The San Francisco call. [volume], June 05, 1904, Image 15

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
face of the old lady by the bridge com
panion Is a violent contrast In emotion.
Her face, Rembrandtesquo In its In
tensity of light and shade, tells (he
story of many sorrows. She Is going
to the States to see a son who Is 'in
trouble," we gather (you know how
this sort of news leaks out) and every
body aboard feels sorry and wants to
show it. Somebody proffers her a rug:,
another a book, which she accepts with,
a smile. (What a feeble smile it Is!)
She makes a pretense at reading, but
presently she puts the book aside with
a sigh and sits thinking, thinking, al
ways thinking.
Petty beside this appear -the Imagi
nary troubles of a dear little American
girl who has been spending a couple of
years in New Zealand.
- "Say," she mournfully complains in
broad "American accent, "everybody Is
saying that I don't talk a bit like an
American. I do hope that isn't true. I
want everybody to know I'm an Ameri
can and that I'm going home."
She sits on th* bridge companion
steps, her blue eyes looking wistfully
homeward. "I do wish this old boat
would Ju3t hurry." she keeps saying.
One morning our cyclist-hating Eng
lishman nearly worked himself into an
apoplectic fit. He had come upon a
book 'of essays on a vacant deck chair
and settled' himself to read. Presently
the crack cyclist happened along and
claimed the book as his.
"By gad, sir," said the Johnny, sub
sequently describing the incident to his
clique . in the smoking-room, "the
boundafc actually reads Ruskln. Ten
nyson and all our othah top-notchers."
There are a few nervous people on
board who. in anticipation of their
visit to the United States, have "read
up" works on America. Foster Fraser's
"America at "Work." Kipling's "From,
Sea to Sea," and "A Frenchman's Im
pressions of America" are much in evi
dence — as a consequence a few people
are asking each other for Information
about "bunko-steerers" and such like
dangerous things. For the special
benefit of the nervous ones the funny
man on board told the following yarn:
"The Amalgamated Bunkc-Steerers*
Society of San Francisco, which boasts
a membership, list 15,000 strong, has
what they call its Intelligence depart
ment; that is. It keeps paid members
of the society on all boats and trains
to put chalk marks upon the backs of
passengers worth exploiting. The
chalk marks denote to the operating
members on shore the extent of the
bearer's belongings. Passengers leav
ing the steamer at Frisco with chalk
marked coats advise the bunko-steerers
on wharf duty th© exact extent of
their valuables and where they are
going to put up."
"I'll tell you something m confi
dence," whispered the low-comedy
man, and his listeners expectantly
drew closer. "There are seven mem
bers of the Amalgamated Bunko-
Steerers* Society's intelligence staff on
this ship now."
And the low-comedy man left a group
of nervous men obligingly looking for
chalk-marks on each other's backs.
It was the privilege of the writer tat
accompany the commander and his of
ficers on his daily tour of "inspec
tion." The progress of the official par
ty throughout the huge vessel la
marked by the severest discipline. The
care and attention bestowed upon tha
most minute details is simply as
tounding. Now and again during tho
tour the captain would stop to speak a
few kindly words to a poor foreigner
In the steerage, or, while his eagle eye
took in the sanitary condition of a
sick man's cabin, a cheery story from
7\ JTR. BERT LEVY, who ar
l \/\ rived in San Francisco two
y,/ J weeks ago on the Sonoma
JL from Australia, is one of the
best-known artists in the Antipodes.
For over ten years he was connected
with the Sydney Bulletin, one of the
largest papers in the colonies, where
he made himself famous ,for his pic
tures depicting the Jewish character,
while for the last four years he has
been on the staff of The Age, pub
lished by the multi-millionaire, David
Symes, in Melbourne, where he gained
even greater prominence for his
sketches of the Jewish type in par
ticular, and his cartoons of famous
men in general, as well as for the
able articles from his pen which ac
companied all his drawings. At the
same time he is known professionally
as one of the best fcenic artists that
has ever painted for the big theaters
in Australia.
Mr. Levy is himself a Jew, who was
born in Australia, and his present
visit, which, by the way, is his first
trip across the Pacific, is made ex
pressly for the purpose of closing ne
gotiations with one of the big East
ern publishing houses for the repro
duction of a series of his Jewish pic
tures, among which is the "Tephillan,"
which is a marvelous study of an aged
Jew in the midst of the orthodox
prayer, and the '"Kaddish," which de
picts a Jewish father and his two sons
with tear-stained faces turned toward
the east while they repeat a prayer
for the departed wife and mother. It
is the strength and pathos as well as
the absolute fidelity to the Jewish
characteristics that have won. Ench
widespread praise and admiration for
these works.
It is perhaps a remarkable coinci
dence that simultaneous with Mr.
Levy's arrival the Sunday Call should
be preparing for the publication of
"The Fugitive," a new novel, fresh
from the hands of the author. Ezra S.
Brudno, less than three months ago,
b'Jt which has already become one of
the most talked of books in both
Europe and America because of the
masterful way it depicts the life of
the Jews both in Russia and New
York, and which Mr. Sorners, the head
of the book department at the Em
porium, declares will be one of the
biggest selling books of the year.
Beginning next Sunday, June 12, it
will be published comolete in five in
stallments, and in order ta make its
appearance all the more notable, Mr.
Levy has been specially commissioned
to remain in San Francisco and il
lustrate it lavishly from beginning to
end in his best style, exclusively for
the Sunday CalL
Thus under the Sunday Call's
liberal and progressive literary policy
of giving its readers the very latest
high class literature by the best writ
ers of the day, there has been secured
DAINTT guide books scattered
throughout the big ocean liners
describe the beauties of the Isl
and paradise on the route from
the Antipodes to California, but no
mention Is made of the chief beauty of
travel— the beauty of human compan
ionship that is fully matured on board
ship. Amusing, indeed, it Is to watch
the gradual thawing of the icy man
ners adopted by some people at the
etart of the voyage. The sour-faced,
sarcastic man who found fault with
the nuts and cheese two hours out from
Evfiney proves by the time we reach
faces were characteristic of the pick
tortured surfaces of the alluvial* fields
of old Ballarat and Bendigo, (heir na
tive towns, were in earnest conversa
tion with morose types of British globe
trotters, and, 'like the high light on a
pleasing picture, was the animated but
friendly discussion between an Arch
bishop and a German Jew. "Where else
but amid the friendly environments en
gendered by a long ocean voyage could
such Ideal conditions prevail 7
There Is a lady on board who would
prove a veritable gold mine of copy
to a writer of farce. She appears at
breakfast in black satin and diamonds
and does not keep the story of her daily
life a secret. ...¦¦-
"Every morning of my life," she tells
her neighbors at the. table in a con
fidential whisper that can be heard
above the roar of steam and storm,
"my maid brings a cup of tea to my
bedside," and then almost In the. same
breath she summons a passing stew
ard: "Hey, mister, fetch us a bit more
toast."'
Th- passengers at -a certain saloon
table rejoiced, in the -possession of an
Irish-Australian mining magnate, and
the unconsciously humorous ¦ remarks
that he let fall were as rich and plenti
ful aa gold speaks In the. wash-dirt of
the renowned ' district from which he
hailed. - • •
"Good mornlnV he said, seating him
self at breakfast. "We'll pass the Ven
toora this mornln', I belalve."
.One of . his, table mates ventured the
opinion that we had passed -our sister
ship in th« night. - . •
"Oh, no," end the Irishman, "I was
talkin' to wan of the .officers while he
was cleaning the floor ¦ in ¦ the smoking
room an' he ' said we'd pass It ' this
mornin'." .. . . ~
¦ .To leave the crowd of good-natured,
happy fellows holding a "Calcutta" on
the ship's run and to look at the sad
not only a brand new novel, by a
writer who is said to have laid bare
the inner secrets of his own life in
"The Fugitive," but the superb and
authentic art work of a man equally
famous from another far distant
quarter of the trlobe both brought to
gether for the first time in one edition
to picture the sorrows and sufferings,
the ideals and the history of their
own race, as well as to reveal the se
cret of the cause and the effect of
their ceaseless persecution through
the ages.
In the following article Mr. Levy
has written of the humors and de
lights of s trip across the Pacific on
a big Oceanic liner and illustrated it
with some characteristic drawings
which speak for themselves. They
are however, mere rapid sketches,
giving no idea of the real skill and
power shown in his finished work.
the captain would gratify the occu
pant
Of course, the beauties of the Island
scenery en route have been described
again and again. Americans are fa
miliar with the grand in nature, for at
their own" door nature haa laid many
treasures. * But like unto an oasis In
the desert is Honolulu to an Australian
who has painted all his life among the
gum trees of his own dear country and
leaves it for the first time to gaze upon
the Island.
The writer stood spellbound for aa
hour beside the celebrated Pall - and
felt for the first time that to try to
Imitate, nature with brush aad paint
is, after all, only a little mockery. All
the adjectives that one eaa apply to
Honolulu have been applied b«£ars
scores of times, and one who really
feels it deep down can only sign and
say nothing.
And now the rattle of wtne gla»3es
and the Bound of "For fce*» ajoCy good
fellow." "We are a day off Frisco. In
the bright* warm saloon tn« Archbish
op has Just proposed the health, of the
President of . the United States of
America.
Well, It's the sort of voyaga that
Americans are taking more and more
— this trip across the- Paclflo in an
Oceanic liner. But It Is not given to
everybody to be a young Australian
and to . feel the blood tingling at the
recollection of. many happy. Jolly days
and "nights" out on the Pacific with
real . "white" American boys. You
crowd of bright American bovs and
girls who came aboard at Honolulu,
those little snatches of .Hawaiian na
tive airs you hummed have sunk right
down into my soul with the • beautiful
color of the Pali, the Punchbowl and
all those other things that make up
my dream of the Paradise of the Pa
cific ¦ ; *•-.'-/• - - ' . , ¦¦
the Johnny. r ." : } ¦; ' - »» . ;
But presently, the little group of
. On the fifth day out rrom Sydney a
returning American crack cyclist who
had "scooped" big money "out there"
was the center of the multifarious
group that goes to make up a typical
ship's .smoking-room crowd. .English
Johnnies returning home by the "short,
quick route? 'and Incidentally taking
in the "ah— St. Louis— ah— Exposition—
ah"; robust ' Australians going to
have >a look at the States;
smart", young" -Americans who had
made a '"¦. bit "out there" and
are off home to look for novelties for
the colonies; big, fine New Zealanders,
picked up at' Auckland; gentle-man
nered Hawaiian* who had come aboard
flower-bedecked at lovely Honolulu,
all wect to. make up that Jolly; after
dinner smoking room atmosphere which
la one of the most charming character
istics of a trip on a big ocean liner.
The big erellst had "bad a corking
time \ out , there" ,' and • wouldn't ' hear a
word against Australians or the Aus
tralian "boys." , - 1. .' :
"Bay," he repeated. " 'Muriea may be
Ood's country, .but -when Ood wants a
good time I guess, he goes . out thur." ;
,The cydlstytras a, bluff and hearty
Calif ornian boy, who had made himself
extremely, popular .with the passengers,
but had evidently got Upon ¦ the . nerves
of | a , rather . elongated, loud-checked,
haw-hawing English 1 Johnny. ; ¦
'nevah,^ nevah \ traveled ! wltn
Americans befoah.; I : ; think* they are
extremely ' olevah. -very; clevah; but I
object | to 1 their awful twang— ah," said
Amerlcans in the corner got even with
"the Englishman. He had been "spout-
Ing" about his English home, his motor
cars and pack of hounds, his shooting
box, etc., but his statement that It was
"quite seventeen— ah— miles, don't yer
•know, from our hall door to- the gate
keeper's lodge" inspired , a subdued
.chorus (to the concluding bars of "Auld
Lang Syne"), led by the cyclist, which
* was more expressive than elegant.
Again' and again from the American
stronghold rang out that tender and
beautiful ¦; air and shattered' the
Johnny's . highly-colored jj pictures of
his. stately English home.. The
-enormous value he . put upon
his ' mother's family Jewels was
punctured by the "chorus, rendered
fortissimo, and when the good-natured
raillery finally drove him away in a
blustering rage the atmosphere became
\ delightfully social— everybody "lighted
up," chairs ' were drawn closer, and
•looking upon 'the : scene through the
haze of tobacco smoke one could
scarcely realise that we were thousands
of miles 'from anywhere, in the midst
of the Pacific. Here were men gathered
from the four Quarters of the globe, op
posing forces, as "it were, artistically
blended by the companionship of a long
'voyage into "one harmonious composi
tion. Bearded and bronzed - men who
.'; had made '. their, money . from the soil
far out— back in the "never-never" land
,of 'Australia— men who had gamely
I lived '.: down . many ; a v heart-breaking
drought," were "swapping yarns" with
delicate looking . Oxford scholars and
sons ' of wealthy English / merchants.
Sturdy; miners, whose deeply furrowed
Auckland %o be at heart ("as my young
American table-mate puts it) "a reg-lar
crackajack of a fellow and real
•white/" The little cliques that stood
(separated like the Islands on the map
of the Pacific) on the promenade- deck
as we left Sydney became as close as
the United States two days out. The
high-toned lady, who considers so-and
so "no class" (and does not keep her
opinion to. herself) at the. start of the
journey i Is I seen nursing the no-class
one's baby before the -vessel has regis
tered one day's run across the Pacific
Table grumblers, as a rule, are beau
tifully silent after about ten hours
have elapsed.- There .are some people
who live on bread and Jam all the year
round, and when they are invited to a
wedding adversely criticize the cham
pagne. This class of table grumbler Is
irrespressible, but gets a bad time from
healthy passengers! And no voyage
could bring forth more humor than a
trip across the Pacific on one of these
big liners. . : . . y
"They say dat Pritannia rules .dt
waves," said a sick Jew the first day
out, leaning over the ship's rail. and
mournfully anticipating an Internal dis
turbance.- "Veil, I vtsh she'd V ruled
'em straight." .
The sight of some bright American
boys placing an empty whisky bottle
and a glass by the deck chair of the
sleeping Archbishop is calculated to
bring a smile to the most melancholy
face, and when the "Johnny" who has
been minutely describing his "twenty-
eight voyages across the Pacific, don't
yer know," and his absolute proof
against seasickness, turns pale and sud-
dcnly dives below for bis cigar case (as
he puts it), the crowd fairly shakes
with laughter. v
It Is astonishing: how quickly people
ret to know one • another aboard ship.
Lifelong friendships are bought by the
loan of three antl-bllious pills and the
giving away of a little bit of corn
plaster to f one's cabin mate has not only
extracted your friend's corn but the
pathetically told story, of his unhappy
married life as well. On land you can
run up against the ' average man for
yean and only exchange a formal
word of greeting now and again, but
should you meet that man aboard ship
and In a weak moment | offer him an
apple he almost Immediately tells you
the story of the love affair that is
slowly but surely breaking his heart,
and by. the. evening of .the earn* day
you've had several ¦ drinks together and
Its oddn-on he has shown you "her"
photo and letters, and all he wants In
return ls-^rouradrlc©. • ,: :
'"I felt drawn toward you from the
first, old man. Tours is a face to In
spire confldence (here he tells you the
amount of his letter of credit or shows
you his bankdraft). VOf oours.e. ' 1
wouldn't talk like this to a stranger,"
he adds. . (You have known him exact
ly one day.)V
The delights of sightseeing ' are > as
naught, compared to the wealth of en
joyment to be extracted in u studying
our : ever- varying fellow . creatures, and
where else can they be studied to such
advantage as . aboard / ship, and espe
cially on such a delightful voyage as
crossing ' the Pacific affords ?
THE SAN, FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL:
15
ACROSS THE PACIFIC ON A "LINER"