Adrift in America

Contents

PilfTO

CriArxEii I. — My New Departure - ... 5

,, II. — Winter ox Maple River - - . . 31

CHAPTER I. My New Departure

I WAS not yet sixteen when I went to sea as an apprentice in the ship SouJcar, 1,304 tons, belonging to Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Company. During my four years' apprenticeship I was three times at Port Lyttelton, Christchurch, New Zealand, once in Melbourne, thence with coal to Anja Point, Java, which was afterwards destroyed by the great Krakatoa volcanic explosion. We received orders there for Rangoon, and at that port loaded rice for Europe. Leaving England again I went to Port Lyttelton once more, thence to Geelong, and being then out of my time I served as A.B. on the passage home.

My next voyage was in the barque Bebington, belonging to the same firm, as second mate. We went to Melbourne, thence to Timaru for orders, which sent us to Valparaiso, again for orders, wliicli were now finally for Aiitofogasta, to load saltpetre. Thence we sailed for Queenstown and Hamburg, where I left the Bthington.

It was on returning home that my real adventures began, for though I saw enough hard weather and did a great deal of hard work in that five years, it was after all nothing more than comes in the course of learning his profession to every young seaman. And to tell the truth, I was pretty tired of the sea. It did not take me long as a youngster to learn to discount the romance of it, which lies chiefly either in ignorant imagination, or in the memory of some old salt who has forgotten the tough salt horse and weevilly biscuit to remember that ho was then young and strong and able to enjoy himself when he got a rare chance. And apart from all romance there did not seem to be very much in the business. It was not only monotonous but poorly paid. So that is the reason why I made up my mind to go to America and see what could be done there. And if I did not succeed in niakin<r money, at any rate I had a very varied time and learnt something of the inside of a country.

When I landed in New York after a rather rough passage across the Atlantic I was in very good spirits, and thought I was going to do big things, though I had a very indistinct idea of how the big things were to be done. As a start, in company with a man called Mathews, who was on board the steamer in which I crossed the Atlantic, I went out to South Bend in the State of Indiana, where Mathews had a brother who owned a farm of three hundred acres.

Mathews' brother was buikling a barn that spring, and he was kind enough to give me a job " tending mason," or, as we shouki call it in England, mixing mortar and carrying a hod. It certainly staggered me a bit at first, but as nobody there seemed to think that there was anything infra diy. about it, I very soon came to look on it in the same way, and, with the rest of the people about there, to consider myself just as good as the President, even if I was not quite so clever. This job lasted about a month, after Vvdiich Mathews engaged me as a farm hand for the rest of the summer at $15 a month, and I might have stayed there some time if I had been religious enough, or enough of a humbug to make people believe that I was, but being neither the one or the other, I soon got myself into bad odour and had to shift ; for some of my actions and some of my yarns rather startled the saints about that part of the country, and consequently I got the cold shoulder right and left — no one would speak to me, and I was shunned as if I had the plague. One of my offences was that when I had occasion to speak of anybody's lower limbs, I called them legs, whereas the sanctified prudes about there always called them ilinhs. They considered lea's indelicate I wa,s told, but if all was

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true that I heard I fancy that there were some of the most disgusting hypocrites abont that neighbourhood it lias ever been my misfortune to come in contact with.

I never did anything on purpose to iiTitate these people, but nothing I could do was right, and I was continually running against some snag in the shape of an unwritten law which made things uncomfortable for me. On one occasion I had accepted the invitation of two men (who were considered by the religious part of the community to be two old reprobates) to drive out to a place called Lakeville one Sunday and go fishing. Now fishing of itself was not considered to bo a very objectionable practice, but the man who indulged in the sport on Sunday was considered as lost to all sense of moral responsibility, and to be, at least until such time as he had repented in sackcloth and ashes, on the high road to destruction. The old fellows, both of whom were what I should call very decent squaredealiug men, were quite diff'erent from each other both in appearance and disposition, one being fat and very fond of sitting down in a comfortable place under a shady tree where he would put his line in the water and sit for hours smoking and blinking, quite content if he never got a bite, just so long as nothing happened to make him exert himself, while the other was a thin, wiry, energetic kind of man who was everywhere and at everything, continually on the move, and would not stay more than a few minutes in one place unless lie was catcliing fish or getting bites.

We went from Maple Grove to Lakeville in a conveyance that is called in the States a buck-board. On the way there a big rattlesnake came out of the fence at one side of the road and wriggling across our path got in amongst a pile of stones at the other side. Now in any country where snakes are plentiful most people are very anxious to kill as many of them as they can, not with any idea of lessening their number but from a feeling of hostility towards the whole race.

On seeing this particular snake we at once pulled up and the thin man, whose name was O'Brien, at once got down, and breaking a stick from some bushes that grew by the roadside, proceeded to try and dislodge him from his hiding-place in the pile of stones. However, the snake had either gone right through and out the other side, or at least would not come out again if he was still in there. This caused some delay, at which the other man, who had kept his seat in the buck-board, began to get fidgety, and I saw that he made two or three starts to say something but stopped himself. At length, losing patience, he said : " Now look here, O'Brien, what is it going to be, air we going a fishing, or air we going a snaking, because I want to know."

As we could not dislodge the snake we gave it up as a bad job and proceeded on our way. We had

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a very pleasant day, for wliicli I got black looks for a week after. One of tlie men who took it upon himself to reprove me for what he called Sabbath-breaking, had said in my hearing, Avhen told that his pigs were in a neighbour's clover field, " Oh, yes, I know they are, but I guess they are doing pretty well, and I believe I will let them stay there."

There is a kind of amusement in the backwoods known as a platform dance, and it was attending one of these affairs which finally put the '* kibosh " on me as a possible member of Indiana backwoods society. A piece of land is cleared for this kind of dance out in the woods, and a raised dancing floor of boards is erected there. There is no roof over it, and, if by bad luck, it happens to rain, the festivities come suddenly to an end. The illuminations consist of candles in transparent Chinese lanterns, and the scene is often enough very pretty with a background of dark forest and the sky overhead. Some of the boys belonging to a neighbouring farm asked me to go to one, and as I thought it would be a change, I went. The company were mostly young people, though there was a sprinkling of older folks, and the dancing was of a very rough kind, mostly square dances for whicb the figures were called out by a man specially told off' for the purpose. But no one in particular was " boss " of the entertainment, which was evidently run on the democratic principle of equal

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rights for every one. Every man brought a girl and many of them whiskey as well. Things went on very nicely until late at night, when most of the whiskey had been consumed, and one man Avanted to dance Avith someone else's partner. This resulted in a fight and the combatants rolled off the platform. Some of their friends could not see a row without joining in, and with an accompaniment of yelling and screaming from the women, about half the crowd went to Avork fighting. Presently res^olvers AA^ere drawn and a few shots fired, fortunately without hurting anybody, and this time the roAA^ ended without a coroner's inquest. Such entertainments do not ahvays end so. The more sober ones of the party finally got the upper hand, and the drunken men Avere deprived of their Aveapous. We then thought it about time to go home. And it did not improve my character to have gone there.

One morning Mathews, Avho was a very good sort of a fellow — though as he had married into the respectable part of the community, he had to ho like them — told me that he would pay me Avhat he OAved me, and that it would be best for me to clear out of that part of the country, as they had all come to the conclusion that I was not a fit person to associate Avith. I had been obserA'ed to chew tobacco, and it was also said that I had been seen coming out of a saloon one day that I was in town, both of Avhich ofiences Avere, as I now found out, quite enough to stamp mc as a bad man in that ultra-sanctified communitj^, even if I had not gone fishinor or dancing.

So pocketing Mathews' dollars and shaking the dust of Maple Grove from my feet, T proceeded on ehginks's marc to South Bend, whither Mathews promised to send my baggage the next day.

It was in the month of August, and in Indiana the harvest was over or nearly so, Avith the exception of the corn, which is not picked till the first frost, so there was not much doing in the country and I did not care to stay in town, although I could have got work if I had wished for it. In fact I did get it in the Studcbaker waggon works, but two days of such labour in a close room was enough for me, so I left my check on the board the second night and gave up working in a factory.

Where to go next was the question, and it was settled for me by Mathews' brother-in-law advising me to go to Dakota Territory, a place he described in very glowing colours. I have since thought that he was anxious to get me as far away as possible so that I should not come back in a hurry. However that may have been, the advice to go West was very acceptable to me, as it happened to fall in with my own wishes and ideas. So packing my baggage and paying my board bill, I went down to the depot (railway station) and took a ticket for Fargo, which was then the largest city in Dakota. It was dark soon after we left South Bend, and some time about midnight I was landed at Chicago, in the Chicago and North- Western Railway depot, to find that the train that I ought to have caught there had left, so I had to wait till twelve o'clock next day. My baggage being checked through to Fargo, I had no bother about that at the railway depot.

I was very much struck with the comfort and convenience of the waiting rooms, which were supplied with beautiful rocking-chairs that made a tired man feel rested to look at. As money was not very plentiful with me at that time, I took postiession of one of these, and slept there for the rest of the night, by that means saving hotel expenses.

In the morning I took a look round the city ; of course I did not see much of the place, but what I did see gave me the impression that it was not a very beautiful city, though no doubt a very busy and prosperous one. It was here that I first saw cable cars in operation. The cables, of course, being out of sight, I was very much puzzled to make out what it was that was propelling the cars ; at first I thought they were electric-motor cars, but I did not like to expose my ignorance to the public by asking any questions, so it was some time before 1 found out.

Down by the lake shore, the wharfs, at which were lying large numbers of schooners and also a good many large steamships, some of them apparently of as m.uch as two and three thousand tons register, present the appearance of a seaport. This part of the city also has the same appearance as a corresponding* part of any large seaport would have. The suits of oilskins and bundles of slop clothes, together with the strings of tin pots and plates that are seen hanging outside of dingy shops, which are presided over by greasy and persuasive-tongued Jews, give the place a regular briny look, and if I had not known that it was a thousand miles away from it, I might have fancied Lake Michigan a part of the real ocean.

However, I had not much time to gaze at anything, but had to hurry ])ack to the depot to catch my train. The scenery for the next part of my journey, viz., that part of it that lay through Illinois and "Wisconsin, was not very striking, it being through dark forests of pine, hemlock, and spruce, in which the view was bounded by the line of trees on either side of the railway track ; or, over open rolling prairies that were either under cultivation or covered with flocks and herds, and thickly dotted with homesteads, all of which looked very much the same. Sometimes, when the carriage was clear enough to do so, I lay down and slept. As we got up into Minnesota the country was more broken, and there were some very pretty lake scenes, this State being particularly remarkable for its lakes, though my route at this time did not take me through what may be called the lake district, which is in the north-eastern part of the State, where Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, is situated. The nearest I ever was to this lake was when I was at Fargo, which is about 80 miles nearly west from it. It was early on Sunday morning when 1 arrived at St, Paul and found that I could not get a train on to Fargo till that night. As 1 was hungry and dusty and tired, I went on to an hotel and had a wash, some breakfast, and went to bed. But, somehow or other, I could not sleep, and was just thinking of getting up when I was startled by cries of fire. Jumping out of bed, I hastily donned some indispensable articles of clothing, and tucking the rest under my arm, and taking my boots in my hand, I bolted out of my room and ran downstairs. I had not gone far when I was met by a surging crowd of men, who were rushing to their rooms to rescue such property as they had left there, and they jostled me about and trod on my bare feet till I was glad to run into a room that I saw open and put my boots on. Thus equipped I managed to fight my way out into the street, where several fire engines were on hand ready for action. No one could see any fire or smoke, and it soon transpired that it was to some extent a false alarm. A gasoline cooking stove had exploded, but beyond scorching some of the cooks and spoiling a large quantity of food, no particular harm had been done. So after swearing for awhile over my sore toes, I went up to my room again and, dressing myself, I went out to see the city, for after that sleep was impossible.

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The view of the Mississippi from the bluffs on which the upper part of the town stands is very fine ; in fact, I tliink it is as fine a view as can be got on any part of the upper river. I do not remember anything else about the place that particularly impressed me, so I suppose there was not anything very striking to be seen, as I should have been sure to have noticed it if there liad been.

As it was getting on towards evening, a large steamboat, a regular Mississippi steamboat, came to the landing, and as it was the largest boat that ran on the upper river, which is that part of it which is to the north of St. Louis, where it is joined by the Missouri, there was a large crowd down there to see it come in.

This was the first time that I ever saw a real Mississippi river boat, and it was a sight worth seeing ; they are really very fine boats, splendidly fitted up, and very comfortable.

As I was standing looking at the crowd of nigger roustabouts discharging the cargo, a rather welldressed and gentlemanly young fellow came up to me, and, saying " Good evening ! " asked me if I had seen a boat like that before. I told him that it was the first time that I had ever seen either that river or a boat of that class. After some more conversation, he, according to the most approved transatlantic style, began to question me as to where T came from, where I was going to, and Avho

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I was, and various otlier things that seemed to have a great interest for him. He then asked mo if I had any job to go to at Fargo, and when I told him no, I was just going up there on " spec," he asked mo if I could drive horses, and I replied that I could.

" Look hero, old man," said he, " I have got a job that will just suit you. I have a Inrge general store in Fargo, and I want a man to drive a delivery wagg'on, and I think you would just suit me. There will not be much work to do, and I pay $40 a month and board. If you like to havo the job, you can."

I thanked him for his offer, and accepted it at once. Now, although I was fresh in that country, I had quite enough experience of the ways of the world to be suspicious of a man's motives when he began to get too kind. So, as we walked up the street towards the ''Planters' Hotel," where he said he was staying, I was waiting for him to come out with what he wanted. But he said nothing till we got up toithe hotel, when he went into the office, and spoke a few words to the clerk. Then comingout to me, he said : " I have a large sum of money in the safe, but the proprietor is out, and has got the key with him. I have to pay the freight on some goods 1 am shipping to Fargo, and am short of $50; just lend it me, will you, and I can give it you back in the morning ? " This was just the kind of request I had been expecting all along. So

I replied tliat I had no doubt of liis honesty, but that I did not make a practice of lending money to perfect strangers. Whereon he said, " Oh ! just as you please. I have no doubt T can get it from someone else." However, when he saw I was not quite such a hay-seed as he had taken me for, he sheered off, and I saw him no more.

It was now time to go down to the depot, where I accordingly went, and found the train that was to take me on to Fargo was nearly ready to " pull out," as the phrase goes in America ; so getting my valise from the office, I jumped aboard, and made myself as comfortable as I could for the night. This part of my journey was done on the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba line, but what the country was like I could not say, as it was dark up to a few miles before we arrived at Fargo, We stopped for breakfast at a place called Moorhead. The line here crosses the Red River of the North. It is this river that gives the name to that district known as the Red River Yalley, although I never saw anything resembling a valley in this perfectly flat country.

A more uninteresting and thoroughly ugly town I never saw than Fargo as it appeared when I first saw it. It was, bke most other western cities, of mushroom growth. There were one or two large wooden structures which they called hotels, and a large number of second and third-rate boarding-houses, also called hotels. At one of these, the

*' Park House," I put np, for T liad no great amount of money, and wished to save it as miicli as I could till I could get something to do. I soon found that there was plenty of work to be got of a rough kind at fairly good wages ; in fact, the supply of labour for the time being was not up to the demand, and so, of course, the labouring men were pretty independent. Everybody that had land there was anxious to get his thrashing done, and would give almost any wages to get men to go to work. It was not long before I was asked to go out and make one of a thrashing crew, but I said I had never done any of that kind of work, and did not know if I could manage it.

" Never mind," said the man, " you will make one, and we will find you something you can do. All I want is a man who will try to do what he is told." So as he was so anxious to get me, I agreed to go with him. It was to be $2 50c. a day, and board and constant work till the snow flew, if I liked to stay. The man who engaged me was in town expressly to get men, as some of his crew had left, and, as he termed it, " stuck him up," so he could not do a " darned thing " till he got some more to go out. He wanted four men, but could not get them, myself and one other being all he could find.

It was now about 12 o'clock in the day, and he wanted to get out to the farm that night in order to make a start in the morning, So going up to

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the house, 1 rolled a f^w things I wanted in a blanket, and giving the rest in charge of the boss of the house, I was ready for the road. When the waggon came along I jumped in, and we started off for the scene of our labours, which was about 10 miles out of Fargo. Anything more dull, dreary, and desolate-looking I can scarcely imagine than the country through which we passed on this journey. The prairie was flat as a dish, and as far as the eye could reach in every direction there was nothing but stubble to be seen, blotched here and there with black patches where piles of straw had been burnt. We passed two or three frame-houses that sprang up out of the stubble, without a tree or shrub or even as much as a fence round them ; but instead of enlivening the landscape, they seemed only to make it look more dreary ; for, weathercracked for the want of paint, with their staring curtainless windows, they looked like so many skulls stuck about on the prairie.

The waggon was heavily loaded and our progress was slow, and as there was nothing to be seen of any interest, and the others of the party were engaged with their own thoughts, and kept silent, the whole thing had such a depressing effect on my spirits that I felt very miserable.

HoAvever, after about five hours of slow crawling, we at last arrived in front of a large bare frame, house which was the counterpart of those I had already seen, and our journey was at an end.

The boss jumped down and began unhitcbing the horses, while some men that were about the place gave a hand to unload the waggon and carry the goods into the house.

I was told that there would be nothing for me to do that night, but that supper would be ready in a minute or two. I looked round to see if there was anything to wash at, but could not see anything of the kind about, so I inquired of one of the other men if there was any place where I could wasb my face and hands. He looked at me and seemed rather surprised at my asking, and then drawled out, "Tou ain't dirty, I ain't washed this three days, I ain't got a towel of my own and they don't supply any here ; but if you want to wash, there is a broken camp oven there, and there is some water in that cask (pointing out a barrel that stood at the side of the house), but if you ain't got soap of your own you won't get any here,"

However, I had soap and a towel, so securing the broken camp oven and getting some water in it, I managed to wash. I had just finished when one of the men came out beating a tin plate and singing out " grub pile," whicb I was given to understand was the signal for supper. The whole crowd bolted into the house as if they had not had anything to eat for a week. The reason tor this hurry, I soon found out, was that there was not room to seat everybody at once, so that two or three had to wait till someone else had finished, and then take his place. The consequence of this arrangement was that those that got left in the first rush generally carae in for short commons, for if there was anything particularly nice on the table, that was gorged at once by the first crowds and no one else ever got a show at it. Not being used to the place, and consequently not up to the move, I got left, and had to make my supper on bread and molasses and weak tea. Not being very hungry I did not care much about that, but one of the other fellows who got left was in a great state of mind about it, growling and cursing all the while he stigmatised the more fortunate part of the gang as a " lot of durned hogs " who were not fit to bo amongst respectable people, by which I suppose he meant himself, although I soon found out ho was a most outrageous glutton besides being a regular uncultivated savage in every other respect.

Supper being over, I made inquiries as to where we should sleep, and the man that had steered me up against the washing outfit, now informed me that it was not customary to provide any sleeping accommodation for a thrashing crcAV ; " so " said he, " you must sleep where you can when you are on this kind of a racket, but this place is not bad, for there is room for all that are here to sleep in the stable, where there is plenty of good hay. At some places you have to hunt a roost in the straw stack, and if there comes any rain you are in a bad fix if there are not any waggon tilts on the place." On receiving this information I at once went for the structure that did duty for stable and general outhousCj determined not to get left on the sleeping part of the job as I had been on the supper.