SAN FRANCISCO--THE TRANSPORT GONE--WORKING HIS WAY TO HONOLULU BY
PEELING VEGETABLES ON A PACIFIC LINER--THE CAPITAL OF HAWAII.
ARCHIE found Chicago to be so widely different from New York that
everything he saw was new and interesting to him. In the afternoon he
managed to see something of the congested business section of the city,
the tall office buildings, the great stores, and the famous Board of
Trade. It was all very fine, he thought, but still it wasn’t nearly so
fascinating to him as New York had been on the first day he visited it.
“Chicago seems so very much like some great town,” he explained to the
hotel clerk in the evening. “I feel as if I were not in a great city
at all, because there are not the evidences of a large and wealthy
population that we have everywhere in New York.” Archie spoke of New
York as if he had lived there always, and found much to criticise in
Chicago. But toward evening he went up to Lincoln Park and the beautiful
North Shore, and he felt that there was nothing more beautiful in New
York than this magnificent park, and this handsome Lake Shore Drive,
with its great houses whose lawns reached down almost to the lake
itself. On the South Side of the city, too, he found some handsome
streets and residences, but there was always that feeling of being in
some rapidly growing town. It wasn’t hard for Archie to realise that
there were older houses in his native town than could be found anywhere
in the great city of Chicago.
The greatest difference between Chicago and New York was to be noticed
in the evening. Instead of the brilliantly lighted thoroughfares of
upper Broadway and Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth Streets, he found
but one street in Chicago which was at all illuminated, and the
illuminations there were chiefly signs in front of dime museums. The
streets, too, were not so crowded, and Archie almost longed that he
could be back on Broadway, if only for a little while.
On Sunday he found Chicago to be a more noisy city than he had ever been
in before on that day, and he found that the people made good use
of their one weekly holiday. All places of amusement were open, and
everything was running in “full blast.”
The parks seemed to be very popular, indeed, and there were numerous
water excursions upon Lake Michigan, to Milwaukee, St. Joe, and various
other neighbouring cities. The street-cars were crowded all day long,
many of them taking people to a Sunday game of baseball at the Athletic
Park. All of this was very interesting and very new to Archie, but it
didn’t make him anxious to remain in Chicago any longer than Monday
morning, so on that day he took the limited train for the Pacific Coast,
for he had determined not to stop off again until he reached Denver.
Days of weary travel over a level, uninteresting stretch of ground
followed the departure of the train from Chicago, and had not Archie
found some interesting persons to talk with he would have been very
weary long before reaching Denver. As it was, he managed to pass the
time very pleasantly until the train entered Colorado, and after that
he found much that was new to look at until he reached Denver. Here he
remained for half a day, just long enough to see something of the city
and a little of the neighbouring country. Then, taking a train for San
Francisco, he reached that city on Thursday afternoon, and immediately
began to make arrangements for sailing. He found, to his great
disappointment, that the army transport had sailed the previous day,
contrary to the expectations of the editors, and of the War Department
itself, until the arrival of important despatches from Manila, which
made it necessary to start the transport at once with supplies of
ammunition. Archie hardly knew what to do. He had not anticipated
anything like this, and could scarcely think of any plan for a time,
but, finally, he proved himself equal to the emergency. He went to the
naval agent and asked him when the transport would be due at Honolulu,
and then he ascertained that a passenger steamer sailing for that port
on Saturday would reach the destination three days sooner than the
transport, so that by taking the liner he would have three extra days in
Honolulu, and would be able to reach Manila on schedule time, after all.
He at once decided that this was the thing for him to do, and as soon
as he thought of taking the steamer it occurred to him that he might
possibly be able to work his way to Honolulu, instead of paying the
regular passenger fare, which he knew was high. So he went down to the
great docks, and, after interviewing the second steward, he approached
the chief steward himself, and asked if there wasn’t something that
he could do aboard the ship to earn his passage. The chief steward was
thoughtful for a time, and finally said, “Well, yes, I believe there is.
We haven’t any one to peel vegetables yet, and if you think you care to
do that work I guess we can fix you up all right.” Archie didn’t wait
to consider whether peeling vegetables was hard work or not. He was too
glad to have a position of any kind aboard ship to be particular about
what his work was like, so he told the steward that he was willing to
take the place. “Well, be on hand at about eight in the morning, and
we’ll see that you get to Honolulu.”
Archie was overjoyed at his good management. “I am going to save about
a hundred dollars,” he said to himself, “and I will have this money to
send home to mother.” The rest of the afternoon and the evening he spent
in going about San Francisco, and he found it to be more like New York
than any city he had yet seen. There was the same cosmopolitan crowd on
the main thoroughfares, and the same foreign districts here and there
throughout the city. He found a great deal to interest him, especially
at the Presidio, where everything connected with the army monopolised
his attention. He made friends with many of the soldiers who were
waiting to be sent to the Philippines, and hoped, on leaving, that he
would meet some of them there, but he hardly expected that he would meet
some of them in such a strange manner as it was his fate to do in Luzon.
After a good night’s rest he was on hand early at the great steamer,
where there was such a scene of bustle and confusion as he had never
seen before, not even in New York. There was a throng of men with trucks
who were loading the late freight, and there was a constant din of noisy
voices, which, combined with the shrieks of escaping steam, made it
impossible to carry on a conversation. Archie hurried aboard to find the
steward, who immediately took him into the galley and introduced him to
the cook, a large, fat Frenchman, with small, blue eyes set far back
in his head. He seemed to be a pleasant man, and Archie thought that he
would like him very much.
“Well, does ze youngster vant to vork, eh! Eef he do, I say you pare zis
potate for dinee as quick you can.” And the fellow pointed to a great
bag of potatoes and a paring-knife. “Now you sit zere in da corner,”
continued the cook, “and keep out uf my vay.” Archie found a stool and
sat down, and, having brought an apron with him, he put it on and began
work. The cook watched him closely, so that Archie soon learned to pare
the potatoes very nicely, and of course he was able to get along faster
and faster as he became more and more experienced. He managed, through
great effort, to get the bag finished in time for dinner, or luncheon,
as it was called on the bill of fare, and then he soon had to begin on
other vegetables, which were to be served at the more complete evening
meal. There were more potatoes, and some turnips and apples as well,
to be prepared, and it kept the boy busy all the afternoon, cleaning
as hard as he could, and never seeming to get done. The cook urged him
always to hurry, and seemed determined to have everything ready on time.
And Archie began to realise that he was working under a rather severe
master.
He was again successful in getting the vegetables finished in time for
the evening meal, and then he had an idea that he might be allowed to
rest for awhile, but he soon realised his mistake. He was advised to
begin work on the potatoes for breakfast if he didn’t want to get up at
two o’clock in the morning and pare them, so once more he took up the
knife and began to clean and scrape. It was ten o’clock before he
had finished, and he found himself too tired to spend any time on the
after-deck with the crew, but went at once down into the small, stuffy
room where he was to sleep with some of the stewards. His back ached
from bending over, and his hands were all sore from being scraped.
Things were not very pleasant in this bedroom, but poor Archie was glad
enough to be able to lie down on the hard straw tick and go to sleep.
He slept soundly until he was awakened at four o’clock in the morning by
the second cook, who ordered him up-stairs to work. There was no time to
wash, and no place where he could wash, so the boy was obliged to go up
just as he was, much as he disliked doing so. And once up-stairs there
were various chores which were waiting for him in the galley, so that
he was kept running until breakfast was served. And then it was time
to begin paring vegetables again. This turned out to be the invariable
daily programme, and Archie became rather discouraged. Had it not been
for the thought that by doing this he was saving money to send home, he
would have been miserable indeed, but this idea kept him hopeful. He was
seasick, too, for a time, and was obliged to keep cleaning vegetables
in the galley during the whole period of his suffering. The days when he
was ill in this way were the most disagreeable ones of the voyage, and
Archie often described afterward his feelings as he sat peeling potatoes
with a bucket standing beside him. Each night he slept like a log, and
each morning he was obliged to get up at four o’clock and start work
again. It was the same thing day after day, tiresome and monotonous, so
that Archie wasn’t sorry when the beautiful island hove in sight, and
they anchored in the picturesque bay of Honolulu.
Once at Honolulu, Archie’s term of service on board the liner was
over, and he was glad, indeed, to get ashore, where he learned that the
transport had not yet arrived, but was expected in two or three days’
time. These two or three days Archie determined to spend in sightseeing,
and he spent his time to excellent advantage in visiting every quarter
of Honolulu and seeing every side of life in the Hawaiian capital. He
found it a delightful place. There was much that was interesting to see,
the people were pleasant to meet, and the climate was perfect. He was
almost sorry when he learned that the transport had anchored in the bay!