Jack Johnson

“ Jack's cheerfulness and civility rank him among those whose presence never gives pain, and whom all receive with fondness and caresses. He calls often on his friends, to tell them that he will come again to-morrow ”

“ That night a heavy, soaking tropical rain came on; we spread the awning again and filled our water tanks; and as the big barrel ran over with the gurgling water, Jack said:
"I'll not kill that sailor; I'll have him saved by a rain like this; that'll make the yarn better than ever!"
That water was the best we ever tasted. We couldn't deny it. After seeing that we had a good supply, we set all the sail we could crowd on the boat and crossed the Equator. When the sun rose next morning, and we awoke for the day's duties, we knew we were out of the doldrums. ”

“ Jack built the boat and paid for her; the plan was all his own, and the magazine mentioned had nothing to do with it. For that matter, Jack p032 saw to it that they got no more articles from him descriptive of the cruise of the Snark. He played the free-lance, sending his "copy" wherever he chose.
At the beginning of March, 1907, things looked more desperate than ever. Jack declared it was plain the boat could never be completed in San Francisco. "She's breaking down faster than she can be repaired," he said one day. "That's what comes of taking a year for building. ”

“ Wherever civilised men congregated, wherever books were read, the name of Jack London was familiar.
Why he was making this trip in so tiny a craft? That question he answered shortly afterward, when he wrote: "Life that lives is life successful, and success is the breath of its nostrils. The achievement of a difficult feat is successful adjustment to a sternly exacting environment. The more difficult the feat, the greater the satisfaction at its accomplishment. That is why I am building the Snark. I am so made. The trip around the world means big moments of living. ”

“ During my long stay in Oakland, I had ample opportunity to get intimately acquainted with both Jack and Mrs. London; indeed, we were all like one big happy family. Fame and popularity have not spoiled them. Jack is just like a big schoolboy, good-natured, frank, generous, and Mrs. London is just a grown-up schoolgirl. They are good comrades, always helping each other in their work. Mrs. London I found to be as full of grit as any of us—as we were later to discover, there was hardly a thing on board that any of the men could do that she couldn't do ”

“ Our folk say that little Jack is a lost soul, doomed to haunt the place of his earthly woes; but I have a pleasanter theory.
"Look at him," said Johnson in a tone almost reverent. "That there shiny feller's been following of me at nights now something ridiculous. If I ain't out on the range, I swan he comes loafing round the house. Honest."
"I like 'em."
"You do? I wonder what they are?"
"Why, you mean to say you don't know? I'm surprised at you, Lafe. They're human souls seeking a lodging." ”

“ Jack-knife. The name formerly given to a large folding pocket-knife, and now used by sailors, in contradistinction to a “Penknife.” See “Jack Tar.”
Jackson. The name of a river and several towns of the United States, after General Andrew Jackson, the seventh President.
Jack Straw’s Castle. A noted hostelry at Hampstead, said to have been built on the spot where Jack Straw, one of the leaders in Wat Tyler’s insurrection, made his habitation on the hillside.
Jack Tar. A sailor, because he wears tarpaulins in “dirty weather.” Jack is a generic name for a man or servant. ”

“ Jack and Mrs. London are playing cribbage in the cockpit. Tochigi washing clothes over the rail. Ocean calm, except for the swell that is always felt. We had a fine time at supper, telling stories, and joking with one another. Well, I'm going to turn in. My bunk is five feet five inches long, two feet wide, and one foot six inches from the ceiling, but I feel as good in it as on feathers.
Queer that we have seen no fish. Jack can't account for it. Mr. Eames has gone back to his room—he was run out a few days ago by gasolene leaking under his bunk. Water still spouting in. Pumps p064 needed. ”

“ Jack asked me to let him buy anything I wanted, as he wished to keep a uniform price. All morning he traded, then knocked off for dinner, and started again in the afternoon. By night he had about two hundred different curios. For me he got seven spears, all different, two dancing-sticks, two war-clubs, two fine hair-ornaments, two ear-plugs out of the same man's head, one sennit ear-stick, ten anklets and armlets, one calabash (which has been used to drain human blood) , two hand-clubs, two fine big shells, and scores of other little trinkets. ”

“ Before they start to fly, they are literally walking on the water. The meat of the guny is not palatable, and looks something like the meat of an ordinary crow. p072
Every day, Jack wrote two hours. Just two hours, no more, no less. He would get up in the morning and take his trick at the wheel, have breakfast, and then shut himself in his stateroom for just two hours and write. He always laughed at what he called the tomfoolery of waiting for inspiration to come. He doesn't believe there is any such thing as inspiration—he himself can write just as well at one time as at another. ”

“ Complement of the Snark in Solomon Islands:
Mrs. Jack London, Mr. Jack London and Martin Johnson in the centre. Imglst
"Fallible and frail, a bit of pulsating, jelly-like life—it is all I am. About me are the great natural forces—colossal menaces, Titans of destruction, unsentimental monsters that have less concern for me than I have for the grain of sand I crush under my foot. They have no concern for me at all. They do not know me. They are unconscious, unmerciful, and unmoral. ”

“ Every new proposal takes possession of his thoughts; he soon balances probabilities, engages in the project, brings it almost to completion, and then forsakes it for another, which he catches with the same alacrity, urges with the same vehemence, and abandons with the same coldness.
Every man may be observed to have a certain strain of lamentation, some peculiar theme of complaint, on which he dwells in his moments of dejection. Jack's topick of sorrow is the want of time. Many an excellent design languishes in empty theory for want of time. ”

“ Jack explained to me that he was working his way through Stanford University. If sheer strength counts for anything, Stolz is a fellow who will never want for much. He was always the best swimmer at the swimming pools we went to; he could always dive from higher and turn more somersaults in the air than anyone; and Jack found, by experience, that Bert knew every trick in boxing. He was really more than I expected by Jack's description of him—an "all-around athlete." ”

“ Tuesday, June 30, 1908.—Again this morning we traded with the natives until we are wondering where we will put the things. About one hundred spears alone are hard to pack away. After lunch, Jack, Mrs. London, and I went ashore in the launch. As we could not get clear up to the beach, Tehei had to carry us out of the boat. We had our guns strapped on, and carried four kodaks. We went up to the trader's house. Imagine our surprise to find a whole beachful of naked girls. Absolutely naked. Jack looked at me and then at Mrs. London, and I looked back at them. ”

“ Jack could not resist chaffing Mrs. London, for up to this time she has been treated like a lady by the natives we have come in contact with, but here a woman is only a woman, and has none of the rights of men. Poor Mrs. London was humiliated, but Jack enjoyed it. We came into the village. Men and women too old and feeble to walk would peep at p294 us through their grass houses. We came upon a mammoth grass house, facing the sea. This place was as large as a good-sized store-room. From the front protruded the ends of war canoes. ”

“ I was standing in my father's jewellry store after supper on the evening of Monday, November 12, 1906, when a messenger boy p004 came in and handed me a telegram. The instant I saw the little yellow envelope, something told me that this was the turning-point in my life. With trembling hands I tore it open, my heart beating wildly with excitement. It was Jack London's reply, the fateful slip of paper that was to dictate my acts for several years to come.
The telegram was dated from Oakland, California, a few hours earlier in the day. "Can you cook?" it asked. ”

“ He said he had tried to spear the manager of a big island trading concern who came here in his own schooner six months ago. These natives are all head-hunters. This village and the one across the bay are continually at war with each other, and each tribe collects the heads of the other tribe. Jack and Mrs. London went ashore with him, and brought back news that it is the most heathenish place they ever saw. The women, they say, are naked. Large carved totem poles in the centre of the village are covered with obscene figures. The natives are all armed with clubs, spears and bows. ”

“ And after we've finished Jimmy's book, we can print all sorts of other things—do a general business, in fact. I'll see what Fay says, and if he'll go in, we'll start it at once."
While Ned was uttering the last sentence, Jack's alarm-clock went off, and Jack took his flag and went out to flag the Pacific express, while we walked away. We must have been very much absorbed in the new project, for we never even turned to look at the train; and a train of cars in swift motion is a sight that few people can help stopping to look at, however busy they may be. ”

“ Henry's bukua continued to bother him. And I daily writhed in the agony of alternate washes of blue vitriol and corrosive p317 sublimate. We were so sick and miserable that very little attention was paid to the navigating, and for several days we sailed in a half-hearted way, looking for the islands. One day, Jack's observations indicated that we were inside the lagoon, and next day we had sailed clear past the islands. But one morning Henry called all hands on deck to see the cocoanut trees just visible above the horizon. ”

“ The life will be one of hard work whether they make a canoe trip, or a hunt; and it certainly will do them good. Then, of course, it will give him a great deal of pleasure, will enlarge his ideas, and will be, in all respects, helpful to him. Now, think it over, and when you are ready we will talk it over again."
During the months of the winter, the subject had [Pg 26] often been brought up. Jack, when he was consulted, was, of course, eager to go, doubly so after he had learned that his uncle proposed to take Hugh Johnson along. ”

“ London on the starboard side, Ernest, Nakata, Wada and Tehei on port, mid deck, captain aft the cockpit, and p233 I slept away up in the bow. The southeast trades made life bearable on these hot nights; while we could not feel them on the sails, we could feel them on our faces, blowing gently and fitfully. Before going to bed on the night of the 25th, Jack read to us his latest Story, "the Chinago," the scene of which was laid at Papeete. The night before we had heard "The Seed of McCoy."
The small crew of the Snark was now getting to feel more at home on water than on land. ”

“ Jack made the chief several presents to get up a dance for us in the afternoon, so right after lunch we were taken ashore in the launch by Henry, and were escorted to the village by a young chief. There we found more men making the hollow fish-coffins. It took some time to get the dance started, but finally fourteen young men lined up in two rows p297 and eight squatted in a circle with a flat board for a drum—one man striking it with a stick, the rest chanting. ”

“ One thing was sure. Greater things lay before us than we had left behind. Much as we had p337 seen, we still had much to see. And I lay there and planned the various things I would do when I got well to make life on the yacht more comfortable; the appliances I would buy, the ventilators needed, and a hundred and one other things.
And then everything was dashed in a minute. The matron of the hospital brought me a letter from Jack, which contained discouraging news. I learned that he was little better; and that he might be getting much worse. ”

“ Planned to cost seven thousand dollars, by the time she was finished she cost thirty thousand. To a ship-wise man, this will seem an impossible amount to spend on so small a craft. But everything was of the highest quality on the Snark; labour and materials the very best that money could buy. I really believe she was the strongest boat ever built.
The idea of the trip had first come to Jack and p014 Captain Eames up at Jack's ranch near Glen Ellen. While in the swimming pool one day, their conversation turned to boats. ”

“ Captain Eames was also a vegetarian; and it was this fact that made me wonder how he was to get along satisfactorily on the Snark.
Though Jack had answered my question jestingly, I knew that he contemplated writing an extended series of articles on the home-life of the various peoples among whom we were to sojourn. He would treat of their domestic problems; social structures; problems p046 of living; cost of living as compared with the cost in the United States; education; opportunities for advancement; general tone of peoples; culture; morals; religion; how they amuse themselves ”

“ The Japanese are great practical jokers in their quiet way. We found Nakata p298 trying to show the naked women how to wear Mrs. London's clothes. He succeeded very well, until he accidentally tickled one of them, and immediately they all jumped a good arm's length away from him; and as those on whom he had succeeded in getting dresses did not know how to get them off, and for fear of being tickled would not allow him to touch them, there was no washing done.
Next morning, Jack called all hands and they heaved anchor, while I started the engine and we steamed out of the harbour. ”