Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-10
SOME GATHER MOSS

that ancient saw about the rolling stone
gathering no moss is having a good many
dents put into 1t in these move-along-to-
| the-next-cache days." remarked United
States official, stationed in San Francisco.
| who was in Washington recently. I'VE
| see good many rolling stones out my
| way. Thousands of them fit in and out of
San Francisco every year. and you'll never
see one of them who hasn't got the price
| OF good smoke. The hoboes are not the
| only fellows who are on the eternal move.
| The conditions of modern life in this coun-
try have during the past twenty years or
SO developed a large class of confirmed
| wanderers of an infinitely higher type than
the hoboes. They have all of the hobo's
| impatience of any one spot as steady
| abiding place, but, along with that, they've
got brains and education, and. most of all,
| the willingness to work hard when they
| connect with some kind of an outfit where
their work seems worth while. You re-
| member. of course, that Washingtonian
who reorganized the postal system of the
empire of Japan, and became a millionaire?
| Well, he was one of the type of which
| am speaking. He lost his job as a clerk in
| the Post Office Department here owing to a
| change of administrati on-it was before the
! civil service law-and, like most govern
| ment people when they're bounced. he
! didn't have the price of stOgie when he
| was let out. He made his way to San
| 4 TdHCiScO Oh mall cars, got a DllIeI there
| as assistant purser of an oriental steamer
| bound for Japan, and when he got to Japan
| he presented himself to the ministers of the
| mikado and told them that their postal
| system was in rotten shape, and that he
| really wouldn't be answerable for the con-
| sequences If they failed to employ him to
| reorganize the Japanese postal system on
| the American pattern. His dazzling nerve
| won out. and they turned the job over to
him. He had the head, knew the postal
| business from top to bottom, and inside of
very few years Japan had as fine postal
system as any in the world, and the rolling
stone who started it a-gOing had moss to
! burn.
"a few weeks ago I took ride around
| San Francisco harbor and down to the Far
| allones and back the beautiful steam
| yacht Of a natural-born rolling stone who
has so much moss that he'll never be able
! to spend 1t, and he's a pretty spectacular
| spender at that. Less that ten years ago
| he was scratching out SIS week as ste
nographer and typewriter in a Chicago real
| estate office He didn't see any future in
| that. and he got his rolling clothes on.
He shorthanded 1t in Denver for a while
| and then he got somebody to grub-Stake
him and went a-hunting for pay dirt in the
Colorado mountains for a while. Not
! spr1nging any of the right kind of rocks.
| he passed that up at the end Of six months
and hiked for San Francisco. where he
pounded typewriter long enough to save
| up a few hundreds that he needed to push
him along on little tour down the line.
He then went to the west coast of Mexico
/ and checked off coffee sacks as a shipping
clerk for a few months, when he moved
along to Central America and South Amer
| lea, picking up a job here and there to keep
| him a-going and maintain his front He
| rolled around down there in the low lati-
| tudes for about three years and then he
| got his idea. He made little list of all
| the big towns that he'd struck that i'm
peratively needed ice-manufacturing and
afci,r +;,rr
| relrigeratlng plants. got concessions of
| land from each place for the building of
| such plants and then raced up to the San
| francisco capitalists with his scheme and
| with his concessions all in black and white
| wen, at the present time that fellow has
| got chain of ice plants all the way from
Mazatlan, ON the west, to Montevideo on
| the east. and, in addition, he's now en-
gagged in starting department stores on the
American plan in about thirty of the most
important cities of Central and South
America. Already he's one of the mossfest
| rocks of his age in San Francisco, where he
| spends his time during the rainy seasons
down near the line, and he diverts himself
by trying to figure on how much he would
De worth today had he stuck to his type
Wrlter-Whacking job in the Chicago prairie
lot office instead of becoming a roller
Every couple of years or SO there drons
mo .odh francisco, in pretty sumptuous
state on his way to New York and Europe,
peachy-skinned young millionaire man
OF thlrty-five or So who. fifteen wears ago
was working as delivery clerk for a fam
Gus New York Japanese emporium His
job netted him $12 week, and as the nlant
Tor which he worked was Differed from top
to bottom with relatives. young and old of
members of the firm. he didn't see where
he was ever going to get his name daubed
! before the & Co.. sign out in front He
knew a lot about Japanese goods but he
was sick of that stuff when he passed up
| his Job. and he didn't have anything more
| to do with Japanese truck for a number of
fhGly
a clerical billet with an Australian steam
| ship company in San Francisco, was pro-
NOTED from that to a pursership on one of
! the liners. quit that and settled in Mel
| bourne as restaurant-keeper for a year or
| so, passed that along then and went to
Ceylon, where he snagged billet as over
| seer and timekeeper of a bunch of native
| pearl divers, gave that up and went to
| Tahiti. where for six months or so he
! bought UP cochineal options and picked up
few yen. and then. after all that rolling
around. he pulled up in Japan as super
cargo of a tramp steamer.
''In Japan his knowledge of the American
market for Japanese goods was one of his
| big assets. and one of the biggest firms in
| the mikado's land took a-hold of him and
made him It's distributing agent at a salary
| of Is 900 yen n year.
HE stayed with this firm long enough
| to give him plenty of look-around opportun-
| tiles. Then he quietly skated around among
| the Japanese potteries where the finest
work was turned out. well as among
the manufacturers in the interior towns of
all sorts of art products and submitted adj
vanta geous terms to them if they would
agree to give him option their entire
product He was persuasive and an oily
boy. and he got away with these PROPOSE
lions. hiked to San Francisco and organized
company of his own on the strength of
his options. and ever since then he's been
doing about any old thing he's wanted to do
with the annual output of funny ware in
the Japanese empire. When the big New
York firm for which he used to work
delivery clerk at So per wants anything
particularly nice for its stock. it now has
to dicker for 1t with the firm of which the
former delivery clerk is the head, and on
his b-yearly trips to New York and Eu-
rope-he lives in YOkohama-he keeps a
going and completes the tour of the globe,
with outfit of Jap Wallets and cooks and
other obedient dog-robberS in his train.
He's another who has rugged himself up
with moss a-plenty since he took it into
his head to ioin the rollers"
H.