F. W. Grey

“ I do not mean, of course, a man who has a finished education and could enter one of the professions, but I mean for a lad who comes of good family, who has failed for the army or navy, who is not studious, but who is not necessarily an idiot. Such a lad gets ideas in an English public school—at least, it was so in my school—both from the masters and from his comrades, that when he grows up there are only a few things a gentleman can do and not lose caste. ”

“ As a workman the Mexican is surprisingly good, considering the poor food they are able to buy with the small wages they get. They have not much initiative, but can be taught to do almost anything and do it well. A few years ago American mechanics could command almost any salary in Mexico, but now Mexicans can do for themselves, and Americans would starve on the salary. When I arrived I had not one single man who had ever seen asphalt laid before, or knew anything about a plant. ”

“ The rope grows taut along the steer’s flank, his head is jerked round, and down he goes. Meanwhile the puncher, as his pony stops, drops off and reaches the steer almost as it hits the ground, with his tie-rope in his hands; and while the steer lies for an instant half-stunned, he deftly makes a hitch over three legs with what is known as a hog-knot, jumps to his feet, and throws up his hands as a sign that he is through. The pony, without rider, can be depended upon to keep the steer down by constantly side-stepping to keep the rope taut if the steer attempts to rise. ”

“ These guards were a queer conglomeration, and had the greatest assortment of weapons I ever saw—from the 32-calibre bulldog to the 45-calibre frontier sixshooter with its 7-inch barrel, from the sawed-off double-barrelled shot-gun to the latest thing in pump-guns. Most of the men were college students out for excitement, and glad to earn something at the same time during the long vacation; but there was a sprinkling of Western gun-men amongst them. ”

“ Chicago, however, is not like London, where you can find so many places to see and amuse yourself without cost. Excepting the parks one has to pay to go anywhere, either to the museum or picture gallery, and even the parks cost car-fare. For, as I have said before, Chicago is a huge city. When I worked at the fair-grounds I lived on the west side, and went eight miles to my work and back every day.
I have said that an English public-school education was a poor training for a man who had to make a living in the United States—at least, at the start. ”

“ Here a new man has as good or really a better show than one long in the firm’s employ; in fact, when I arrived in Los Angeles, I found that I was to supersede a man who had been sixteen years in the Barber Company, and who was acting yard foreman till my arrival.
My own experience has been that if a man starts in a concern at a very low salary, he can never work up past a certain figure. I suppose it is natural to think—“This man used to work for so much a day, and we have more than doubled his salary since he has been with us, and he is an ungrateful hog if he wants more.” ”

“ You know that Manuel now has a grudge against me. I have a lot of night walking to do. Life is too short for me to have to live in fear of, or have to pull a gun on, every man who walks up behind me in the dark, so when the nervous strain reaches a certain pitch I shall either kill Manuel or he will kill me. ”

“ I was telling a coyote story for which I cannot vouch, but I myself had an experience with a coyote one night when I was on a fishing trip on the Nueces River.
I and Ed Anderson, my pit boss, hired a wagon, and taking along a Mexican and his twelve-year-old boy (to cook and look after the horses) , we drove down to the ranch, about forty miles below the mines, for a couple of weeks’ fishing. One night we were all sleeping soundly, when I was awakened by Anderson’s dog fighting with something at my feet. I sat up, and in the bright moonlight saw it was a coyote. ”

“ When we arrived, one hundred strong, at the City Hall, we were refused admittance. But, putting the football team at the head of the wedge, we soon arrived close up to the stage. On either side of the stage were hoses and nozzles for use in case of fire, and some brilliant genius took one down and turned it on us. Then the fun really began, for we stormed the stage, got hold of both hoses, and watered up that assembly good and plenty. ”

“ When these concessions are asked for by people who intend to invest money in the country and develop a new industry it is bad enough, but the trouble is that many of these concessions are obtained by concession hunters who have barely enough money to put up as the necessary guarantee. These people, hearing of the possibility of some company starting a new industry here, immediately ask for a concession covering the industry, put up the few hundreds or thousands necessary to secure the concession, and then sell out at an enormous profit to the prospective manufacturer. ”

“ The bright colours of the girls’ dresses, the young men dressed in their Sunday best, with silver-plated buttons on their short jackets and down the outside seam of their tight-fitting trousers, their bright-coloured sashes and enormous felt hats, with which they reserved their partners’ seats while dancing ”

“ In the next act they have an enormous Mexican, all padded out like an American football player. The bull is turned in (generally a young two-year-old) , and he plays with it for a while with the capa, till he gets his distance; then he suddenly lunges forward and, with his chest against the bull’s horns, leans over and grabs the animal round the neck. Then there is a tussle indeed, but the man seems easily to hold his own, and finally, when he has tired the bull, he lies down on his back, pulling the bull’s head down with him, and, taking off his hat, waves it at the crowd. ”

“ There was a barbed-wire fence dividing the Mexican camp, which was known as “Mexico,” from the rest of the buildings where the boarding-houses and the rest of the factory were. Over in Mexico they had a dance hall with a saloon attachment, and most of the men went over there when off duty. Fights were frequent and gun-plays occasional, but as a drunken man is seldom dangerous with a gun, no one got seriously hurt.
The man (an American) who ran the dance hall was the son of the man in charge of the company’s freight wagons. ”

“ Los Angeles had not much trouble as far as the labour unions were concerned, but San Francisco was practically run by the unions during Mayor Smidt’s time (the man mentioned above) , he himself being a union man. I do not mean to infer that I am against organised labour, for in many cases that is their sole defence against starvation wages. But when the unions allow such men as the Macnamara brothers (just convicted of the Times Building dynamiting) to guide their destinies, they cannot expect the outsider to sort the sheep from the goats. ”

“ I know a man who worked twenty-six years for one railroad corporation, working his way up from brakeman to divisional superintendent, which position he held during the four years I knew him; a harder worker and a finer man I never knew. A new president was elected from another railroad, and this man and five other divisional superintendents were forced to resign in the first three weeks of the new reign, to make way for men off the railroad from which the new president had come. ”

“ Most people when they leave their houses, and no member of the family stays at home, either turn out all the servants and lock the doors, or lock the servants in the house while they are away. An American ore-buying concern here had its office in front of the railway station, the busiest part of the city. One Sunday afternoon four men drove up in a wagon, opened the door with a key, loaded the cash-safe on to the wagon, locked the door, and neither they nor the safe have ever been seen since. The police saw them at work, but thought they were employees of the house and so did not interfere. ”

“ The people dispense hospitality with a lavish hand so far as they are able. The accounts of toasting and drinking in India in the early days remind me of a dance I attended near Strathclair, where the host, having lost the use of his legs, lay propped up in his bed (his bedroom being used by the men for their wraps and coats) , with a keg of whisky on a chair by his side. There he lay in state, not too far gone still to dispense his hospitality and drink with every one who came into the room. After a few weeks’ stay I left Manitoba and returned to the college at Guelph. ”

“ The sofa is the seat of honour, and a guest waits to be invited to occupy it. Men and women in the same social circles call each other by their first names. When a Mexican speaks to you of his home he refers to it as “your house.” When you move into a new locality, it is your duty to make the first neighbourhood calls. ”

“ For sport, Tampico and the surrounding country can hardly be beaten in the Republic, both for fishing, hunting, and boating. While I was there the record tarpon up to date was caught (7 feet 5 inches long) ; but besides tarpon there are many other game fish—the yellow tail, black and red snapper, various kinds of rock-fish, and I caught one shark, 7 feet long, which gave me plenty of fun. Tampico saw nothing of the revolution, though after it was all over we had one day, or rather night and day, of rioting, which kept everybody in a state of anxiety. ”

“ Even when all goes well, and you are carefully laid out on a plank across the truss-rods under a car, the flying gravel and sand make travelling, when rapid, uncomfortable. There is also always the danger (when you travel without knowing your destination) of running into some large terminal and being arrested by the police. Still, there must be a huge fascination in the life to attract young fellows of this man’s position in life. ”

“ I did not feel the full force of the wind till I got out of the bottoms, but it was bitter when I reached the hills. I was so nearly frozen when I got home, about 2 A.M., that I could not unsaddle my horse till I had gone into the house, got a hot whisky, and warmed up.
On another occasion I was deer-hunting with a friend. We drove out in the evening in my buggy and pitched camp on a little rise where there was dry firewood, and after cooking supper we rolled up in our blankets and went to sleep. In the night a dry norther came up, and it was one of the worst I ever saw. ”

“ Surely a man can remain a gentleman no matter what he has to do to earn a living.
If I had a friend in England who had sons he was forced to send to the United States to make their way, I would, by the light of my own experience, 60advise him to send the boy over here when he was fourteen or fifteen years of age, and—unless the father could also come here to live—put him under the care of some friend or some reputable lawyer. If the boy’s bent were agriculture, send him to the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph, which is about the best institution of its kind on the continent. ”