New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-02-28


had been seen before, until the KlOndike gold
craze broke out. The goldbug, dating back &c
his Korean experience still was IN his system
and he was one of the first to get into the
Klondike country. That settled his drifting
He got rich in the klOndike-
Drifting to the End
A ND so on. One could tabulate list as
long as ones arm of more OF less success
full Drifters. Not many of them, of course
achieve such success as those whose stories are
given The majority of them, IN truth, KEEP
right on drifting until the end. Some of them
attain a more than moderate success after
many years of wandering.
In Australia at the present time there IS q
middle aged American, man of fine educa-
ton and address, who has picked up quite a
stable competency by giving readings from
Bret Harte to the Australians. This American
Drifter in Pacific waters, working always
as shipping clerk hither and yon. until, pull
ing up for a period of conventional life III Mel
bourne, he discovered how exceedingly fond
the Australians, in common with all folks OF
English origin, are of the stories of Bret Harte,
the mellow California storyteller of another
day So he decided that he would give read
ings from Bret Harte. He had fine presence.
a good voice, and he perfectly understood the
spirit that breatheS through the Harte tales.
He was a success at his new line OF work from
the start. He became the Harte exponent and
reader for the continent of Australia, thereby
becoming at the same time an ex-Drifter.
EVERYWHERE in PacitiC-laved lands you'll
find our Drifters, and it IS not often, either,
that you will find occasion to feel ashamed of
one of them There are American dentists
a plenty who pull and plug the teeth of the
duSky and yellow peoples of the Pacific "on
the wing" as 1t were, and thrive at 1t. Amer
preStidigitators profitably practise their
magic in strange isolated places where even
the kindergarten tricks of the magician are
deemed miraculous and few of these men ever
return to the United States until they feel
that they are about ready to die.
There are even drifting American physicians
and surgeons who do well at the business OF
dropping periodically into out-of-the-way ports
and fixing up the ailments of sick and manned
natives. Cable operators are great Drlfters
The constant extension of the cable business
makes 1t a comparatively easy matter for them
to get work at the cable ports. and SO they keep
on the move. Men who are sent from this cOun-
try TO definite points in the Pacific to assist II.
establishing American ice manufacturing plants
or brewerieS or to help in surveying and build
ing railroads, take TO drifting from sheer love
of it, after the tasks for which they left the
United States are finished.
A careless, careful lot, the DrifterS This
may sound paradoxical. but it isn't; for,
while they're middhng careless to where
they're going next, they're pretty careful as to
how they are going to get there, and also as to
what they are going to do after they arrive.
Not all of these roamers of the Pacific gather
moss; but enough Of them do to make
adage about the nonaccumulative propensity
IS . s