The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-10-14
Nerve Is The City Job
Seekers StaunCh Ally

llish? l had about given up the an
swer when a book store sign caught
my eye. l went in and backed the
clerk into a corner.
Say, says !, when a fellow like
me has to translate French words and
don't know any French, what does he
do?
He don't said the clerk
But this amt no joke, said I.
You see l got a job today to trans
late the dinner cards for a hotel and
what l want is to find some book or
something about French talk
"A French dictionary said he.
But he adds, did you say all You
have to translate is just menu cards?
That's all, mister
GIVE got just the thing for you.
Here's a book with glossary of all
the French menu words. You can
look EN- up in here easy
Il bought the book and went back
to my room. l sat down with that
! French book and the menu card and
l worked at them all night. l didn't
get a wink of sleep, but l did get that
| Internal menu translated There may
have been a mistake or two-maybe
somebody was surprised and disap-
pointed by what he got when he or
dered from my English version. But
it was right enough to get by without
whimper from the chef or the boss.
81 kept staying up of nights and
working at my edible French words.
1t was tough pull but kept at it
and towards the end of the week
things began to go easier. In about
ten days l could transform a French
table dhote into an English dinner
You can't get the whole French Ian
guage into few menus, so l didn't
have so much to learn after all. Any
little breaks l made at first were put
down to my trouble in reading the
chefs writing and no one ever guess
ed that l hadn't a word of French
when l came into the hotel that first
day
Hard Study Brings Results.
"My other duties being in plain Eng
lish came more easily. | had to be on
duty at meal times to check out the
walters. But there was nothing about
it at all except the French study that
called for any brain work. In addi-
ton to my wages l drew a free room,
free cigars, and free this and that I'M
til my weekly takings amounted to at
least $40. l certainly had cashed in
my nerve for all it was worth. No
one guessed what a kid l was and
could have stayed on, l guess, as long
as l liked
But l soon saw was not doing my
self any good. l was taking in money,
but l had got in with a crowd of
spenders around the hotel and didn't
have a cent of my pay left at the end
of the week. Worse than that, what |
I was doing was purely mechanical. I
wasn't learning anything. So l decid- !
ed to quit.
81 went to work at one of the lead !
ing restaurants for 50 a week. Quite |
a come down, wasn't it? But here |
started in right to learn the business. |
l kept at it hard and when the prOpri- !
etor opened a New York hotel he took
me with him. | stayed with him till
l had saved $4,000. Then l came
back home and started in the restaur
ant business for myself.
Failure Not His Fault.
But here l failed. 1t was not alto
gether my fault, some friends on
whom l relied put me in position !
where | couldn't do a thing but drop. |
They took everything l had, the credi-
tors, except one little old counter. My |
wife was sick in the hospital at the |
time. They closed me out of my house |
and took everything | had except the
bum counter. But that was worth
81 still had my nerve, the creditors
couldn't get at that. So l rented a
little corner up near the depot and
put in a lunch counter That little
place was a winner ! made money
hand over fist. Now I have two res
taurants and feel myself secure from
any further accidents with the credi-
tors.
Nerve has always paid me. l only
failed once, and then it was some one
elses lack of nerve that let me fall
through"
BREAKS WRIST KILLING FLY.
LOGANSPORT, Ind, Sept. 26.-In
I