The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-14
DRIFTERS FOUND
 IN THE FAR EAS1 Americans Who Wander A.
 Over the Pacific HIGHEST GRADE TRAMPS Many of Them Are Clerks and Short hand Men and All Are Well Be-
 haved-Rove Till They
 Are Satisfied.
HIGHEST GRADE TRAMPS

l scores or the highest grace lrdnlpS In the world on this last trip" said an agent of the department of commerce and la bor, who recently returned from a tour of Japan and China, where he investi- gated market conditions in the interest of American manufactures They're not tramps in the true sense of that word, but just drifters.
 'They are well behaved young Amerl- cans impregnated with the rowing spirit The great majority of them are clean decent, unusually competent fellows who work for god salaries most of the time and who do most of their drifting with money in their pockets.
 "They all settle down sooner or later somewhere in the orient or among the Pacific islands, but not until they've found just about the thing they want Some of them keep up their drifting for as much as twenty years.
 These men are clerks and shorthand men for the most part and a great many of them are from New York city. San Francisco was the starting point of most of them, and Honolulu generally the first jump off the mainland.
 One of them whom I met in Yokoha- ma got sick of his job in New York in 1890. He was then g, and he was sten- ographer in New York steamship office, earning S15 or SIS week. He had a couple of hundred dollars saved and he decided to throw up his place and travel as far west as he could without swim ming.
 That brought him up in San Francisco 1, u,f+lo fo he QOt stenographer's job in the office of Pacific steamship company. Pretty soon he tossed his job in San Francisco and rode down to Honolulu without having anything in sight Two hours after land ing in Honolulu he had a job with the Interisland Steamship company as ship ping clerk at $50 month.
 Went to Samoa.
 '"Ihe work wasn't easy, and after a few * months he went up on the Island of Hawaii and took a job as timekeeper of n big sugar plantation at the same salary. Visiting Honolulu one day the purser of one of the Australian steamers just in tipped him off that big English shipping firm in Apia, Samoa wanted a shipping clerk and a shorthand man in the worst way, and he went down to Samoa on the next Australian steamer headed south.
 He got the job and stuck there for year, picking up, in addition to his $150 q month, quite sjzeable lot of change on the side writing typewrtten letters for other firms in Apia after his regular office hours, which weren't long. From Apia he moved down to Manila by way of Hong Kong, where he went to work for another big shipping firm at $loO month gold.
 He. stuck there for three years, and then tiring of the climate he went back | to Honolulu, where he got his old job | back as tmekeeper. After year or so | of that he went to Papeete. Tahiti. with firm of cochineal and copra shippers. | But Tahiti didn't suit him. and he went to Ceylon on a ship that had put in at l Papeete
 "At Ceylon he got work as bookkeeper | with the main firm engaged In the pearl fishing industry. He hung on to that job l until he'd seen all he cared to see or the Cingalese when he went to Java and got another timekeepers job this time on | coffee plantation. Thence he moved up l to Japan where he went to work as | shipping clerk for one of the big Japan csc art goods firms.
 That's where he stuck. He was clean and clipperish; knew American ways and | methods, and he became so useful to the | Japanese firm after he'd picked up the ability to converse In the Japanese 1an- | guage that they couldn't do without him.
 They took him into the firm, and now he's one of the rich Americans of Yokoha- | ma He returned to New York years ago and married the girl he had had his eye on when he was working as shorthand | youngster around New York, and their home in Yokohama Is worth seeing.
 "Another of the ex-drifters l met in 1 Shanghai This one had been clerk In | Philadelphia insurance office at BIO week, when at the age of 24 he made the break for San Francisco. From there he went to the City of Mexico as clerk In a Mexican railroad office.
 Became Drlfter.
 Prom the City of Mexico he made the l Mexican coast and that settled him for l many years-he became drifter. He | drifted from Manzanillo to Mazatlan, 1 thence to Panama, from there down to Valparaiso, from Valparaiso to Callao, thence the jump by ship to Honolulu, from Honolulu to Kobe in Japan, and from Kobe to Shanghai, where he got in so well with firm of Chinese general shippers that they found they couldn't ! dispense with him when he told them he'd | be on his way
 The only way they could hold him was to give him an interest in the estab- lishment, and they did that. Hes one of the prominent English speaking citizens | of Shanghai now, and l smoked many l a cigar with him at nights in his sumptu- ous library.
 "The curious vacant expression crept l upon his features when the places around the Pacific in which he had lived were | mentioned. and one night l interpreted | that expression to mean that he was lonesome for the old moving around way of living. I charged him with that and he frankly owned up to 1t.
 But said l. nodding around at his beautiful place, one of the most beauti- ful in Shanghai, you wouldn't give all this up for the vagabond life again| | oh. don't suppose I ever shall he replied. pulling away dreamily at his cigar, but I'm blamed if it isn't danger ous for me to watch the ships and steamers heading out to sea. If I don't turn my back on them Pm in trouble.
 These were two of the drifters who had come to the end of their rowing be- cause they had found the thing that suit ed them and held them There had been no chance for them to become beach combers, for they kept away from the drink they nevet started anywhere with fout the price in their pocket and some surplus besides. and. above all they were willing to work and knew how to do a kind of work that, in sober men. is highly valued in the Pacic islands and in the Orient
 "Everywhere, from Honolulu to Hako- | date and from Nagasah to Annoy. l cut tha trails and ran across these drifting