The San Francisco call., 1906-10-07

front, unfolded this tale TO me.
IT was on sunday afternoon
in his suburban home. There was sigh
ing Of summer breezes in the trees
flowers and vegetables in the garden,
hens cackIng in the yard; 1 believe
there was also a horse and COW. but
they did not make their presence
known. We had been discussing the
charm of the pastoral life in contrast
10 the noise and Crime Of the city l
lad seen. cJsrios galore, and had listen
cd to my host reciting poetry in various
languages. some of 1t Of his own com
position. i had been obliged to admit
my. fgnorance. Of Spanish. but had some
what redeemed myself by my knowl-
edge of Scandinavian. Still this was
not exactly what I came for. had
headed of numerous excursions into
the field Of religion and philosophy. /
had crushed by sheer weight Of dull
ness dissertation on the Bering Sea
question. Not that all this was not in
terestiug. 1t was. Stil poetry, philo-
sophy and international Jurisprudence
are subjects that anybody may dabble
il. though perhaps. not with native
intelligence. the pithiness Of thought
and language shown by this water
front shark I wanted to hear him
tell the story Of his achievements from
his own point of view. 1t is always so
easy to get the Ol.4er fellows point OF
v.ew I had listened to my host dilat-
ing on the wonderful little grandson
who is the apple OF mis- eye, and had
heard his faithful servant getting or
ders about some poor cripple, support
ed for years by this same shark.
How TO reconcile this with certain
other practices-but then l have long
since abandoned any attempt to work
things down TO a logical basis. Life
does not come in chunks Of gOodnes or
badness, but in such perpleXing mix
tIres.
At last the old man reached the point;
If you offered me $500 TO shanghai
a man. I don't see how / could do ii,
and If ! can't do it, no one else can.
Without any boasting or eXaggera-
tion, can say that there IS not a man
in san Francisco who can beat me al
my own trade. What ! can't do with
a sailor no one else can If it was
only 10 drug them and drag them OF
board, any fool could do that but l tel
YOU il takes mighty smart man tc
reduced il to science.
Sow do 7 do it, Well, L don't care
II I tell you. just so you don't put
my name in the paper I don't crave
any newspaper notoriety. Some peo-
pie don't want to be put in the papers
because they don't want the world tC
know how great and good they are
but ] don't want the world to know
how mean / have been
I hypnotize them And then I know
something about them. 1 have
weapon that very few boarding-mas-
ters have, because l have been to see
myself and know how sailor reasons
When I stand on a street corner anC
look al the passing throng, I can tel
q sailor at once. How do I know
How many times do have to tell yol
that when a man has been in a bust
ness almost half a century he learn:
something. I know he is a sailor, an(
usually ] know his nationality. TheI
7 speak TO him in his own language
I can speak Spanish. Italian, Portu
guese. French, German, Flemish, Rus
sian and Scandinavian. He is willing
enough to leave his ship usually H
most always has some grievance, anS
thinks anything good for change
aEhen I have got him to take hit
clothes from the vessel, and he is IL
nay boarding. house, then I have hin
landed. If ] am hiring sailors for /;
ship going 70 China, ] make him be