The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1915-06-03
That Was Why Two Young San
Francisco Boys Made a
Big Success.
INSPIRATION IN DOCK YARDS
Determined to Conquer the Markets
Of the Orient. Rosenerantz and
keegan Accomplished Their
Aim In . Dozen Years.
BY OSBORN MARSHALL.

friendship for Joseph Keegan. They
found each other when they were
schoolboys in San Francisco. and in
spite of difference in race and tradi.
ton they both knew from the start
that they we're kindred spirits. Eigh-
teen years ago they used to wander
down to the docks of the port of the
Golden Gate and as they watched the
incoming steamers rich with their
oriental cargoes or laden with ba-
nanas from Tahiti, they would drink
In the spirit Of adventure and achieve
ment that was waited in with each
breath OF Eea air.
THE very bilge water of those Pa.
cific liners" says Mr.. Keegan, used
to TEEN with romance enough to fire
our boyish imaginations"
It was in these rambles in the dock
yards of San Francisco that Hilliard
Rosencrantz and Joseph Keegan first
decided to learn to speak Chinese.
They had already determined to make
money; they had also determined to
make 1t in some form OF merchandise
AA6s nut uOWn OH the uOChbt
with their lungs expanded to the fresh
Pacific breezes, they decided with one
accord that they would never stoop to
the pettifogging. small dickering and
narrow scheming that they felt would
be necessary to win success without a
cent Of capital in their native land.
They would go out to the unconquered
markets of the East and do things in
a big, magnificent style. They would,
therefore, they decided, learn to
speak Cantonese, the dialect OF Chi
nese trade.
OF course in those days about the
only Americans who learned Chinese
were missionaries. and they didn't
usually attempt to learn 1t till they
reached China The men who traded
with Chinese merchants usually en-
ployed native interpreters, and so
there was little precedent for young
Rosencrantz and Keegah in their new
ambition.
Learned Chinese In Chinatown.
There is one good way to learn
to talk Chinese" Rosencrantz, when
their minds we're made up to study
the language, told his friend, land
that is to get someone in Chinatown
to teach us"
So whenever the two young men
had few hours to spend and a lit
tie ready money in their pockets they
would make an excursion to China
town where, under the tutelage Of a
venerable old Chinaman. they took
their first lessons in Chinese.
Needless to say, Chinese is not an
easy language, although now that Mr..
Rosencrantz has been master of the
language for so many years he Is I'M
able to see why It should be consid-
cred unusually diflcult But the boys
were persistent. When they became
a little proficient in the language they
took advantage of every Chinaman
they met to practice their newIy-ac-
quired method OF expression. One
Chinese laundryman almost dropped
his fiatiron with establishment one
day when the tresh-faced young Amer.
leans began briskly to address him in
his mother tongue
At best this was an uncertain and
slow method. and when the Univer-
sity OF California announced an ex-
tension course in the Cantonese dia.
lect the two aspirants to fiuency in
the Celestial language were delighted
They Joined the class and worked
like Trojans at mastering the puz-
Zles of their task. Other men in the
course were taking II as a hobby or
as a side issue. To Keegan and Rosen.
crantz II was the most important bust
ness in life And between lessons at
the university they haunted China
town in search OF natives with whom
to converse.
In the spring OF 1899. az the end Of
the term, RosencrantE stood head man
in his class, and IN recognition Of his
achievement the resident Chinese
consul OF San Francisco. the august
and honorable Ho Vow. conferred 2
special commendation upon him
Not only had Keegan and Rosen-
crantz learned to speak Chinese; they
had learned IN their intercourse with
the Inhabitants Of Chinatown some
thing quite as important in their fu-
ture work as the language. They had
become familiar with the peculiar
temperament - unfathomable unless
ynu understand it--of the Oriental.
conquerins the Oriental Markets.
Then for a few months the two
men served their apprenticeship In
San Francisco. buying cheap Junk
and selling Il in Chinatown. thereby
Increasing their knowledge OF the
ways Of the Chinese mind and also
accommodating q little capital
Their ultimate obiect-that OF con-
quertHg the markets OF the Orient
was ever before their minds, and be
fore long they were ready to make a
beginning. With their hard-earned
savings they IAie IN = supply Of cheap