The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-25
"HUSTLING" AMERICANS
TRAIT THAT IMPREsSES JULIAN
RALPH AFTER A YEARS ABSENCE.
He Finds that His FeIIOw-COuntry-
termination to ''Git There"
New York Letter in London Man.

New York Letter in London Mail.
The captain of the American liner Paris
was putting that stanch ship forward
against head seas that were literal noun
tans of water. They welmed her bow and
sunk it down so that she had to go half
mile at a leap with her screws up in the air.
shaking the ship as if she had an ague.
When the tons of water rolled off the decks
the ship would rise at the bow and the next
Alpine billow would hit her below the belt,
unfairly in her stomach, SO that she stag
gered and creaked and wrenched herself pit
fully. This went on all night.
1t was an awful contest between water
and steel-between natures strength and
mans skill. The eighty first cabin
passengers were huddled here and there
trying to read, trying to play cards, trying
to smoke. Above everything else they were
trying not to think of their danger because
two-thirds of them thought each succeeding
bang on the ships nose or welt in her
stomach would send her to the bottom
These were the novices. The old travellers
knew that no storm can sink a first-class
liner. Still, even the old travellers were
conscious that they were having about as
much fun and comfort as they would get
by being coopered up in barrel and rolled
down Malvern hill.
At last some of the ladies became so
nervous and full of alarm that they begged
the men to go to the captain and command
him to slow down, or stop altogether and tie
up till the storm was spent, or let them go
sshore-or anything under heaven except
what he was doing. At this stage up rose
an American business man and laid down
the law of his nation to the timorous la
dies.
"'Tain't no use OF Inonkeyin' round the
captain" he said. He's an American and
this is an American ship, and they've both
got to git there. The captain knows 1T and
the old ship knows It, and we men know it.
We started o git there, and we're goin'
TO git there, - spite of all the fussin and
fooin' the old ocean can put up against us"
We tired out that storm, and two bigger
ones afterwards, so that they stopped their
noise and hung their heads, and went away
TO look for sailing ships, or fishing smacks.
or anything that would have respect for
them and let them have their own way We
never stopped, not even to take on the pilot
at Sandy Hook and the doctor at quaran-
tine. in New York bay we scooped them up
on the run, just as the Flying Seotchman
scoops up water as she shoots along the
rails.
AT QUARANTINE.
At quarantine we got fresh supply OF the
essence Of git-there. Newspapers, kilograms,
letters and customs officers rained In on us.
and in five minutes we all knew the Amer
lean ulumatum to Spain, and what other
ships were In and what ones were late. and
who was dead and who was married; also
that we were two hours late for the Yale
Harvard football match. but In good time
for the last night of the horse show. All the
leisurey European ways we had acquired
slipped suddenly away from us, and left us
strained, nervous and jumping like so many
Jack rabbits ahead OF a prairie fire.
Line up! Line up In the dining room and
make your customs declarations" the Of
hcers cried out. Hurry up said the GUS
toms men, for the ships gittin there quick
and you must declare what you're bringing
over before you can get ashore" So they
got there and we got there, and, presumably,
The Paris got there, running into her dock
our boxes were rained out on the wharf
the way Goals are shot into cellar Labor
t tTs sp[a9g at them to SnstTap and open gsSa
pushed them aside Then we were so slow
that the customs inspectors leaped at the
luggage and ripped the boxes open them
Lets get this over. DO you think we get
paid for doing nothing?i We've got to clear
this shiplOad In half an hour.
Telegraph clerks rushed about like mad,
calling out, Western unoni What you
parts. Commercial! Sc ! by the CONNER amer.
cial-quick service everywhere. They
pressed telegraph forms upon us ana ~, we
meant TO send, and which we might as well
have left unwritten. Expressmen and cab
men darted to and from and ran into one an
other. and damned each other The ex-
hilarating atmosphere even began 10 take
hold upon us narcotized Europeans, so that
we spun around, and ran to and fro, and
perspired, and got what is called the git
there move"
A BAGGAGEMAN' SCORN.
Baggage express! HI! here y'are! Bag
gage expressed to all points in the city,
a young man yelled. Twenty-Five others
were trying to outyeu him, but he
yelled loudest and oftenest. His eyes were
almost popping out of his head, and his hat
only stayed on from force of habit His
breath was short, and yet he continued to
lead to and fro and turn around and
around. like a spinning platter making its
last few webbing gyrations. called to
HIM. He came up with 9. pencil behind each
ear book in one hand, and a roll or oan<
notes in the other. He put the money De-
tween his teeth so as to use a pencil, then
took the bank notes out again to ask me
where my things were to be sent.
Il don't know" said l, I'm going TO the
house of a friend but / forget-wait a Sec