The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-28

the gangways to see there isn't
any sneak-thieving going on; but, if you /
IAN believe it. from the night we left I
San Francisco the boys seem to have ar I
ranged among themselves ITO stand an i
extra watch in the little passageway
where Mrs. Potwin's cabin is, as if they I
we're afraid something might happen to
her We have to do that sort of thing
sometimes, when a passenger has .
touch of jim-jams, but as for it's being
done without any orders, lin sly kind
of way, it's unheard-Of. tell you 7
believe that the whole stewards crew
are so devoted to that woman that If he /.
gave them one order and she gave them
another they would do what she said.
And it isn't only in the saloon either. l
saw her down on the steerage-deck the +
other morning giving cakes to the chill
dren, and all the Japanese down there /
seemed to Abe afraid of her. She has
never been in Japan in her life, and /
don't know what there is about her, but /
they all seem to think that she is some |
sort of high cockalorum l can't make |
head or tail of it,
"Why don't you ask her?" said 1. "She
must have noticed it..
'Of course she's noticed it, said the
purser; land what's more, she takes it as
a matter of course: and more than that,
she expects it. Now I'll tell you another
funny thing. AS / was going on deck
the other morning she was standing at
the head of the companionway; one of
the Japanese boys was speaking to her,
and just as / came up he must have
said something she didn't like, for she
| flashed out with one of those funny little
quick tempers of hers, and said a Japan
csc word to him. 1t was a word I'd
never heard before, but 1 know it was
Japanese. / can't remember now what
| the word was, but / asked my own boy
| hat OIL ga
out saying where / had heard it, and l
| could not get any satisfaction out of
him. He muttered something about not
understanding, and has been looking sui
ky ever since. And the strangest part
of the business is that she can't speak
japanese at all, though she seems to
want to learn. 1 taught her how to say
kudasai and arigato and How do you
do and 'Good-by' and few other little
things like that, and it didn't seem to
come easy to her I've been kicking
myself ever since for having forgotten
that word she said to the boy. / know
| can talk japanese as well as the ordi-
nary foreigner, but I don't know any
word that will knock a cold as
that did,
Surely" said I, .if you think there is
} anything mysterious about all this, which
see ms to me to be a mere series of unim.-
portant condolences, you might ask her.
: You are certainly not afraid of her; on
the contrary you and she are good
] friends, and she couldn't strike you to
the earth by aiming her terrible japanese
: word at you, for you don't know what it
means. I'd ask her that, before anything
else, if 7 We're you
/, The purser put fresh ice in his glass
and then, looking around the room as il
he imagined Mrs. Potwin might be hid
den behind curtain, ready to hurl the
dreadful word, said:
Between you and me, I'm afraid to.
e Afraid said 1; surely that is toe
absurd.
e Don't you he too cocksure of hat,
. rejoined the purser i've been in ia
q pan and China a good deal more thar
you have, and tell you that there arr
= a good many things it's dangerous for {
/. foreigner to NEEDLE with"
e But she is a foreigner herself OBJ
It jected.
n "She is and she isn't said the purser
- 81 believe she's never been to Japan be
t. fore and ] believe she doesn't know
s dozen words of Japanese: but the Jap
I arese don't treat her as foreigner. A
2, far as you and / can she's only
V jolly young grass-widow making a tril
around the world; but you take my wore
r for it there is something out of the ordi
N nary going on. and IHl be mighty gla'
e when she's off the ship
V. But what harm can she dor said ]
= You don't mean to be preposterou
& enough to tell me that she has come O.
ii board to raise mutiny, seize the steamer
r and set up in business as a female pi
he rate?"
o. NO I don't think that" said he, "an
at don't know fbut what l am more afrai
Up of harm coming to her than to anybod
or else on board. The chief steward and
re were talking it over yesterday, and h
IN thinks the reason they all seem to b
Id devoted to her is because they're afrai
pit OF her"
lit Perhaps they think she has the ev
I'D eye" / suggested. Il don't remembe
o. hearing that they have a superstition
ng that sort in Japan, but it may be SO.
G. can't believe you are really afraid
no speak to her about it, although / can III
of derstand that you have an officis
an position on board the ship, you migf
ar feel awkward about it. But / don't
o. the least mind asking her why it is thu
I'M the Japanese boys take much MOI
ne trouble for her that they do for the re:
to of us. 7 remember. now you speak of
en- that 1 have noticed it myself. and I 81
is no reason why 1 should not ask her
k IF you take my tip said the purse
It's Gin the first place, you won't mix you
to self up in the business at all, won't Sd
is- anything about it to her: and, in the Sc
,m ond place, if you do speak to her abo1
ut IL, take mighty good care there isn't OF
do of the Japanese within ear-shot whe
a you do. Whether they are stewards
{ / sailors or anything else, there alwa.
seems to be some one of them who fin,
'or an excuse to have some little job to
M around where she is, whether she is
the saloon deck. They are II
hi lpleasantest people in the world, the Jap
al take them all around, but queer thin'
nd happen someaimes. Aboard one of Il
an other boats of the line they had Frent
be passenger, one trip who had been obi
he ed to leave Nagasaki because he hs
nd maltreated Japanese girl there, III
on one moonlight night when he was lea
we ing over the stern somebody must ha'
a tipped up his heels, for another passe
he ger who had left him standing there
Of few minutes before found him missil
nd when he came back. There was no re
to son to believe that he had commit
DC suicide either"
ms eff there is any danger of that sort
lad store for me I must persuade Mrs. Pc
-ou win to teach me the necromantic wor
SUI and then if one of the enchanted ste,
md ards tries to throw me overheard fro
cry your spellbound steamer / can with
AN him on the spot said I. And now