaurants and the nearest approach we could make to it was to buy our food at the native shops. We often ate at the foreign hotels and cafes when these institutions were to be found. There was usually a restaurant con- nected with the station. Harrison Road in Calcutta is one of the most in- teresting streets in the world. Thousands of people rove its sidewalks and scores of races are repre- sented among them. Hundreds of moving or reclin- ing bulls block the traffic. The natives pass around these sacred beasts and are careful not to disturb them. They belong to no one and wander aimlessly about, fed by the people. Richardson and I moved along this bustling street. We had been out seeing the sights for several hours and were hungry. In a native shop before us was a show-case of cakes. We stepped in to purchase a 144 TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 145 couple. The merchant was putting the first cake in a paper bag when Richardson put out his hand to take one from the pile. The proprietor dropped the sack and dashed towards him. His wife threw her hands in the air and screamed, and two natives standing by shouted at the top of their voices. They were too late, Richardson had grabbed the cake and had part of it in his mouth. I thought the Hindus had gone insane. What they were saying I didn't know but it was something very important if one could judge from their numerous excited ges- tures. They gave us both a thorough scathing. One would have thought we had insulted the shop-keep- er's wife or had set fire to his place. No, it was more serious. Richardson had contaminated every cake in the shop. By touching the top one he had charged them all with uncleanness. We were out- castes. Several hundred cakes — or about one half the poor shop-keeper's stock — were ruined and could never be used. This disastrous result of our little transaction caused no end of excitement and twenty or more na- tives gathered to see what we had done. The shop- keeper and his wife immediately set about to throw away the cakes and with long sharp-pointed sticks like hoe handles began casting the polluted food into the street. "Hold on!" I shouted, "I will buy the whole bunch for a rupee." We had contaminated the out- fit and / thought this was an opportunity to get a bargain. 146 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD "Good idea," exclaimed Richardson. "I will get a cart. Let's haul away every biscuit the poor beg- gar has." The word rupee sounded good to the ears of the shop-keeper who had looked upon the cakes as a total loss, and he accepted my offer at once. The next minute, Richardson and I were in the bakery business. A two-wheeled cart had backed up to the shop and we were loading on cakes as though we had done nothing else all our lives. Scores of Hindus congregated to see us buy out the shop- keeper. The cart was soon heaped high with cakes. They packed like bricks, being more substantial than the same variety of food in America. Richardson and I climbed on the seat with the driver and pur- sued our way down Harrison Road. Our little bread wagon excited more comment and caused more commotion than a circus in an American coun- try town. Every one was speculating on what we were going to do with all the cakes. We did not know ourselves. We couldn't give them to the poor, for the poor wouldn't eat them. I threw a couple at a group of natives on the street corner. They scattered like birds at the shot of a gun. We drove on. We came to our host's house. He thought we were crazy. We unloaded the cargo of cakes and placed them all in our bedroom. There they remained. We tried to eat them up but the job was too large. They finally found their way to the rubbish barrel. Darjeerling is a beautiful settlement at an eleva- TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 147 tion of seven thousand feet. Here we had come to view the Himalaya Mountains. On a strange little train, which was as elastic as a snake, we wound in and out among the valleys, scaled the sides of the mountains and arrived at this little town among the clouds. The scenery was stupendous. The world's greatest peaks were about us like tremendous church spires. Everything out of doors was wonderful and beau- tiful. Everything inside was wonderfully incon- venient, uncomfortable and unhealthful. We stayed at the "Rockhouse" — appropriately named — and it was one of the worst shelters I have ever occupied. The place was run by a woman with a dirty apron. I doubt if she had ever done up her hair since childhood. Her children were the most untidy white youngsters in the Indian Empire. That's a safe statement. The carpets were filthy with spots and dust; a couple of mangy dogs hung listlessly about; the guests of the house looked like a bunch of crip- ples; the food was poorly cooked and tasteless and the atmosphere of the place was stale and musty from lack of ventilation. If there is any other afflic- tion a boarding house can have, I should like to know it. With the "Rockhouse" as a background for com- parison, the beauty of the Himalayas stood forth stronger than ever. We arose one morning at 2 : 30 o'clock and went on horseback to Tiger Hill to see the sunrise. It was a sight that no one can describe and one that I shall never forget. The world's 148 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD greatest peaks, white with snow and tinged with the glistening gold of the sun, appeared one by one above the clouds at the break of dawn. First, Kinchenjanga with its 28,156 feet arose like a mon- ster iceberg, and then, in turn, appeared Kaby (24,015 feet), Jannu (25,304), Pandim (22,017), and Jabanu (19,450) . Last of all, far away, Mount Everest (29,002) — the giant of them all — thrust its gold-tipped summit into view. The sea of clouds shone like a vast sheet of light, and the rugged snowy peaks, aglow with the rays of the sun, stood like mighty towers of marble. It is one of the most beautiful scenes the world has to offer. The native population of Darjeerling is a mix- ture of Paharis, Nepalese, Tibetans, and Bhutians, people from the small kingdoms of the mountains. They look like a cross between a North American Indian and a Chinese — with their almond eyes and red skin. They are very fond of colours and jew- elry. Some of them wore earrings two inches in diameter and others had ear ornaments six inches long which were so heavy that they had to be sup- ported by a band over the head. The people of India adorn every part of their bodies with trinkets. I have seen women with rings on their toes, anklets all the way to their knees, bracelets up to their el- bows, ear ornaments, rings in their noses and beads pinned to their foreheads. The whole outfit would hardly be worth a dollar. At Benares, the Holy City of the Hindus, we put up at a Dak Bungalow, a small house with bedrooms, TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 149 sitting room and kitchen, provided by the govern- ment for travellers. We were charged only eight annas (sixteen cents) a day for our accommodations. We met a British missionary in the station and asked him to outline an itinerary for us to aid us in seeing Benares. "Have you any business to attend to here?" he asked. "No, why?" I said. "There is an epidemic of cholera in Benares and twenty British soldiers in the cantonment within three hundred yards of us died last night. My ad- vice to you is to leave town as soon as you can." The missionary's warning had no effect on us for we had heard it before and expected to hear it again. Every Indian city generally has a number of cases of cholera and other contagious diseases. If we had taken the advice of every man who told us to move on because of an epidemic we should have been advised out of the country in a very short time. It was our custom to reduce our chances of getting cholera by drinking only bottled liquids and eating only thoroughly cooked food. We drove about Benares in a jutka. This is one of the most picturesque vehicles in the world. If anybody had the courage to ride in one on Broad- way he would at once be arrested. It is a two- wheeled cart drawn by a horse that seldom gets a chance to eat. There is no place for the driver or passenger to sit and they stick on as best they can, letting their feet drag in the street. Richardson ISO JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD and I mounted one of these carriages and took in the sights of the city. Benares seemed to be the focal point for all the feeble-minded, crippled and destitute persons of India. Ascetics, beggars and religious fanatics were as numerous as were the flies. The temples were thronged with pilgrims from all parts of the empire and the Ganges was crowded with natives bathing in the muddy water and even drinking the filthy liquid. The Jal Sain Ghat was a gruesome place. Here the dead bodies of the high caste Hindus are cremated. They are burned on piles of wood and the ashes are dumped into the river, adding to the pleasant character of the water. • Why is it that religion ] and filth so often travel together in this world? We visited the Kalighat, a temple in honour of the goddess Kali, the wife of Shiva. We were fortunate or unfortunate, I don't know which, to be present at the celebration of the chief annual festival held in this temple. Many thousands of half-clad people were making pilgrim- ages to the place. Bullocks and goats were being offered as sacrifices to the numerous Hindu gods. We came to the court where the animals were killed. The place looked more like a slaughter-house than a temple of worship. The dead bodies of a dozen bulls and goats were lying on the stone floor, reek- ing blood and filth, with their entrails exposed and protruding. This scene might have interested a butcher. To me it was revolting. We picked our way among these carcasses to another part of the < H Z w u < TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 151 temple. Here we saw a green, scummy, unsanitary pool of water. Several hundred people were bath- ing in it and drinking the putrid stuff. At the en- trances to the temple hordes of deformed beggars — many half-eaten with leprosy — extended their partially decayed limbs, soliciting funds. It was a disgusting and depressing scene. I prefer an au- topsy. Our train arrived in Lucknow at two o'clock in the morning. We finished our night's sleep on the stone floor of the men's waiting room in the sta- tion. A man who looked like a missionary advised us to leave the city on account of an epidemic of cholera. We smiled at him. Both Lucknow and Cawnpore are chiefly of in- terest on account of their connection with the sad events of the Indian Mutiny. These cities are full of monuments and memorials which are kept in ex- cellent condition by the British Government. My chief recollection of Lucknow is an intense thirst. It is the most difficult city in the world in which to get a drink of any kind. We rented bi- cycles and toured about the thirty-six square miles of the city. We had visited a number of places and ridden about ten miles when, hot and dusty, we were seized with an intolerable thirst. We were in the midst of the native shops. A sanitary glass of water was as rare as in the middle of the desert. We rode on, hoping to find a better part of the city. We went on for miles. The narrow streets were six inches in dust; the sun was so hot that 152 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD we fairly simmered in perspiration and the odours from the native shops were enough to make a man faint. A naked ascetic, rolling over and over on the dusty road, would get in our way. In each block a dozen beggars would plead for funds and the rays of the sun would nearly burn us up. We got out of the native quarter into the British sec- tion. My throat was parched and Richardson said his tongue felt like a sharp stick in his mouth. We found an oasis. We had been in search of water for two hours. At Cawnpore we made our beds in an empty box- car on a side track in the freight yards. "What's up?" asked Richardson, awakening about midnight by a sudden jolt to the car. "I suppose they're going to take this empty away," I said. "Let's get out of here," suggested Richardson. "No, stay in and see where they take us. We may get a free ride to some place." We were banged back and forth on switches for nearly an hour. There was no chance to sleep. We sat up and smoked. At last the engine whistled and we started for some place : we didn't know or care where it was. With the even motion of going in one direction we were able to sleep. I never slept more confortably in an American Pullman, when I knew my destination, than I did in that empty Indian freight car bound for I didn't know where. When we awoke the old box-car was at a stand- still. I opened the door and peered out. We were TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 153 in a freight yard and appeared to be on a siding. There were trains on both sides of us and I could see nothing but box-cars, flat-cars and engines. We grabbed our bags and in a minute were walking towards one end of our train. We came to the station. "What are you doing in the yards?" a Britisher in uniform called out. "Just walked in from Cawnpore," I replied, not knowing how far we had travelled. "That's a pretty good hike, isn't it?" I continued. "Indeed, it is," said the Englishman. "When did you start?" "Last night," I answered. "How far is it?" "One hundred and sixty miles." "What's the name of this town, anyway?" asked Richardson, changing the subject. "Agra," said the Britisher, who appeared to take our story without doubting a word of it. We got by him and in ten minutes were housed in a Dak Bungalozv where we cooked our own meals and lived a life of leisure at about fifty cents a day, each. We were hardly settled in our new home when a missionary knocked at our door and advised us to leave the city on account of an epidemic of chol- era. We smiled at him. Agra is the home of the most beautiful building in the world — the Taj Mahal. Most of the mag. nificent structures which make Agra so interesting are in the Fort. The Taj Mahal stands by itself 154 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD about a mile away on the banks of the Junna River and its solitude prevents anything impairing its beauty. Commenced in 1630 by Emperor Shah Jahan, as a tomb for his favourite wife, it is to-day as fresh and new looking as though it had just been taken out of the band-box. Surrounded by magnificent gardens and fountains, approached by imposing red sandstone gates, it is the perfection of beauty and symmetry. It is built of white marble and, with its huge dome and four stately minarets resting against the azure sky, presents a picture of wonder- ful colour and perfect harmony. I have never seen a more beautiful edifice. The whole of India was talking Durbar. We had been told a dozen times that it would be im- possible to obtain hotel accommodations in Delhi for less than ten dollars a day. We were advised to eliminate this city from our itinerary as only the rich could afford to stay there during the Coronation festivities. We arrived in Delhi late in the evening and had a good meal at the station restaurant. This meal cost us only one-half the rate listed on the menu card. This pleasing reduction had happened sev- eral times before, during our travels in India, but we did not know the reason until the waiter in the Delhi restaurant asked what regiment we belonged to. We had been taken for British soldiers. It seems that in certain cities Tommy Atkins gets a discount of fifty per cent, in all eating places. India TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 155 is no place for a woollen suit. White linen or duck are the clothes usually worn by foreigners. Rich- ardson and I didn't have the time or the money to have white suits laundered. We solved the prob- lem by usually wearing khaki and white duck only for special occasions. With our khaki suits and brown pith helmets we looked like British sol- diers. In the Delhi restaurant we got a thirty cent meal for fifteen cents. This wasn't a bad beginning for a city in which ten dollars a day was the minimum expense for living. We went out of the station into the darkness of a large park nearby. "Can you speak English? 1 ' said Richardson to the first passerby. There was no response. "Hey, there, do you understand English?" I shouted to a group of natives. They looked at me as though I were crazy. A lone man strutted towards us. He looked like he might know something. "Where can we find a good cheap hotel?" Rich- ardson asked. "The Coronation Hotel," the man replied in good English. "What kind of a joint is it?" I interrupted. "A good place. Just built for the Durbar." "Lead us to it," said Richardson. The native accompanied us to the hotel which was but a short distance away in the business sec- tion of Delhi. It was conducted by a Mohammedan and consisted of about twenty rooms on the roof 156 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD of a large brick building. We were given a com- partment which we had to share with two Moslems. We furnished our own bed-clothes, as is the custom in India. The common wash-basin was at the other end of the roof. The hotel's rates were one rupee (thirty-three cents) a day each! The expensiveness of Delhi was a myth. The city was busy making preparations for the Durbar. Public buildings were being painted; flags were being hung; grand stands erected and streets paved. The Durbar grounds, about five miles from the city, covered hundreds of acres and consisted of thousands of tents which had been pitched to house the various maharajas, rajas and their retinue of attendants. Richardson and I explored the grounds. We visited the large amphitheatre, where King George was to be crowned emperor. It was a large semi-circular wooden building with a throne in the centre. The circle was completed by a mound of earth on which were placed seats. The struc- ture would accommodate about twenty thousand peo- ple and the earthen mound would hold about eighty thousand more. Preparations were being made on a large scale. A special Durbar Post Office of brick was erected. A new and imposing station, called "Kingsway," especially designed for King George, had been built. It was here we met the youthful Maharaja of Cooch Behar with his attractive little wife. They were wandering about the newly constructed station as naturally as though they were ordinary persons. TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 157 "You're afraid to break in on them," I said to Richardson. "I beg your pardon, but would you kindly di- rect us to the amphitheatre where King George is to be crowned?" said Richardson, addressing his question to the Maharaja as he would to any other prospective informant. He answered at once. Our intrusion was so easy that it was a joke. The Ma- haraja was not a snob and with a clear voice and in good English, for he was a Cambridge man, told us how to find the theatre. He was a tall, rather slight fellow with a dark complexion and was dressed in a black European suit. His wife had on an ordinary dark dress and over her hat she wore a heavy black veil. They looked and acted like human beings. Richardson and I were asleep in a third-class compartment of a train with four British soldiers. We were on our way to Lahore, nearly four hun- dred miles north of Delhi. Our train had been at a standstill for a few minutes and when it started up I was awakened. I heard some one say "La- hore." "Rich, this is Lahore. Get up." I shouted and gave him a punch in the ribs. The train was slowly pulling out of the station. "Get out and catch our luggage as I throw it to you," I said. We awakened the soldiers. Richardson jumped off the car. I scrambled about the compartment to collect our belongings. The train was increasing 158 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD its speed. I threw out one suitcase. Richardson didn't catch it. I threw out the other. Richardson missed it. I hurled the two hand bags out. I never moved so fast in my life. The soldiers helped me throw. Like a whirlwind we threw trousers, shoes, coats, shirts, hair-brushes, tooth-brushes, socks and toilet articles out through the compartment door. The train was now going about twenty miles an hour. I made a jump and landed on my face. There I was in my underclothes and bare feet. The pas- sengers, looking out of the car windows, thought we were drunk. The train swept by and left us. What a scene greeted us ! Richardson and I stood in our underwear — with all our personal belongings scattered for a hundred yards along the cement plat- form of the station. A hundred or more natives looked on in profound silence. I surveyed the scene and began to laugh. Dozens of things from shoes, coats and hats to toilet articles stretched from the station for nearly a block and two foreigners arrayed in B.V.D.'s! Surely it was a rare situation to be in at seven o'clock in the morning. We sat down on the cement platform and laughed ourselves out. We finally gathered ourselves together and dressed. The station master came, out to give us assistance. "Why doesn't some one announce the stations on these trains?" I inquired. "This is a fine way to land in Lahore." "This isn't Lahore," said the station master. TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 159 "What?" cried Richardson and I together. "No, Lahore is five miles farther." "What in hell is the name of this place?" "Lahore Cantonment." All our scramble was for nothing. We had landed in the quarters of the British soldiers. There was no passenger train until evening. That was too long to wait, so we rode into Lahore proper on a freight which went by an hour later. Lahore was not worth all the trouble it took to get there. I have a hazy recollection of thousands of native shops, many temples and a large museum. I remember, rather distinctly, a large cannon in front of this museum. It was called "Kim's Gun," as it was on this weapon that Kim was supposed to have been sitting when the Lama came along, as recorded by Kipling. I do remember one other thing in Lahore. We met a shabbily dressed American who related a sad tale to us about being discharged from a theatrical company and how badly he had been treated. He said that he was broke and his appearance certainly indicated that he spoke the truth. The fellow being a countryman of ours, his speech moved us to the extent of ten rupees. One hour later our down-and- out American friend was reeling about the station so intoxicated that he didn't recognize me when I spoke to him. He was drunk at our expense. We didn't know one soul among Bombay's mil- lion inhabitants when we arrived in that city. There were about twenty Americans living there and I 160 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD think we met them all before we had been there a week. We lived at the Y. M. C. A. and received our board and room — for both of us — for five rupees ($1.65) a day. We met the acting American Consul and through him the American dentist, the Standard Oil crowd and a number of other young business men. They all entertained us royally. We went to their homes for dinner, had the privileges of their clubs and attended a number of social func- tions at their invitation. We went to Poona and spent a night in the Na- tional Hotel. I will never forget that night if I live a thousand years. We retired at ten o'clock. By eleven I had killed forty-two bed-bugs. This is not an estimate: it is actual count. I didn't ask the proprietor for another bed for I thought all of them would be alike and I estimated that I had killed off nearly all the bugs in my present bed. At mid- night I had slaughtered sixty-seven. This is not a parlour subject, I know. But we are not in a par- lour. We are in an Indian bedroom. I would raise up the bed-clothes, light the lamp and they would flock in all directions, like the ribs of a fan, to get under cover. At one o'clock I had killed eighty-one. There seemed to be no end. I couldn't stand it any longer. I tried to rout out the proprietor but he was asleep and couldn't be found. I returned to my room and made my couch on the floor. The mosquitoes nearly finished me during the rest of the night. I venture the guess that this hotel en- tertains only transients. One night is enough. TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 161 We drove in a tonga, a two-wheeled cart, to the Karli Cave. This excavation is made out of a solid rock and is said to have been done two hundred years before Christ. It resembles an early Chris- tian church in its arrangement and all the dimen- sions are similar to those of the choir of Norwich Cathedral. It was our plan to catch the mail train for Bom- bay. On our return from the cave one of the shafts of the tonga broke. The driver was unable to mend it. We had six miles to go to the station and we had but little time. We estimated what the tonga had been worth, paid the driver and left him in the road. We ran the entire six miles through a heavy tropical rain. The heat was intense and the atmosphere was sultry and close. Drenched to the skin we arrived at the station only to see the rear- end of the train pulling out of the yards. Two hours later we took a slow train for Bombay. Driving a bargain in India takes time, if nothing else. All merchants charge what the traffic will bear. Richardson and I wanted two deck chairs and made up our minds that we were going to get them at a fair price. One evening I dropped into a native shop to look over the stock. ^ "How much is this steamer chair?" I asked the shop-keeper. "Twelve rupees." I started to walk out. "How much will you give?" the native called out. "Two rupees," I said emphatically. "No. I will let you have it for eight." 1 62 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD "Two rupees are all I will give you," I said as I continued to walk towards the door. "Six rupees." The native reduced his price. I took a few steps nearer the door. "Four rupees," he uttered reluctantly. This fig- ure began to interest me so I lingered to continue the negotiations. "I will give you only two rupees," I said again. "That chair isn't worth an anna more." "No. Four rupees or no sale." The old fellow had reached his rock bottom price. "I will meet you half way and give you three rupees," I said. "No, four rupees." He stood pat. I finally left the shop telling the native that I had to consult a friend before making any purchase and that I would come again in the morning. I in- formed Richardson of the negotiations. I explained that I had worked the native from twelve rupees down to four and I suggested that he continue to beat down the price from that point. That same evening we went to the shop and I waited on the sidewalk while Richardson entered to resume the battle with the poor shop-keeper. "I will give you three rupees for that chair," he said to the native, pointing to the piece of furniture which was the subject of all the wrangle. "No. I have a man coming in the morning who is going to buy it for four rupees." I was the man. I had made no promises. Richardson struck a dead-lock at once. As he TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 163 came out of the shop I went in. It seemed a heart- less thing to brow-beat the poor native, but we were out for a record. "Well, I have decided that I can't pay any more than three rupees for the chair," I said. "All right, no sale then." I walked out of the shop, joined Richardson on the side-walk and started up the street. We hadn't gone half a block when the native came running after us. "Three rupees, eight annas," he shouted. "All right," I said. "I have some heart left. We have beaten the poor chap down far enough," I added to Richardson. We returned and bought two chairs. Three rupees, eight annas, seems a big reduction from twelve rupees but even this figure was exorbitant. Both chairs collapsed before they ever saw the deck of a ship. CHAPTER XII A SAILOR TO SUEZ The first-class fare on the large liners from Bom- bay to the Suez Canal was two hundred and twenty dollars. The cheapest that Richardson and I could find was one hundred and eighty-five dollars. We had the money to pay this price but considered that it would make a large and unnecessary hole in our coin. We agreed not to pay a cent more than twenty dollars each, even if it meant spending the rest of our lives in Bombay. We solemnly shook hands on this. Bombay is a large shipping port and it appeared, on first impression, to be a fertile field from which two semi-stranded roamers could obtain passage. We made a thorough canvass of the waterfront in search of a job. Richardson would strike the skipper of one ship while I tried my luck with an- other, or we would board the same boat together, one of us interview the captain while the other placed the case before the steward. We hung out at the Seamen's Institute, skippers' clubs, water- front saloons, sailors' rest houses and about the docks. It was uphill work for we received little encouragement and, often, short and rough treat- 164 A SAILOR TO SUEZ 165 ment at the hands of the hardened old seamen. We didn't give up our search until we had visited all the vessels in the harbour — which took up the greater part of three days. We could find noth- ing. It was impossible for us to compete with Oriental, South African and Hindu labour on these ships, not to mention the practical impossibility of •living on their diet and in their unsanitary quarters. We finally and reluctantly gave up hope of getting out as toilers and decided to do the next best thing. We began our campaign over again and visited all the freighters, asking the captains how much they wanted in money to take us to the Canal. Many of them were insulted at such a proposal. Some regretfully said that their owners had rigid rules against taking any one. Others wanted more than our twenty-dollar limit. Our luck had been pretty tough and was due to change. We boarded the steamer Levanzo, an old- time Italian freighter, which had ploughed the sea for centuries, if her looks indicated anything. We marched straight up to the bridge where the old skipper was standing, smoking a pipe with an odour strong enough to kill a hog. "Do you speak English?" I inquired. "A little," was the reply. "Which way are you going?" was my second question. "To Napoli," said the Italian. "When do you get under way?" "To-morrow afternoon at one o'clock." 166 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD "What do you want to take the two of us through the Canal?" "I will take you for sixty rupees (twenty dollars) each, I think," he said after a minute's reflection. "All right." The captain explained that we must sign on as members of the crew, for he was not allowed to take passengers and we should have to be accounted for both at departure and arrival. We signed up without delay; Richardson as assistant cook and I as deck hand. Although the boat was not scheduled to leave un- til one o'clock the following afternoon we were in- structed to be on hand at ten in the morning for a quarantine inspection. It is a regulation that the crews of all ships leaving Indian ports have to be examined before the authorities will issue clearing papers, thus insuring that no Indian disease will be transmitted to Europe. Richardson and I lined up at the appointed hour the next day with the rest of the crew and filed by the doctors while they gave us a farcical examination. This proceeding lasted only a few minutes and at its completion we were driven through the quar- antine sheds to the wharf. It was then two hours before our ship was to leave and Richardson re- turned to town to bid farewell to our friends who had entertained us. I took all the luggage and went to the boat. At one o'clock, the hour that the Levanzo was to get under way, Richardson had not returned. A SAILOR TO SUEZ 167 The British quarantine doctor issued an order for the crew to come off the ship and line up so as to file on one at a time. He beckoned to me and I came down the gangway and fell in at the rear. "Where's your friend?" the doctor asked, abruptly, addressing me. "He's not here," I replied with an attempted eva- sion of the question, not wishing to divulge the fact that my partner had broken quarantine. "He has broken quarantine and can't go on this ship," the officer said, angrily. "Do you want to go without him?" I said nothing. "You must make up your mind at once," said the doctor. "All right, I will go." I thought that the officer didn't mean every word and that Richardson would arrive in a few minutes and have no difficulty in get- ting aboard. The motley Italian crew ascended the gangway and, as I was the last one to go aboard, the plank was removed and several sailors began loosening the lines. I went up on the stern to look across the wharf to see if Richardson was in sight. He was not. The ship was pulling away from the pier. Ideas flew through my mind like water through a sieve. I had all Richardson's baggage and what was worse I had all his money. From Bombay to Suez was three thousand miles. It took at least ten days to make the trip. To leave Richardson stranded on the shores of India would be nothing 1 68 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD short of murder. I was provoked at him for not appearing but my conscience vibrated with the guilty- pangs of deserting my friend and leaving him prob- ably to starve in a strange land. As these alternat- ing emotions were flashing in and out of my mind, the bow of the ship was swinging away from the pier. At last I saw Richardson's head bobbing in the distance. I shouted, whistled and waved. My frantic efforts finally instilled in him the necessity for speed. He came bounding down the wharf like a big calf and attempted to board the ship. He was abruptly stopped by the captain, who ordered him to stay off. The marine doctor had left and there was nothing for me to do but to go on without my companion. The Levanzo was now making her final swing and I threw Richardson's luggage onto the wharf, hurled him his money wallet and bade him farewell. "I will wait for you in Cairo," I shouted as the boat was getting under way. Richardson stood on the pier with a philosophic smile. "All right. I will try and make a getaway to- night. So long." The old Italian "battleship" was soon out in the channel and in a few hours had her nose pointed towards the west and began her lengthy journey to the Canal. I wondered how Richardson would fare but had no doubt that he would get out some way. I therefore dismissed all conjectures from my mind and decided to wait for the news until we met some time in the future. A SAILOR TO SUEZ 169 The Levanzo was a hardened, rusty old tramp. Her crew was entirely composed of Italians who knew little of this world beyond the range of their ship and the waterfronts of the ports to which they had sailed. I was consigned to the hold where my iron, hay-mattressed bunk was sandwiched in amongst those of the Italians, who huddled about like a bunch of gipsies. The dark, foul-smelling atmosphere, the wambling fumes of the ship's kitchen, the greasy and treacherous appearance of the crew — none of whom spoke a word of English — promised a trip whose equal I should never ex- perience. However, I had done sufficient travelling of this sort to feel at home in such surroundings and I played the part to a perfection hard to imagine in one who had seen most of the good things of this life. Attired in a blue flannel shirt and khaki trousers, I went barefooted, grew a beard— such as it was — and chewed quantities of the crew's black tobacco. At four bells the chief steward appeared on deck and called out, "mangiare." From the empty feel- ing of my stomach, coupled with the revolting odours emanating from the galley, I recognized the equiva- lent of the word dinner. I followed the crew in the hope of getting a square meal. We formed a line at the kitchen window, where we were given our eating implements for the voyage. They consisted of a tin cup, a tin sauce-pan, a knife, fork and spoon. We then marched in a body to the forecastle where we were given a piece of hard bread each and a 170 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD pint of red wine. As we trooped back by the kitchen, the steward placed some macaroni in our sauce-pans and gave us some milkless and sugarless coffee. With this assortment of food we retired to the lower deck, sat on a winch or a coil of rope and proceeded to devour it. The second day out I lost my knife and, when I made an appeal for another I was so severely snubbed by the steward that I made no more re- quests during the rest of the voyage. I had to resort to my pocket knife to take the place of the lost article. Macaroni ! Macaroni ! I thought my stomach would become paralysed on the greasy stuff before the journey would end. I vowed that, if I ever reached shore, I would never allow the word maca- roni to be mentioned in my presence. The bread was actually so hard that each member of the crew was compelled to soften it in a tub of water — provided for the purpose — before it was possible to sink his teeth in it. When a man is hungry enough he will eat anything. Stew that almost turned my stomach one day and which I refused to eat, I would consider delicious the next. From Bombay to Suez is something over three thousand miles and at the rate our ship was trav- elling it would require sixteen days to make the trip. How the hours did drag — on a macaroni diet ! The long, hot, foodless days and the dark, stuffy nights in vermin-infested and unsanitary quar- ters made these sixteen days seem like sixteen years. A SAILOR TO SUEZ 171 Between meals I was supposed to assist the crew. Because I was paying the captain a small sum for my passage I was let down rather easily on the work. However, I had to appear busy. Each morn- ing I scrubbed the stern deck and gave the place a general clean-up. In the afternoon I washed clothes in a ship-bucket or painted the iron railings and life boats. The days dragged slowly on, and three times be- tween sunrise and sunset the red wine and macaroni diet stared me in the face. We entered the Red Sea, our journey only half completed; and the thought rose in my mind that I had eight days more of macaroni. However, all good things come to an end and, thank God, the bad ones are not exempt in this respect. On the sixteenth day at midnight the Levanzo pulled into Suez, the eastern entrance of the Canal. As soon as the old tub dropped anchor I gave the captain twenty dollars for my passage and, with the speed of a fly, was on my way to shore in a small boat propelled by an Arab, leaving the Le- vanzo to sink in her tracks for all I cared. I was taken to the Customs House where I was subjected to the most rigid examination to be found anywhere in the world, at the hands and mercy of impudent, coarse and treacherous Arabs. These heavy fea- tured, horse-sized human beings — if such they can be called — were the worst type of men I had seen in a long time — and I had seen some tough speci- mens in the past few months. Fortunately my be- 172 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD longings made up such a meagre collection that I proved of little interest to these huge parasites who prey upon innocent travellers who wend their way through the Canal. After an ordeal that lasted two hours, in spite of the size of my luggage, I was liberated. I wandered up the track to the station where I learned that a train for Cairo was to leave at six o'clock in the morning. There was an hotel at Suez but I did not care to pay four dollars of my precious coin for an equal number of hours in bed. I stood in front of the deserted station for something, or any- thing, to happen. Presently a lean-looking English- man ambled along. This man, who had a face like a dried prune, entered into conversation with me and I learned that he was a travelling acrobat who, with his wife and little daughter, had just come in from the Far East after a theatrical tour of several months. "Where are you going to put up?" he asked. "I don't know. I can't see the hotel for only four hours. I thought I would crawl in one of those passenger coaches on the siding over there," I said, pointing to several cars on an adjacent track. "All right, old chap, I will go with you. Wait until I get my wife and daughter," said the acrobat as he stepped around the corner of the station for his family. In a minute he returned with his wife, a London cockney type, whose general appearance indicated that she had seen chiefly the rough spots of this A SAILOR TO SUEZ 173 earth. She wore a dress of many colours and a hat which looked like a vegetable salad. Clinging to her skirt was a frail little girl who showed the effects of her wandering life. The four of us, with our luggage, crossed the tracks and tried the doors of several cars but all were locked. At this moment, a large greedy-looking Arab appeared out of the darkness and asked what we wanted. "A place to sleep," I replied. "Come with me," blurted the man. We were so tired that if the devil himself had appeared on the scene and offered us a bed and shel- ter we would have eagerly accepted. We followed this burly human being and he led us to a small shed about ten by twelve feet. He opened the door and ushered us in and immediately left, stating that he would call us at six o'clock. This shack was certainly a beautiful bedroom for our homeless little band — nothing but a barren wooden house with the earth for the floor and cracks in the walls through which the cold wind rushed in torrents. The acrobat's wife coiled up in one corner with the little girl on her lap, the man nestled in another and I stretched myself diagonally across a third. Sleep was impossible. We all were nearly petrified with the cold. The Englishman took to his feet and began walking the floor in silence. I soon followed his example. We paced and repaced that wretched ten by twelve compartment for an hour, as speechless as two ghosts. Finally, into the tomb-like silence, the Englishman thrust these words, "Feed the animals." 174 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD A few seconds' laughter at this remark and silence reigned again. At the end of the second hour the woman, who we supposed had dozed off to sleep, murmured, "If my mother could see me now." In this way the night crept on and we ignored our hard- ships. The Arab appeared at six o'clock and after paying him an exorbitant fee, which he exacted, we boarded a third-class coach of an Egyptian train and, sur- rounded by a curious lot of natives, started towards Cairo. I have been told that Egypt was the most expensive country in the world in which to travel and that it would be impossible for me to live on less than several dollars a day. Such information had been given me about so many countries and cities that it was a joke. Egypt turned out to be one of the cheapest sections of the globe I ever encountered. After nearly a day's journey across the desert the train drew into the huge station at Cairo and in a few minutes I was flowing with the crowds towards the street. I stood for an instant on the sidewalk and surveyed the swarms of people who roamed the large plaza in front of the station. I pulled my hat down securely on my head and dived into this sea of humanity and in a second was lost in the million or more inhabitants of that city — of whom I knew not a single soul. I was on my way to the Hotel des Princes, a hostelry recommended to me by my English acrobat friend. By inquiring of every person who gave any indication that he might speak English, I found A SAILOR TO SUEZ 175 the hotel. It was a two-story structure operated by a middle-class native. I soon made a deal with him by which I got a room with a double bed for twenty- five cents a day, with the promise of a rate of forty cents for two when Richardson arrived. This was surely cheap enough and I thought it was ridiculously so when I recalled the statements made to me con- cerning the high cost of living.in Cairo. This hotel had no dining room and it was neces- sary to rustle a cheap but sanitary eating place. Perhaps this was where Cairo deserved its repu- tation for being an expensive city. I left the hotel determined to be the first man to live on a reasonable amount in the Egyptian capital. I had hardly walked a block when I saw in an alley a sign which read, " Soldiers' Club." I directed my steps towards it, entered the place and in a minute was studiously reading the daily menu, which was posted on a bul- letin board in the hallway. Steak, potatoes, vege- tables and tea for three piastres (fifteen cents) ; tarts and pudding — one piastre, and other eatables were listed at equally low prices. As I stood gazing at the bill of fare, almost paralysed with delight over such a fortunate discovery, an Englishman ap- proached. "What are you looking for?" he asked. "For something to eat," I replied. "I am making a sort of tramp trip around the world and expect to be in Cairo a few days. Money is rather a scarce article with me and I would like to know what my chances are of eating here." 176 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD "Are you a British soldier?" inquired the English- man. "No, sir." "Are you an ex-soldier?" asked the man, sizing up the hungry-looking traveller. "No, sir," was my honest reply. "All right," said the club man with a smile. "You may eat here." "Thanks," I added and immediately sat down and ate one of the finest meals ever served anywhere for fifteen cents. The Soldiers' Club, an institution of the British soldiers in Cairo, served as a sort of home for me during my stay in the city. I had just left the club when two blocks farther up the street I came across a sign with the inscription "Soldiers' Home" and in this place I found a similar reception and similar prices. To accuse Cairo of being ex- pensive was slander. I labelled it one of the most inexpensive places I had visited. It was now eighteen days since I had left Richard- son on the wharf in Bombay and during this time I had not heard a word from him. Shortly after my arrival in Cairo I called at the office of the American Consul, the Y. M. C. A. and Thomas Cook and Son and left in each place my address with instructions to direct Richardson to me in the event that he came in and inquired. I also met an occasional train coming in from Port Said. It was on one of these that I found him. As soon as my steamer got under way from Bom- bay, Richardson walked across the wharf and A SAILOR TO SUEZ 177 boarded the British tramp Farington. He went up on the bridge and asked the captain for passage to the Canal. The pleasant-looking skipper stated that he was sorry that he could not take him, as his ship had received her papers and was to leave that night at eight o'clock. Richardson graciously with- drew and descended from the bridge but, instead of leaving the vessel, he threw his luggage down an open hatchway and climbed down himself. Here he crawled off to a crevice in the cargo and remained there until the following morning when the ship was about two hundred miles out to sea. He appeared on deck shortly before breakfast and immediately informed the captain what he had done. The skip- per took it very kindly. Instead of putting Rich- ardson to work he greeted him cordially and said if it had been proper he would have suggested that he stow away. Richardson's trip on the Farington was in strong contrast to mine on the Levanzo. He travelled like a civilized person. The captain was a fine type of Englishman and was very hospitable. The first officer was a thoroughly good chap and was very friendly. Richardson had a cabin on the main deck adjoin- ing the officers; he ate with the second mate and he had the freedom of the entire ship. He spent many hours on the bridge where the officers an- swered his questions. At the end of the journey he was almost a past-master at navigation. He un- derstood the use of the log; he could locate a ship 178 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD at sea with the sextant and he was able to handle the wheel and give signals to the engine room. The Farington arrived at Suez and steamed through the Canal to Port Said. As Richardson was not listed on the ship's papers he had to hide down the hold while the port officials came on board for the inspection. As soon as she was received he . slid over the side of the ship, jumped into a native boat and was rowed ashore. CHAPTER XIII AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM Bakshish is the call of the Near East. Nearly every man, woman and child in Egypt must say this word a thousand times a day. At Memphis two hundred people greeted us a mile from the town with a chorus of bakshish. They trailed along with us for an hour with their hands extended, begging for coins. This group of people was one of the most forlorn I have ever seen. There were all ages of both sexes represented among them. The little children tripped along in front of us, the old men made earnest appeals for money and the women, attired in what appeared to be simply an assortment of rags, tottered along behind us calling bakshish incessantly. The greatest act of kindness that any one could do these people would be to travel through the lit- tle villages with several tons of boracic acid and bathe the eyes of every inhabitant. Seventy-five per cent, of these poor creatures seem to be either blind or suffering from eye infection. It is all due to filth. The children are the most forlorn lot I ever saw. Their faces looked as though they had never been washed. I saw babies with a dozen flies on each eye and a score on their mouths, and their 179 180 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD mothers made no effort to brush them off. Every child's face was speckled with flies. It was enough to make a person sick to look at them. The young- sters with flies on their eyes and two-thirds of the aged blind! Why don't these people realize that there is a connection between these two conditions and do something? At Sakkara, where we saw eleven pyramids, in- cluding the famous step-pyramid, we negotiated with some native labourers for a camel ride. It was a couple of miles to the railroad and we arranged to travel the distance on these Oriental beasts of bur- den. We were in the rural districts and the camels were carrying loads of dirt. My man agreed to a piastre (five cents) for the trip. When I was mounted he demanded a shilling. I paid no atten- tion to him. He started the beast on the run in the hope of frightening me. It was simply fun. Then he urged the animal into a gallop. I didn't know a camel was capable of such a thing. I know it now. A scenic railway is as mild as a baby car- riage when compared to the up and down movements of a galloping camel. There isn't much speed about it. Two-thirds of the energy of the beast is devoted to vertical motions. I hung on to the canvas bag on the camel's back with the grip of a bull-dog. My insides were nearly shaken out. The native con- tinued to shout for a shilling and jab the camel in the belly with a sharp stick. The animal leaped and bounded about like a broncho. By a miracle I managed to hang on. A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 181 Fifteen minutes of such a shaking process was enough for me. I swung my feet over to one side and jumped from the camel's back to the ploughed ground. My ride only cost me a piastre. It was well worth it. A man at the American Presbyterian Mission in Cairo told us that there was a crowd of American "free-lovers" in Jerusalem who frequently enter- tained travellers, and he thought we could get ac- commodations there. The free-love feature had an attractive sound to Richardson and myself and we concluded that if there was any of that sort of thing loose we would round it up. We therefore decided to go to Jerusalem at once. Our destination was the "American Colony," the name by which this group of people was known. We scrambled out of bed, packed, paid our hotel bills, rode a mile to the station — all in thirty min- utes — and left Cairo for Palestine. At Port Said we boarded the Maria Teresa of the Austrian Lloyd Company and took up our quarters in the steerage, along with a dozen French monks and others making a pilgrimage to the Holy City. There was one Austrian priest on board. He had a long brilliant red beard which looked as though it was the growth of centuries. When he saw me shaving before the common mirror in the steerage he was suddenly seized with the desire to part with the fearful brush he had on his face. He wanted to buy my razor. I, of course, wouldn't sell it. Then he asked to borrow it. I didn't very much like the idea of 1 82 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD lending my razor to chop off the beards on strangers' faces. However, I passed over the weapon. The priest asked me to assist him. My part of the work was trimming his beard with scissors down to the point where the razor would be of service. I refused to do more. He did the shaving himself. It took him half an hour to ruin a good razor. It is but a night's journey to Jaffa and in the morning we were off the shore of that little town. The sea was very rough and we were unable to land. Jaffa hasn't any wharves and the captain considered it dangerous for the passengers to be taken ashore in the small native boats. We stood by all day, hoping that the sea would subside. Evening came and there was no change. There were a number of Americans among the first-class passengers. A California judge and his wife, a Chicago gas merchant and his wife, an Eng- lish clergyman and a Pentecost preacher proved the most interesting. Richardson and I paid no atten- tion to the steerage limits. We mingled with the first-class passengers and made several lasting friend- ships among them. We all wanted to be in Jerusalem and Bethlehem on Christmas Day. It was now the 22nd of Decem- ber and unless we landed somewhere soon we couldn't make it. The captain decided to sail for Haifa, whence we could go to Jerusalem by land. In the morning we arrived at Haifa. The purser presented us with a bill for two dollars for extra A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 183 fare and food from Jaffa. All the passengers paid it. Richardson and I refused. "But you have to pay it," said the purser. "Pay nothing," I said, "we bought tickets to Jaffa and you didn't land us there." "All the passengers have paid it." "We don't care if they have," said Richardson. "I insist on your paying the money," the purser added in a most dignified manner. "No money from us. What are you going to do about it?" I said. "Well, if you persist in refusing to pay, I must have you write a letter to the Austrian Lloyd Com- pany stating that you declined to do so. I want something to show the officials of the company." "Sure, we will do that." Richardson and I framed up the following brief epistle which we gladly gave the Austrian purser. He couldn't read English and didn't know what was in it. "To the Austrian Lloyd Company: We are a pair of religious fanatics making our monthly pilgrimage to Jerusalem. For the first time in our many trips on your company's boats we are charged an extra fare. We bought tickets to Jaffa — not to Haifa. The purser demands two dollars more and says the high sea is the cause of it. We refuse to pay for rough weather. If the captain took it into his head to go to Siam, we suppose that your purser would render us a bill. No, the gentle- man is wrong. R. J. Richardson, Alfred C. B. Fletcher." i8 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD All the passengers went ashore at Haifa in small boats provided by the Thomas Cook and Son tourist agency. They paid five shillings each. Richardson and I stood on the deck and bargained with the native boatmen. We got them bidding against one another. One of them finally rowed the two of us to land for one shilling. There is no railroad from Haifa to Jerusalem and the only means of getting to the Holy City is to drive to Jaffa, a distance of about seventy miles. From Jaffa we could go by train to Jerusalem. Rich- ardson and I had always made it a point to keep out of the hands of Thomas Cook and Son. This concern, which is in all parts of the world, is a great convenience to travellers and their rates are mod- erate in most cases. However, we had no time for them and they had no time for us. We could travel cheaper without their assistance. They are not in- terested in tramps or steerage passengers. Haifa was one place where we were forced into the hands of Thomas Cook. It was a case of go in one of his stages to Jaffa at ten dollars each, or not go at all. It would have been a source of regret to us for many years if we had abandoned the trip. The Americans were full of enthusiasm about it. Richardson and I caught the spirit and agreed to go. There were ten stages in the party with about thirty passengers from the Austrian Lloyd steamer, including our newly-acquired American friends. This little caravan left Haifa about noon. It wound its A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 185 way around the base of Mount Carmel, on whose summit is a monastery — said to be erected over the cave in which Elijah sought shelter from Ahab. In an hour we were on the coastal plains of Palestine. There are no modern highways in the Holy Land. I don't recall seeing anything that looked like a road all the way from Haifa to Jaffa. We rode over fields, up hills and through valleys. We simply started in the right direction and went straight across the country. That evening we came to a small Jewish village called Zamarine. This settlement was nothing more than a dozen little houses on the top of a hill. The whole party put up at the Hotel Graff. The pro- prietor of this place knew nothing of our coming and hadn't prepared any food for us. We were a tired lot and had to go to bed hungry, with only the promise of a good breakfast in the morning. Every one was up at two o'clock to get an early start for the fifty-mile run into Jaffa. The good breakfast consisted of weak creamless coffee, unbuf- fered bread and a few sardines or small canned fish. This repast was a keen disappointment. It was an amusing sight to see the millionaire Chicago gas merchant and the California judge munching a dry piece of bread for a two A. M. breakfast. They expected more. Richardson and I took the meal as a matter of course. We had seen the time when such a menu would have been a luxury. We left Zamarine when it was still dark and in a heavy downpour of rain. This downpour con- 1 86 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD tinued all day. The plains were soaked with water. When we were not pulling through the sticky mud of the fields we were bumping over the rocks and boulders of the hillsides. It was the worst stage trip I ever took. The Pentecost preacher rode in the stage with Richardson and myself. He prayed for the rain to cease. The harder he prayed the harder it rained. We passed the hours in religious discussions. The old fellow was the most rigid Puritan on earth. He objected to cards, dancing and the theatre. We asked a hundred questions to draw him out and amuse ourselves. "What chance has a man who drinks?" Richard- son asked the preacher. "None; booze is the devil in liquid form." "Won't you have a cigarette?" I said, offering him a sack of Bull Durham and papers. I insulted the old man. He refused to answer. "What do you think of Shakespeare?" inquired Richardson. "I haven't time to waste on him. The Bible is good enough for me." "Do you approve of football?" I asked. "No, athletics are the work of the devil." "This fellow is what I call a real broad-minded man. He's a relic of the last century. I didn't know that people of his sort still existed," I said to Rich- ardson. "Do you ever use the word 'damn'?" Richardson asked him. A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 187 "No man with the spirit of Christ would ever use such a word. I refuse to talk to you boys any longer," he concluded, perceiving that we were mak- ing fun of him. He sat in silence the rest of the trip and pouted like a five-year-old child. The rain continued. The wagon wheels became heavy with mud. The horses had hard work pulling the heavy coaches over the roadless fields. The front wheels of one of the wagons sank several feet in the mud and the vehicle was securely anchored. The horses were unable to pull it out. Another team was hitched on. The four horses struggled with the stage while their drivers whipped them up. One horse after another fell in the slippery mud. Not until a third team was hitched on was the wagon extricated from the mud-hole. We came to a mad rushing stream which seemed impossible to ford. One of the Bedouin drivers stripped off his clothes and waded through to sound the depth and pick a way. The water came up to his shoulders. After a half-hour's deliberation we all agreed to take the chance of crossing. Our stage was the first to go through. The horses at first refused to start. The driver finally urged them in. The water covered their backs and only their heads were above the surface. The stream came in the bed of the high wagon which bounded back, and forth over the boulders on the bottom of the river like a rocking cradle. We landed safely. The second stage made the crossing. In mid-stream one of the horses of the third stage lost his footing and 1 88 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD fell. He was completely submerged for a moment. He regained his feet and the stage landed safely on the other side. At last all the ten teams came across without mishap. The women of the party were a brave band in the way they tackled the cross- ing without a murmur. It was a treacherous stream and our safe passage was almost miraculous. Two Englishmen were drowned at this same place the next day. This was an unusual way to pass Christmas Eve. We continued on over ploughed fields and rocky hills. We forded several little streams. About nine in the evening the lights of Jaffa could be seen in the distance, and we were soon on the road which led into the town and at nearly midnight we arrived. It was a tired crowd that blew into Jaffa that night and I doubt if the little Kamitz Hotel ever lodged a sounder set of sleepers. The train from Jaffa to Jerusalem is an ancient sample of rolling stock. It winds its way through hillside orange groves and soft plains sprinkled with grazing sheep. The country about Jaffa is the only beautiful portion of Palestine that we saw. We crossed the Plain of Sharon, where the Crusaders fought; we passed Timnath, where Samson set fire to the Philistines' corn and we saw the valley of Aja- lon where Joshua commanded the moon to stand still. We arrived in the Holy City at one o'clock in the afternoon of Christmas Day. "Drive us to the American Colony," said Rich- ardson to a cabman. We drove outside the walls A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 189 of Jerusalem and in ten minutes we were at the entrance of a large two-story stone building. The door opened and before we had a chance to say a word we were greeted most cordially by a middle- aged man. He at once recognized us as Americans and invited us in. Fifteen minutes after our arrival in Jerusalem Richardson and I sat down, with one hundred and twenty Americans, to one of the finest Christmas din- ners any two human beings ever ate. There was everything served that ever graced a Christmas table. Turkey, cranberry sauce, plum pudding, mince and pumpkin pies, nuts, raisins and candy were placed before us in quantities that bewildered us. Every- thing was so deliciously cooked that we thought we were in America, — or Heaven. Richardson and I were so hungry that we flew to this grand feast like two men that had never seen food before. We had to put on the brakes to keep from disgracing our- selves at the first meal. The free-love talk by the American Presbyterian missionary in Cairo was malicious gossip. This rumour probably originated from the fact that the American Colony consisted of a number of people who came to Jerusalem to be present at the second coming of Christ. They thought that this event was soon to take place and they concluded that mar- riage was not necessary. It was back in the eighties that a score of people from a Chicago Protestant Church, thinking that the second Advent was soon due, came to Jerusalem to be on hand for the event. i9o JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD P s time went on the little colony expanded and their p.ans became more settled. The idea of the second coming was given up and they intermarried in the usual manner. They resolved to live the life of the original Christians at the seat of the foundation of Christianity. Through the years the colony grew by the birth of children and additions from the out- side until it numbered at the time of our visit about one hundred and twenty people. There is not a finer group of people in the world. They are among the most hospitable we have ever met. Every one of them, from the several babes in arms to the fine old men, was an excellent type of American manhood and womanhood. They are known far and wide in the Near East and are spoken of everywhere in the highest terms. The entire colony lives as one community in a group of substantial stone buildings. There is a common purse, a common table and sitting room. The whole institution is thoroughly systematized and is very efficient. Each member of the household has his or her duties to perform. Some of the women look after the kitchen and dining room; others work in the bakery and a number take care of the bedrooms. There is a school to which all the children are sent for daily instruction. The men devote most of their time to a curio store conducted by the colony in the business section of Jerusalem. This is a well-known store and the best pictures of Palestine, Syria, Egypt and even India are the work of the photographers of the American Colony. A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 191 This was the home Richardson and I found and where we spent two of the most interesting and en- joyable weeks of our lives. The hospitality of some people is marvellous. The kindness of the members of the American Colony will stay in our memories forever. Christmas afternoon Richardson and I walked to Bethlehem, a distance of six miles. It was bitterly cold and a hard wind was blowing. On leaving Jeru- salem we descended into the valley of Gihon. We saw the tomb of Rachel which was erected over the place of her death and which is revered by Chris- tians and Moslems as well as Jews. Bethlehem is a hillside town of eight thousand people. Its houses are built of stone and mud and are huddled close together. Its cobblestoned streets are narrow and steep and are the picturesque scenes of many small markets. We went to the Church of the Nativity, the most interesting place in the vil- lage. It is a fine building, but poorly kept. It con- tains four rows of marble columns, some of the stones of which are said to have once formed a part of the Temple of Jerusalem. The roof is of beams of rough cedar from Lebanon. The nave is the oldest monument of Christian architecture in the world — the sole remaining portion of the grand Ba- silica erected by the Empress Helena in 327 A. D. In the grotto, or chapel of the Nativity, a silver star in the pavement marks the spot where Christ was born. Fifteen silver lamps are perpetually burn- ing in this chapel. 192 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD The Church of the Nativity is under the control of the Turkish government. The edifice has been turned over to the Greek Church which has the main altar, to the Armenians and Copts who have a side altar and to the Latins — as the Roman Catho- lics are known — who have built an addition to the church for their several altars. This is a unique ar- rangement — three churches in the same building. The grotto or Nativity chapel is also divided among them. This unity in one building has a sensible sound. It is only apparent unity, however. There were several Turkish soldiers on hand and I was told that they were stationed there day and night throughout the year. They stood within a few feet of the altars with their guns over their shoulders to see that the priests of the various churches do not fight and kill one another as they have done on pre- vious occasions. Christ came as the Prince of Peace — and His representatives stand fighting at His very birthplace ! That evening Richardson and I spent in the living room of the American Colony. These good people were having their Christmas tree celebration. There was an elaborate programme arranged which took place before the distribution of presents. The young women gave a very pretty colonial dance ; the little children delivered recitations and there were a num- ber of good vocal and instrumental selections. One of the old men read a portion of the Bible and ex- plained to the children the significance of the Christ- mas festival. Then the gifts were distributed. The A CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 193 gathering was like a huge family. The five-year-old girl called the white-haired man of eighty "brother" and he called her "sister." It was a very joyous occasion. Many people are disappointed in Jerusalem. They expect to find a modern city with large hotels, elec- tric lights, telephones and every convenience. Their ideals are harshly shattered when they find them- selves in an unsanitary, backward and poorly kept city. It has a population of about eighty thousand people made up of Jews, Bedouins and peasants from the countries that border on the Mediterra- nean. The city is thronged with lazy priests, who hang about the sacred spots. These shrines are based on tradition and many of them are so far from reason that they are ridiculous. The holy places are not kept clean, the interior decorations of the churches are tawdry and Turkish soldiers are sta- tioned in the buildings to preserve order among the various sects of Christians. These are not attractive features. Our Chicago gas merchant friend was one of the disappointed ones. He went to Jerusalem expecting too much. I suppose that he thought he would find streets of gold studded with jewels and every human being in it an angel or a saint. He confused the old Jerusalem with the new. He was a staunch Roman Catholic. His disappointment was so keen that his faith in Christianity was nearly shaken. The American Colony sent one of their number with us to act as our guide in the city. We entered i 9 4 JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD Saint Stephen's Gate and walked along the Via Do- lorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is a large impressive building, but all the sacred association is at once killed in a person's mind by the ridiculous and petty things under its roof. When an intelligent man is shown the tomb in which Adam is buried and where his skull was discovered he can do nothing but smile. Where is evolution? To point out a spot about six inches in diameter as the centre of the earth may be appropriate information for an ignorant peasant but it is folly to tell such rubbish to an educated man. If this church was simply over the tomb of Christ that would be suffi- cient, but when so many varied and silly events are commemorated under the same roof an enlightened person naturally shrinks from the whole thing. He is impressed by the ignorance and superstition of the poor pilgrims who crowd in and out of the sacred places by the thousands. He thinks that all these things may be all right for them but he with his knowledge has to reject them. Richardson and I made the rounds of the many sacred spots and shrines. But these were not of so much interest to us. The city itself, the people, their customs and daily round of life took up our attention. There are no wheeled vehicles in the walled city of Jerusalem. In fact there are none in the whole of Palestine, with the exception of a few cabs about the station in Jerusalem. All freight is carried on the backs of camels or donkeys. The narrow streets of the city, often roofed over like tj i "V i . • : m c/1 > i e