The Autobiography of a Super Tramp 13

The Autobiography of a Super Tramp 13

For even in the coffee-house ragged lads set their hungry eyes on

one's meal, and sidle up with the plaintive remark that they will be

thankful for anything that is left. In such cases, who could help but

attend to them at once, before attempting to enjoy his own meal? As

far as my money went I maintained Red and the others, but the day

previous to sailing, there was not one penny left. We were to sail the

following night, but would not be supplied with food until breakfast

time the next morning. When that hour arrived we were all weak from

hunger, not having had food for over forty hours. When the food did

arrive in the forecastle, these hungry men strove for it like wild

beasts, without any system of equal shares.

 

What a monotonous life we now had for thirteen days. No work; nothing

to do but to eat and sleep. And how I had intended to enjoy this part

of the trip! The few hours I had spent in the library, had brought

back my old passion for reading, and, had it not been for the distress

of others, I had now been the happy possessor of some good books. This

was not to be; for I was to lie in my bunk with but one

consolation--that I had sufficient tobacco under seal with the steward

to last me until the end of the voyage. This new experience was a

disappointment, and it was my firm resolve, on returning to Baltimore,

to seek some more remunerative employment, to save, and then to work

my passage back to England in this same way, and go home with my

earnings.

 

We had a rough passage back, the ship being light, with little more

than ballast. One night the vessel made a fearful roll, and the lights

went dark, and we thought every moment that she would turn over. A

coal bunker was smashed by the waves, and large pieces of coal bounded

across the deck with a force that would have broken every bone in a

man's body. Pieces of heavy wood, that would have cut off a man's feet

as clean as a knife, slid across the deck from side to side. We

thought the end had come, especially when we saw an old sailor rush on

deck in his bare feet, his shirt being his only apparel. Sleep was out

of the question for some hours, for we were forced to cling to our

bunks with all our strength, to save ourselves from being thrown out,

when we would be rolled here and there, and soon battered into an

unconscious state.

 

We reached Baltimore on the thirteenth day, and at once made our way

to the cattlemen's office, intending on the morrow to make better

arrangements for the future.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XI

 

A STRANGE CATTLEMAN

 

 

It was now the beginning of October, and the mornings and the evenings

were getting colder. Although Baltimore is a southern town, and was

therefore free from the severe cold of towns further north, it was not

so far south as to make plenty of clothes dispensable. We two,

Australian Red and myself, tramped this city day after day for work,

but without success. There were only two courses left open to us: to

make three or four more trips on cattle boats, until the coming of

spring, when there would probably be work in abundance, or to go

oyster dredging down the Chesapeake Bay, a winter employment that was

open to any able-bodied man in Baltimore, experience not being

necessary. Red soon placed the latter beyond consideration by relating

his own hard experience of the same. First of all the work was very

hard, and of a most dangerous kind; the food was of the worst; and,

worse than all, the pay was of the smallest. A man would often cut his

hands with the shells, which would poison and swell, and render him

helpless for some time to come. "Again," said Red, "a man is not sure

of his money, small as it is. A few years ago," he continued, "it was

a common occurrence for a boat to return and have to report the loss

of a man. These dredgers were never lost on the outward trip, but when

homeward bound, and the most hazardous part of their work was done.

The captain, on coming to shore, would report a man lost, drowned, and

his body unrecovered. This drowned man, being an unknown, no relative

came forward to claim wages from the captain. How the man met his

death was no secret among the dredgers, and they had to keep a wary

eye on their own lives; for a captain would often move the tiller so

suddenly as to knock a man overboard, accidentally, of course. A board

of enquiry looked into these things, and a captain was tried for

murder, and escaped with a sentence of seven years' imprisonment.

There were not so many accidents after this, but they have not

altogether ceased." After hearing this account, I was not very eager

for more practical knowledge of this profession, called dredging, so I

agreed with Red to make three or four more trips as cattlemen, until

the spring of the year made other work easy to be obtained.

 

We returned to the office, where between thirty and forty men were

waiting an opportunity to ship. As I have said before, some of these

men were notorious beggars, and the kind-hearted people of Baltimore

never seemed to tire of giving them charity. One man, called Wee

Scotty, who had been a cattleman for a number of years, begged the

town so much in some of the rather long intervals when he was waiting

a ship, that he could take a stranger with him three times a day for a

month, to be fed by the different good people that were known to him.

He could take up a position on a street corner, and say--"Go to that

house for breakfast; come back to this house for dinner, and yonder

house with the red gate will provide you a good supper." In this way

he kept me going for two weeks when, at last, I was asked to sign

articles to go with cattle to Glasgow.

 

Some days before this, a man came to the office, whose peculiar

behaviour often drew my attention to him. He asked to be allowed to

work his passage to England, and the skipper promised him the first

opportunity, and a sum of ten shillings on landing there. This was the

reason why some of us had to wait so long, because, having made trips

before, more or less, we required payment for our experience. The man

referred to above, had a white clean complexion, and his face seemed

never to have had use for a razor. Although small of body, and not

seeming capable of much manual labour, his vitality of spirits seemed

overflowing every minute of the day. He swaggered more than any man

present, and was continually smoking cigarettes--which he deftly

rolled with his own delicate fingers. In the intervals between

smoking he chewed, squirting the juice in defiance of all laws of

cleanliness. It was not unusual for him to sing a song, and his voice

was of surprising sweetness; not of great power, but the softest voice

I have ever heard from a man, although his aim seemed to make it

appear rough and loud, as though ashamed of its sweetness. It often

occurred to me that this man was playing a part, and that all this

cigarette smoking, chewing tobacco and swaggering, was a mere sham; an

affectation for a purpose. I could not, after much watching,

comprehend. He was free of speech, was always ridiculing others, and

swore like a trooper, yet no man seemed inclined to take advantage of

him. Blackey took him under his protection, laughing and inciting him

to mischief. He was certainly not backward in insulting and

threatening Blackey, which made the latter laugh until the tears came

into his eyes. The men were spellbound at his volubility. He shook

that red rag of his, and a continuous flow of speech ensued, and the

surrounding creatures were mute, but not at all infuriated. His

audacity may have slightly irritated one or two, but no man had the

least idea of inflicting on him corporal punishment. I and Red were

called to the office to sign articles for Glasgow, and, when doing so,

Blackey and this strange new companion of his were signing for

England, the two ships leaving for their destination on the same tide.

We were sorry to lose this man's company, knowing that his tongue

would have gone far to amuse our leisure hours aboard.

 

We had a very pleasant voyage, and this line of boats gave us very

little cause to complain, either of sleeping accommodation or diet,

the officers and ship's crew also being sociable in their dealings

with us. The same thing happened at the end of this voyage, and we

would have suffered the same privation--had it not been for an

accident. On the fourth morning ashore there was not a penny among us,

and the boat would not sail for another two days. Australian Red was

rummaging his pockets and piling before him a large assortment of

miscellaneous articles. "I wouldn't care much," said he, "if I had the

paltry price I paid for this," at the same time throwing on the table

a thick, heavy, white chain. Picking this up, for an indifferent

examination, I became interested, and enquired as to how it came into

his possession. It seemed that a poor fellow had offered to sell Red

the chain for a penny. Red, seeing the man's condition of extreme

want, had given him sixpence, at the same time refusing to accept the

chain. The poor fellow had then persisted that Red should accept it as

a gift. Red, being now filled with his own troubles, wished that he

could dispose of the chain to the same advantage. The chain was,

without doubt, silver, being stamped on every link. "What!" cried Red,

suddenly roused, while the cattlemen in their deep interest moved

forward, making a circle several feet smaller--"What!" he cried,

"silver did you say? Let me see it!" He snatched the chain and,

without looking at it, or putting it in his pocket, rushed out of the

room without another word. In five minutes he returned, and throwing

towards me eight shillings, the value of the chain in pawn, said:

"None of this for drink; keep a tight hand on it for our food supply

until the boat sails." He knew his own weakness. On first coming to

shore I had taken the precaution to buy several books, to make sure of

them, indifferent whether we suffered hunger or no. For this reason I

thoroughly enjoyed the voyage back, and we arrived safely at

Baltimore, having been away a little over five weeks.

 

The first man we met, on entering the cattlemen's office, was Blackey,

who, having made a shorter trip, had returned some days previous.

"What became of your strange friend, Blackey?" I asked. "Did he remain

in England, or return to America?" "Why, haven't you heard about it

all?" asked Blackey; "the English papers were full of the case." "We

have heard nothing," I said, thinking the poor fellow had either been

kicked to death by one of the wild steers, or that he had either

leaped at the waves in a mad fit of suicide, or that the waves had

leaped at him and taken him off. "He worked side by side with me for

eleven days," said Blackey, "and by his singing, laughing and

talking, he made a play of labour. Down in the forecastle at night he

sang songs and, in spite of our limited space, and the rolling of the

ship, he gave many a dance, and ended by falling into his low bunk

exhausted, and laughing still. In all my experience this was the first

time that I was not eager to sight land, and fill myself with English

ale. On the eleventh day out, we were hoisting bales of hay for the

cattle, and he was assisting me in the hold of the vessel. I know not

whether we failed to fasten properly the bales, or whether the

cattlemen on deck blundered when receiving them, but all at once I

heard a shout of--'Look out, below!' and down came a heavy bale,

striking my companion on the shoulder. He spun around once or twice,

and then fell unconscious into my arms. The ship's doctor was at once

called, and the poor fellow was taken aft. Several times a day I made

enquiries about him, and heard that he was out of danger, but needed

rest. I never saw him again. When we landed in England he was not to

be seen, and I thought, perhaps, that he was too ill to be removed

without the assistance of a vehicle. Next day I happened to pick up a

paper, in which was a full and lengthy account of how a woman had

worked her way as a cattleman from the port of Baltimore, making

mention of the ship's name. My companion was that woman, and I never

had the least suspicion," continued Blackey, "although, I will say, that I always thought him a queer man."