The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-08-04
GOLDEN BEAK--A RAFTING GOOD
SAN FRANCISCO, HONOLULU AND
YOKOHAMA STORY---BY BASSETT


lTOIn l-dSl Ottuiudy.J
The morning after Mrs. Potwin had
told me the story of Temehichi, the pur-
ser called me into his office as L rose
from the breakfast table and said:
well, did you pump Mrs. Potwin last
night? You had her in corner long
enough
II did my best 1 replied, land she
talked about all sorts of things, but ]
failed to learn the mysterious japanese !
word. I wish 1 knew 1t. 1t would be as
good as a railway pass or a CARLOAD OF :,
money all through Japan"
IT suppose that is much to say
that you know all about It, but had to
promise to keep your mouth shut" said
the purser. well, We have only got a
few more days to Yokohama. and hope
there will be no bedevilments in the
meantime"
Mr.. Chamberlain's prayer was answer
ed. for nothing more tremendous than
one or two quarrels among the young
men of the smoking-room disturbed the
latter days of the passage. Then there
began to be great stirring about, and
the steerage passengers were busily en-
gagged in dropping many-colored frag-
ments OF paper and little handfuls of rice
into the sea, seeking to propitiate the
gods. and praying that they might find
their friends in safety, and prosper in
their undertakings. noisy gull came
out to show us the way to the bar at
Yokohama, and early the next morning
the chain was rafting from the hawse-
hole and the white dome of Fuji-san loom
ed vaguely through the clouds.
had Mrs. Potwin somewhat on my
conscience. / did not want to bear her
10. w.TtN Ia r-.1 ~ brill fnr
plumage L had killed at sea, and yet it
would be heartless to leave her to the
mercy of the boatmen and the hotel run
ners. And she seemed to me a pitiful lit
tie figure, arriving there In a strange
country, with her bright blue eyes and
her bright yellow hair, to involve herself
in knew not what plots and intrigues.
I had made good many English friends
when / had been in Japan before. and
there Is a pleasant little knot of exiles
living on the Bluff beyond the town al
ways very ready to be kind to strangers.
But I couldn't quite myself asking
Mrs. This or Mrs. That to call on a
Mrs. Potwin, American lady whose
acquaintance / had made on board the
steamer" I could have warned them
that her gowns were very surprising, and
that her manners were very American
But there would be more than that to
explain. English people. even IL they are
living at the worlds end. entertain a be-
lief, and perhaps not an altogether mis-
taken one. that young ladies whose mar
riages have miscarried should not trave
about the world without the protection
of some older woman whose life has beer
mere commonplace. And IL never seemed
to enter Mrs. Potwin's head that he
drunken Irish maid was not a sufficien
chaperon.
learned long ago that 1t is Away
foolish for a man to try to help any WON
miscellaneous society OF minor colony
A woman who Is herself I'm good posi-
ton can. II she becomes Interested In al
eccentric creature like Mrs. Potwin, d
n great deal to set her afioat: but tn
mere fact that man Is trying TO hel
n woman i'm that way gives her a blac
eye at the outset. And, after all, Eng
lish people who are living in out-of-the
way corners of the world have very goo
reason to be more suspicious than peopl
at home. Every woman's first instinC
when she finds that she Is being talke
about is to go somewhere where no on
has ever heard of her. A man may d
the same thing. but II Is infinitely easie
10 know when a man Is wrong. If he ha
been caught cheating at cards In Eng
land. II is moral certainty that he car
not go to n colonial club more than thre
or four times without encountering som
one who knows all about him. Men ira,
lei about more than women, and the go.
Fips of the outlying clubs manage to kee
themselves very well posted about III
happenings in the clubs at hom
An undesirable traveller may sometime
be given the freedom of colonial clu
by a too conhding acquaintance, but I
never lasts long. With women It is
very different matter. AS long as
woman doesn't pretend to be anybody e.
traordinarily smart, II Is by no means
simple a matter to trace her antecedent
and this tends to make people more ca
tious. I knew, too, apart from all the
general principles, that II induced al
one 1 knew In Yokohama to give Mr.
Potwin the freedom of the Bluff, 81
would inevitably flirt with all the m,
and set all the women by the ears. Plat
ly enough IL was the path of wisdom Z
me to let her shift for herself from 4
start
on the whole 1 was not a little reliev
when very respectable young Japane
came out TO us on the health officer
launch and told Mrs. Potwin that he h
been asked by friends In California
do what he could to be of use to her. /
rected by him, she went to the hot
which 1 had selected Tor myself but
did not see her again that night, as
was dining at the club. The next d
she told me that she had made up h
mind TO try the experiment of taking
little Japanese house for a month or tv
and living altogether in the Japane
Il
60 and ask her for a cup of tea when s
had settled herself, and she said that s
would make exception in my fav
although she had resolved to have not
ing to do with the European colony.
no longer had to trouble myself abe
trying to find some one to be kind to h
and for a fortnight I only saw her or
or twice, and then when she was fyi
through the streets In very smart j
rikisha, with two excellent runners.
was amusing myself very well, |
still was pleased when one day / fou
little note from her at the club to
me that she had made her home in G
of the Japanese quarters, halfway
the hill. and asking me to come and
Japanese dinner with her that night.
had travelled enough in the interior
Japan to be quite able to eat native fo
when nothing else was to be had. bu
must have liked Mrs. Potwin very mt
TO have been willing to put up with u
sort of fare I'm Yokohama. At any "a
she did Il all uncommonly well. She