FROM JOB TO JOB
AROUND THE WORLD
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR]
FROM JOB TO JOB
AROUND _the_ WORLD
BY
ALFRED C.B. FLETCHER
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
BY THE AUTHOR_
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1916,
BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC.
DEDICATED TO
RALPH J. RICHARDSON
A GOOD COMPANION AND AN INTELLIGENT TRAVELLER
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, Ceylon, India, Egypt, Palestine, Turkey,
Europe, England, 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 representative people of each
country and travelled in moderate style. I, of course, had numerous
hardships and adventures, which I relate.
I wish to extend my thanks to Mr. Ralph J. Richardson, my travelling
companion on part of the trip, for the photographs which illustrate the
edition and to Mr. Stanley Richardson for many valuable suggestions in
connection with the manuscript of the volume. I also wish to express my
gratitude to _The Wide World Magazine_ for the courtesy of permitting
me to republish the narrative from its pages.
A.C.B.F.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I TWO WORLD-BEATERS 1
II HAWAII BY STEERAGE 13
III GOVERNMENT INSPECTORS AT PEARL
HARBOR 26
IV LIVING AS JAPANESE IN JAPAN 42
V ARRESTED AS SPIES IN JAPAN 59
VI A PROFESSOR IN A CHINESE COLLEGE 74
VII ADRIFT IN THE CHINESE EMPIRE 89
VIII RURAL CHINA BY CART 109
IX ASSORTED JOBS IN THE PHILIPPINES 120
X A PORT-HOLE VIEW OF SOUTHERN ASIA 135
XI TWO TRAMPS IN INDIA 150
XII A SAILOR TO SUEZ 171
XIII AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM 186
XIV WANDERING IN THE NEAR EAST 204
XV GREECE AND ROME FROM A THIRD-CLASS
COACH 218
XVI EUROPE ON A VANISHING BANK-ROLL 241
XVII FROM LUXURY TO HUNGER 257
XVIII A RESIDENT OF THE ARCTIC ZONE 269
XIX MINING UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN 284
XX TO AMERICA AS AN IMMIGRANT 304
ILLUSTRATIONS
The author _Frontispiece_
FACING
PAGE
On the beach at Waikiki 4
Our Kaneohe cottage 10
"Grub is ready; get your gang together" 10
The Steerage Trio 18
The _Gaylord_, the only drag-bucket dredger in existence 30
A restaurant where nothing but "grub" is served 30
Bound for Japan 48
Taisuke Murakami, our host at Nagoya 48
The picture that caused our arrest 66
A group of our Korean friends 76
Every day is wash-day in Korea 76
Provincial officials attending China's first track meet 80
The author in Chinese garb 84
A pagoda bridge in the Forbidden City 96
Country boys of North China 104
Sample of an irrigation system 104
Crossing a Chinese country bridge 112
The inn where Richardson put up for a night 112
An old church in Manila 122
The house in which Richardson lived during his employ
at the prison 130
The foreign business section of Singapore 142
The village drummer summoning the people on our
arrival 142
A _jutka_ or "jitney" used in Central India 150
Washing clothes in the Ganges 162
A single tree--a banyan 162
The Sphinx 178
The Mount of Olives 194
Our start for Nazareth 208
The port of Dedeagatch 214
A market in Constantinople 224
The Temple of Theseus 234
The Roman Forum--a "vacant lot" of Rome 248
St. John's Church, Needham Market 262
The author's home in Tromso 274
Tromso in summer-time 274
Pack ice in Ice Fjord 286
Twenty miles from land 286
The first load for shore 292
The ice pack from the crow's nest 300
The _Munroe_ alongside the ice--60 miles from land 306
Longyear City, Spitzenbergen--700 miles from the
North Pole 306
Norwegian wireless station in Ice Fjord 314
FROM JOB TO JOB
AROUND THE WORLD
FROM JOB TO JOB AROUND THE WORLD
CHAPTER I
TWO WORLD-BEATERS
"WHAT'S the trouble? Are you seasick or homesick?" 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 discovered that we were
starting out on a similar expedition--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 moment. 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. I had
heard of men beating their way amid a continual round of hardships. I
thought it possible to travel in such a manner and do so with a fair
degree 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 missionaries were on
their way to their posts after a sojourn in the States; sugar planters
and pineapple growers spent hours on the promenade deck boosting 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 amazement and anxiety
to his fellow-eaters but was the cause for great alarm on the part
of the ship's commissary--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.
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 civilised 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 alongside 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
distasteful about a man teaching in the grammar grades. It is too
ladylike. I would rather be caught operating an electric runabout. But
when one realises that his last meal is not far away, any occupation is
acceptable, and school teaching proved to be one of the most attractive
vocations which we pursued during the trip.
Richardson affiliated himself with Mills Institute, a school under the
control of the Hawaiian Board of the Congregational Church Missionary
organisation. 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. 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.
[Illustration: ON THE BEACH AT WAIKIKI]
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 cosmopolitan. 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 Japanese 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 us.
We shall be obliged if you will sent us the report 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. Ah Soy
Mr. Jay Yet
Mr. Jock Chay
Mr. T. Murakami
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-civilised
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 thousand are
Americans. 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 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 around-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 began 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. We 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 completely
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 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 swimming, 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 outdoor pleasures undisturbed by the noise and
bustle of civilisation.
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 inspectors 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 addressed 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,
resenting my abrupt manner, replied by asking sarcastically:
"Have you been to high school?"
"Yes," I said.
"Are you a university graduate?" the officer continued, beginning to
realise that he had somewhat misjudged the applicant.
"I was graduated from the University of California in 1907."
"Well, then," said the lieutenant, assuming a dignified 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 document, which
contained the regular useless and characteristic red tape required to
get within approaching distance of a government position.
"What does the examination cover?" I enquired.
"It is contrary to the rules to answer such a question," was the navy
man's 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 protractor, and would test the applicant's knowledge of geometry
and arithmetic. After expressing my gratitude for the information I
wandered out into the street with my hopes somewhat shattered. As
I aimlessly sauntered along the water front leading from the Naval
Station, I began to ponder over the various 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, 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 information. 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 different types of dredges at work in the channel, drawing
diagrams and taking notes on each. I obtained a book on explosives and
among other volumes I came across a publication entitled "Inspector's
Handbook," which contained most of the information we desired in
concise form.
While I was busy gathering data for the approaching examination,
Richardson was earning two dollars a day on a job he had picked up
from the Honolulu Telephone Company. His tedious duties consisted 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 number of small metallic fibres. At the close of his second
day on the job he struck his boss for a lay-off.
[Illustration: _Upper_: OUR KANEOHE COTTAGE]
[Illustration: _Lower_: "GRUB IS READY. GET YOUR GANG TOGETHER"]
"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. 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 human
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 demonstrate 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
handled 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 near-by.
After fumbling around in a vain effort to find the right red flag in
the maze of the ship's signals, and realising 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 myself, the instructor, eighty-five per cent. We were
now in line 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 Sunday. This made an
average of one hundred and ten dollars clear money a month.