“He was practically dead broke. An employment office extracted from
him the usual $2 fee—all he had—and sent him to a job in a lumber-mill
some distance from the city. Alvo tramped many miles to the mill only
to be refused employment upon his ticket. He could scarcely speak any
English, but he knew how to use his fists. Walking all the way back
to Seattle, he proceeded to beat up the employment agent in thorough
and picturesque fashion. Afterward he secured temporary rough work at
various mills along Puget Sound.
“His first job in British Columbia was the whitewashing of a
salmon-cannery at the little village of Ladner, near the mouth
of the Fraser River. His wardrobe included overalls and a dozen
dress-shirts—the latter relics of his grander days—but he had no socks.
From wielding the whitewash-brush to hauling the nets was the next
step, and it was not long before the Prussian Junker’s son was engaged
in partnership with a rough-neck fisherman making nightly trips out
into the Gulf of Georgia, and doing his share in one of the hardest and
most dangerous callings in the world, that of a deep-sea salmon-fisher.
“In two months, with the money obtained from his salmon fishing, he was
enabled to purchase an ancient mare and a light wagon. Over night he
blossomed out as a produce-dealer, buying poultry and dairy products
from the farmers in the vicinity of Ladner. These he brought to the
city of Vancouver and sold them from house to house in opposition to
the Chinamen. Business increased, and the staid old Vancouver Club, a
hoary and the most exclusive institution, in which only the most elect
held membership, became his best customer.
“But Alvo did not stay long in the business; but went up by leaps and
bounds. Real-estate clerk, then curb-broker, then large independent
dealer were some of his upward steps, until two years after he had sold
his last load of produce to the Vancouver Club he was himself a member.”
There was one little incident of the club life which pleasantly reminds
us that Alvo was not an upstart and therefore not a snob. He was
entertaining a German baron soon after having become a member, and he
noticed that the waiter eyed him very curiously. Presently divining the
reason, Alvo suddenly looked up at the waiter and said: “Yes, by jingo,
I’m the man who used to deliver chickens at the back door. Now go on
serving dinner, and stop staring.”