The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1904-11-04

medium height, with curly brown na1r
and a keen searching eye, which gave
one the impression that he was "all
| there"
| At dinner he proved to be the life
of our table and this first meal, which
as a rule is thing to be dreaded,
owing to the suspicious reserve of the
average Britisher on such occasions,
| passed off with much merriment, of
| which Smith was the center. After
| wards in the smoking room, his stories
| kept us spellbound for hours and no
one even proposed cards this first even
| ing.
Never did I see a man so quick at
| making friends as was this cabin mate
| of mine Before we had been out three
days, he knew every male saloon
passenger intimately and called many
by their Christian names. He did not
seem to care much for the society of
| the gentler sex and we all laughed at
his excuse that he was shy. Jim
| Smith shy indeed" We all called him
| Jim Smith by now and some even Jim.
A more openhanded fellow it would
be hard to find and he never seemed
to take offense at the free way in which
his generosity was abused by some OF
the shabbier passengers. He would
bring a whole box of cigars up to the
smoking-room and give them away in
handfuls. While not averse to game
of cards, his chief amusement seemed
to be talking, and when the rest of the
smoking-room habitues were deep in
poker. he would as often as not take
up with one of the quieter passengers
and sit talking, or would walk the
deck with him for hours.
The weather hadsbeen fine so far,
but there are always some people who
are sea-sick however calm it be, and
there were several such on board.
Smith made some excuse about perhaps
knowing some of the invalids to hunt
them up in their cabins, one by one.
There he would stay by the hour, pre-
scribing champagne and generally act
ing the good Samaritan to these ne
elected ones.
The intermediate passengers next
began to enjoy his friendship, and for
a day or two he charmed them as he
had done us. intermediate passen-
gers are usually rather sensitive about
their position and think that the saloon
ones are ''sidey," as there is not
usually much intercourse between the
classes; but here was gentleman
after their own hearts and they well
coined him with enthusiasm. But they
did not please him as much as he did
them and soon he deserted them for
the steerage. I attempted to remon-
strate with him one evening, as We
were going in to dinner and he had
been forward the whole day, but only
got snubbed for my pains. Soon the
sailors were his chums and then the
stokers; he would be down in the
stoke-hole for hours, taking a hand
as he laughingly told me, and certainly
getting very dirty. This was the last
straw and the saloon passengers sent
deputation to the captain, and l
gladly joined it, requesting that Mr..
Smith should not be permitted to enter
the saloon if he should persist in get
ting dirty ford" The captain sent
for the accused, and his very appear
ance condemned him as he emerged
from a companion-way leading from
the stoke-hole and slouched aft, dirty,
addressed and hang-dog looking.
What a change since the first day,
when he had captured us by his charm
of person and conversation! The cap
tain's remonstrance only called forth
an indignant reply to the effect that
the stokers were a better lot of men
than all the rest of us put together.
Nothing remained but for us to put
him Unto Coventry" and this we did
most thoroughly. moved to another
cabin and the seat on either side OF
him at table became vacant. At each
meal he would appear, eat silently and
then at once go ford again. AS if to
complete his descent in the social scale,
he became especially attached to a
down-draft rascal of stoker and the
two were inseparable. One day this
scoundrel refused to carry out some
order and, on his being pressed to do
so, struck the officer on duty with a
shovel. He was at once arrested and
put in irons. Smith was indignant,
but could do nothing, nor could he
get sympathetic ear when he tried to
defend his shady friend.
About the time that the Canadian
coast first came into view a rumor was
started, no one knew by whom, that
this versatile man, this J. A. Smith as
he called himself, might be the muir
derer, who was expected to have es-
capped from Liverpool by one of the
outward bound vessels on the day that
we left. Some one reminded the smoke
room audience that the fellow had
boarded us after the police-off1cer, who
had looked through the ship, had left
on the tender. A large reward had
been offered, so the last papers said, to
anyone who would give information
which would lead to the villains arrest,
and it was interesting to note what a
| run there was on these week-old
| papers. One man-an old Jew-was
seen cutting out the meager description
of the wanted fugitive. Certainly this
description might have been of Smith,
but equally so of half dozen other
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