THE SHN33AT -QREGOXIAN. PORTLAND SEPTEMBER '22, 1907.
Men From the States, Not MiUionaires.
Pleasure Seekers or Students.
Who Are Making a Living in Various
Intellectual
j mini l iliniiwil i i ip mwi mi iihwi iiiim mi iiiimii I III ! If ""ni I I
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Br DEXTER MARSHALL. I
ABIS. Sept. 1. (Special correspond-
mj ence of
Sunday Oregonian.) An
American who "had no German"
worth mentioning was riding contentedly
on the top of a motor bus In Berlin one
day last Summer.
He had climbed to the roof of the noisy
lumbering vehicle confident that he knew
-what he was about, but his confidence had
been short lived. Instead of the' buildings
and streets he should have passed on the
route he had 'traveled over repeatedly, only
unfamiliar objects met his eye. Clearly he
was going far out of the way, and hoping
against hope, he turned wearily to one
after another of his fellow passengers for
Information, but none of them could un
derstand his questions. .
Just as he was about to leave the bus in
despair and try to pick his way on foot a
roice so welcome that he forgot to be sur
prised for a moment, although the accent
was an astounding one. to hear just then
and just there,- smote his ear.
"Lost your way, boss?" Inquired the
voice. "Specs I c'n tell you jess what
cher wanter to know, Cunnel, if you done
tole mo all about It."
Turning again, the American saw just
behind him a real American darkey, black
as aphalt. clad in a "uniform" distinctly
German in cut and whose happy grin at
being able to do a fellow traveler from
the States a service, was as genuine aa
the voice and accent.
"You ain't on the r'ght bus edzactty,
Jedge." went on the American child of
Africa; "but you c'n g't to youah place
all right if you stay heah till yer pass
foah moah strasses and den transfers.
I'll tell you when.
"Yes," he explained, "Ise from St.
Louis, but I'se a member of de workin'
Amer'can colony in Berlin now. I come
heah two yeahs ago wld my boss. He
done took sick and die sudden like, an'
nowI got a Job wld a German gemman,
an' I'se goin' to stay awh'le. 'Taln't
much like the States, but I'm glttln' on
f de talk, an' it'll do till I Bave 'nough
marks to git home wid or run erg'in an
Amer'can good Samaritan dat wants ter
hire a man an' is goin' back an' '11 pay
my way, too. Heah's de place to trans
fer, sah.
"Tank you, sah, tank you kindly, sah;
birte, bltte," he wound up, as the man
he had set right provided two of the
marks that would be needed for the long
voyage home.
In his unassuming way this ebony
American represented a big class of
American residents abroad who rarely
get into the papers, because they neither
take long auto trips over Europe, buy
counterfeit old masters, swipe souvenirs,
nor make asses of themselves by abus
ing or praising unduly the foreign land
they chance to be In. Finding themselves
stranded, far from home, Americans of
still another type go to the Consul and
beg. or try to beg, enough money to buy
a ticket to America; but these hunt work
to do and earn their way. Some of them
go home as soon as they can get suffi
ciently ahead of the game, while others
seem to have anchored themselves more
or less permanently "abroad," and are
making their living, as the natives make
theirs. In the occupations the country af
fords. Teaching Barons East Side English.
Since the day he met the St. Louis
darky in Berlin, the traveling American
mentioned above has run across a num
ber of this latter class In various Euro
pean cities. One of them runs a type
writer in a big Berlin business concern
with an extensive American correspon
dence, and adds to his Income by doing
extra work at night in English "on the
machine" for such of his travelling fel
low countrymen as need him and are so
fortunate as' to find him.
He is a New Yorker born, with English
of a pretty well developed East Side ac
cent. He came to Paris in 1900 for a
firm that had an exhibit at the Fair. His
pay was not overly large, and he Bpent
It a, ho got it, seeing the sights of the
French capital. When the Exhibition was
over he drew his home passage money
from his employer, but decided to re
main here enough longer to see a few
more things. Before he knew it most of
hi, passage money was gone also, and
he went to the Consul, not to .borrow
money, but to get help in looking for a
job.
"If you can pay your way to Berlin,"
said the Consul, "I'll give you a letter
that will get you a Job, providing you
can use the typewriter."
The young man could; he went to Ber
lin by the first train and was received
with enthusiasm. He wasn't much of a
typewriter, to tell the truth, and he
didn't write shorthand at all, but the
American member of the firm found him
a veritable godsend. After seven years
the young American still holds the place;
he never, has learned shorthand, but his
tvMwriting is now rapid enough for let-J
fl - -. -r-r .-in---x . g; I jf.i-, i?rM.. -s? . ...-.- -5-
ter dictation and he has not thought serl-
ousiy of returning to his native land as
yet. He began on 40 mams a week, which j 4 ? V- ' Ci J I I- ',v"" V- ' V III
is a little under $10. tout he now gets twice i Zj!' ' ivVf.f VYC, 'jErt r UV I I IIWJI I f V-V ..Jk
as much and earn, another ?0 weekly L - f! x1 U 1 J "fc S Zth7)Z'JJ?' TO" I J fl' vt r.,:
on the average, some of it by "extra" , 7 T ?pt IN 3' , rjr4i& . $1 1 " , V- C.
typewriting, but mostly teaching English ( V f t 'i IVCA. ' iT'C5:- Vl f li f f - 5- i XZ' , 4 s -5 '
to Berliner,. ; lf L.T fm - l H f 17 fc "" 'I
Among his pupils he numbers a baron. - 1 - 11 f ht , M ft - J v 1 - r ? If
a university professor, two or three 4CV V V ? V '.KC 1-4 8 If 1 ' ?'i I " T i 4 11
teachers of lesser grade and some young ,T ' ' ' " 1 I . i W i W. V ' If I - J II
German business men. who mean either w, gXAlf ' I I ' ' J C t ll , ' W l x r- T IS? i II
to go to America some time or to use . f . if ' 4 J t , t II f I - t ' I I
English as they are taught It in doing JTiv 4 - ' $?S ' E U W v , I . - ,v- I
business with Americans in Berlin. i " f - - X -'s s - 'M p If I f si' , " r .
The young American's methods with his ' L S 1l ' Vtf i k A I , I l,i
pupils are not like those of the schools. - ' . . ' -d"t'i-X s - ? 1 I , I i A- 1 ' t x J ! . , II
-and he uses no grammar book; just talk, - .Sw f . c ! Mli!: 7.1 II ll 1 ' . . f s - I
with them In English and reads American ; T w. X ' " , 1 II ll v" fii5, " llv-Af - II
books and newspapers with them, begin- i ' . t ' ' . I IF.- llnw-w., iV-; . 1 , - , " II
ning alway. with simple easy words and ;-'Ti, ! -jN - ' , A" I I I f v v,, ,. , , If
phrases, such as "The grass Is green." I s S ' - . f, . V J ( If l--;Jy i - '--'tJ I
which is not so very different from "Das i . - f m N , - " V 'if ll I i- - ' " ' r--Zll
gras 1st gruen," and mean, the same -kJ I 1 ' , 'S it I hU F " 'i; I
thlng- ' . M ' . flV-l t 4t f . 11 ll I 4f JJ-f1 , rl
There is no doubt that some of his pu- W ' f l , ' ii!t f l-3 ' S 3 7 ' " II
nils become fluent In the Anelo-Saxon ST ' e S( S - ? 5 ? fe 11 l?lfx-- f " ' II
be a "goil," and a "journalist" a "choina
l'st," for, as I have said, he is of New
York's East Side, and his accent shows
it. kThelr close following of his teaching
never will harm them probably. Wu
Ting Fang, who once was Chinese Minis
ter at Washington, learned' his English
from college boys, fellow students, who
took care to teach him so much slang
that he never can talk English without
mixing it in, but he was a mighty suc
cessful diplomatist, all the same.
Not counting the diplomatic and Consu
lar folk, Berlins', American colony num
bers about 800 In the Winter, when most
of the birds of passage have flown home
but some of those who stay the year
through are students who go back to the
States when they think they have studied
long euough. W. C. Dreher, of the Asso
ciated Press staff In Berlin, says that the
working Americans there, of whom he is
one, are ail doing well, thank you.
Mr. Dreher went to Germany in 1893
as a consular agent near Berlin, hav
ing been active in the promoting of
the election of Cleveland in 1892. A
South Carolinian by birth, Drehor did
most of his campaign work in the
North, and hoped his party would con
tinue in power, so that he could make
a life career in the consular service,
but it didn't, and, one fine day, his
work was turned over to some one
of different political faith. Naturally,
he hadn't accumulated sufficient fortune
to return to America with and cut an
extensive dash, and, on thinking it
over, he decided to stay where he was.
He had learned the language, he had
been a newspaper writer at home, he
had a nose for news and he decided
to try newsgatherlng for the German
and American press.
No one who is unfamiliar with the
German news field can understand
what a really desperate chance he took.
But, thanks to his good Judgment and
the connections he had made while Con
sular agent, he was able to best the
German newsgatherers In their own
field more than once in the first few
weeks of his experiment. It wasn't long
before the experiment proved a success
and he was taken on by the Associated
Press.
Today he is a fixture there, if "he
chooses to be, and a well-known figure
in that busy part of the American col
ony that he neither has time nor in
clination for the spectacular. He is
a close observer of European politic,
and economic questions, and has writ
ten a number of important articles
for the Atlantic Monthly and the North
American Review- which have clari
fied certain European subjects for
many American readers. He is as good
an American today as ever, but he is
not sorry he remained where he was
and fought his battle there after turn
ing over his consular agency to some,
one else.
Paying His Own Way in Munich.
There isn't a pluckier chap from the
States in any of Jtho American colonies
"abroad" than Louis F. Mueller, born of
German parents in Indianapolis.
Before be was a dozen years old he had
an overwhelming desire to be an artist.
He isn't much over 20 today and no one
knows better than he that. he has a long
road to travel before he can reach the
goal he is striving for, but he has made
plenty of headway already, thanks to his
nerve, his faith in himself and the fu
ture, and his willingness to work. Some
day he will be heard from, unless I am
mistaken.
His father died when the boy was in his
teens. His mother carried on the family
business like the thrifty German-American
frau that she is. In time the youngster
got a small situation in the bank, but all
the while he was drawing pictures in odd
moments and at night, and all the while
his mother was In fear that some day he
would follow his own bent and "study
art," as he told her often that he meant
to do.
Being thrifty like his mother, he saved
"nil . 1 r;
iLlfe ! tf "
yr-"x- -tr T-n.-,n I 1 - ' " " 'ki-i'-VrjSI!S!Miamiau.if '
a part of his wages every week. One day
some two or three years ago he counted
up and found that he had enough to leave
his mother part of his hoard, pay his way
across the seas, and have a little left to
start hi, career as an art student in Mu
nich, where the traveling American men
tioned above met him on the way south
from Berlin.
Young Mueller reached Munich with al
most no money in his pocket. He applied
for a place as kitchen boy or anything
else an untrained hand who spoke German-American
could do at several of the
various of the Munich hotels, but without
success, and then he went to the Ameri
can Consul as so many others have gone
before and since. Not to borrow money,
though, not he. He asked for help to get
a job; no matter how small the pay, if
only it were big enough to buy food with
for a while, since his clothes would last
a long time. It so happened that just then
the Consul was short of clerical help, and
as young Mueller's bank training had
made him an excellent penman, he went
to work in the Consul's office without
much delay.
Then he applied for a place as a stu
dent in the Government Art School. His
application received scant courtesy at
first; it was not possible for him to qual
ify, the authorities said, having had such
scant advantages as his had been. But
they Bang another song when they saw
him draw, and since then he has more
than Justified the admission, for he has
won more than one prize and is looked
upon as bound to be one of themselves
eventually by more than one of the
ZXAMS yyJZL jUME&JCATJ CAJTOONJST WJ0
Munich artists who have already "ar-
rived.'
What Mue;ier considers his greatest
piece of luck arrived in Munich one day
along with an editor who was looking
both for illustrations by Munich artists
and some one to represent bis publication
after he had gone' back to the States.
Naturally, like most of us in a foreign
land, he, too, went to the Consul's offloe,
and naturally the Consul recommended
young Mueller. This gave Mueller a sec
ond Income, modest, of course, but his ex
penses being light, enough to make him
feel almost rich, and since it began he
has "nothing to worry him at all," as he
ingenuously phrases it.
Numerically the American colony in
Paris leads all the others in Continental
European cities, as a matter of . course.
Leaving out the art and music students,
800 at least, most of whom will return to
America some tlma, especially if success
fulmost of them won't be, by the way
from 3000 to 500 -Americans of nearly all
grades are practically permanent Parisian
residents today. They are earning var
ious incomes, varying from $25,000 a year
down to 35 or 40 francs a week, which is
the same as $7 or tS or less than $400 a
year. But, of course, the $25,000 chaps
are mighty scarce and very far apart.
They are the heads of firms and com
panies heavily capitalized with American,
British or French, money, some of them
with all three.
In more ways than one Lawrence V.
Benet. president of the American Cham
ber of Commerce, stands very well with
the hustling gang of Americans who are
using new world methods carrying -on
their business in this big, contradictory
French metropolis, at once far-ahead and
far behind the metropolis at the Hudson's
mouth. Benet is a young man, being only
47, but he is at the head of the Hotchklss
Ordnance Company, which makes rapid
fire guns by the hundred for half the gov
ernments of Europe, but none for our
own. The settlement in Paris was not
preceded by any period of financial stress,
however. He came naturally into the ord
nance business, since his father was in
structor in ordnance for some years at
West Point, and while yet a youngster
Lawrence V. became an expert In the
matter of guns.
The Hotchklss works and Hotchklss
officers have comparatively few American
employes, for the reason, among others,
that the pay is so much less than in the
States, although there isn't the slightest
doubt that American employers would
jump at the chance to get American em
ployes who could speak French if they
could hire them. It is quite natural that
the American Chamber of Commerce
should be the rendezvous of most Ameri
cans, and that both President Benet and
Charles H. Becker, secretary for the last
five years, should be popular with them
all.
Of engineers of various sorts, electric,
sanitary and mechanical, there are 50 or
more, and first-class at that, earning as
good incomes as men of their grade would
earn at home, since the best ability is
well paid here, even if the ability of lower
grades ia not.
Ever since the days of the famous Dr.
Evans, the Empress Eugenie's tooth doc
tor, American dentistry has been at a,.
premium in Paris, as in most other Euro
pean cities, and from the signs reading
"American Dentist," you would think that
there were hundreds of specialists in teeth
from America here. Yet not many more
than 20 are registered, and some of them
are Cubans, Canadians, Irishmen and even
Frenchmen, who have studied in Phil
adelphia. They are all doing pretty well,
however; some of them even better than
the American attorneys.
At first breath you might wonder what
an American attorney could find to do In
Paris, since only French citizens can prac
tice before the French courts, and the
one thing most Americans, attorneys and
otherwise, will not do is to become French
citizens, no matter how much they like
the life here.
But aa a matter of fact the American
attorneys here have plenty to do and get
fat fees for doing it. They - draw up
contracts and leases, they aot as com
missioners of deeds in various estates and
manage to make themselves mighty handy
to thousands of Americans who are either
living or traveling in Europe.
Every American attorney of ability
makes connection with a French law firm
as a matter of course, so that should
an American client get into trouble here
there would be a way to represent htm
before the French courts, and most of the
American attorneys have posted them
selves thoroughly in the ins and outs
of French practice. There have been two
Instances also of Americans becoming
French lawyers; one of the Seligmans,
now dead, who had a big practice and
represented the family banking Interests,
and Frederick Allaln.
Allaln is of American birth and voted
for Garfield. He studied law in the States
and was admitted to the bar there. Then
he came to France, which, being of
French extraction, he considered his
home,' and served his time In the French
army. That made him eligible to enter
the legal profession here so he studied
French law, was admitted and has a fine
practice as an international attorney to
day. There are fewer resident American
writers and editors in Paris than in
London, although there are some here,
mostly correspondents of the big Amer
ican dailies, while Richard Wallace, the
art manager of Hachette Co., the big
gest publishing house in France, is an
American born and bred.
Valerian Gribayedoff, an American of
Russian descent, whose signature, "V.
Q" used to be familiar on American
newspaper illustrations, is also a member
of the working colony from the States
in Paris. It was he who introduced news
illustrations in the New York daily pa
pers. Later he did the same thing here,
and he is now painting from nature.
In London there is quite a colony of
literary Americans, and the managing ed
itor of the London Express. Pearson's
up-to date morning newspaper, is of
American birth. London's American col
ony Is larger than the one in Paris,
though American pleasure-seekers are not
so numerous there as here. But London
is not a continental city.
Curiously enough, two of the best
known, most characteristically French
poets Just now were born in the United
States. They are Stuart Merrill and
Vlele-Griffln, son of General Viele, once
president of the New York Park Board.
Both write for the Mercure de France,
and both have published successful vol
umes; their verses are recited often In
salons, where they are . regarded with
much enthusiasm. Both write more or
less in the prevailing decadent vein.
Several of the world's most famous art
ists, who are counted of high grade,
even in this capital of art, despite their
American birth, are living as fixtures at
Giverny, about an hour's railroad ride
out of Paris. The Giverny colony In
cludes the sculptor Macmonnies, whose
,"J3acchante nd Child" u rejected by
Boston a few years ngo, but accepted
by New York.; Mark Hopkins, the sculp
tor, and Frleseke. the painter. These
men have beautiful places at Giverny.
and, especially as Americans will buy
much more readily the work of Ameri
cans who , paint abroad than that of
those who paint at home, they are cer
tainly to remain French residents, al
though retaining their citizenship.
Paul Bartlett, whose etatua of Lafay
ette, presented, to Paris by American
school children, is considered good art
by the countrymen of Rodin, Brldgman.
who long ago was made a Legion of
Honor man and recently has been mada
an officer in that honorary order, al
though many high-grade French painters
are not recognized to that extent, and
Julian Stuart, the Phlladelphlan whose
ability with the brush has long been rec
ognized as far beyond the point of clev
erness, are fixtures here.
Charles Dana Gibson, who has given up
pen work for the brush, is also living
in Paris, and so is Tanner, the octoroon,
whose ability with the brush has mad
the Parisians forget the color of hi
skin, as they forgot Dumas because ofi
his maglo pen.
The Paris-American Art Association
Rodman Wannamaker, president bear
about the same relation to the Americans
artists and art students here that that
American Chamber of Commerce does to
the American business men in Paris. The
association numbers about 300. In one)
sense It is the most prominent Americaiv
organization In the city and its Fourths
of July dinner is a great annual event.
There are American art students and
students of music, too, no doubt, . in
Paris, of ability, who are making a
brave a fight as young Mueller is in Mi)'
nich, but they will not be known to thai
world for some time. Meanwhile, it Is)
only the truth to say that many of thos
who come here from the United States to
Btudy art, either pictorial, plastlo or mu
sical, had much better remain away.
Paris spells nothing but failure to mora)
than half of these misguided young mem
and women and some of them are not
so young at that. I was told the story,
today of a man of 48 who has been- hera
three or four years, who, just after the
Ban Francisco earthquake, applied tor
the Paris San, Francisco Relief Associa
tion for financial aid. when It came out
that he was being supported by a sister
who earned her living by pounding type
writer keys and could not continue t
do so until after the shaken and burned
metropolii of the Pacific Coast had founti
Itself again and aha could resume her
employment. The association helped him
for a while, but cut off his allowance
when It was learned that his ability was
so slight that no one thinks he ever can:
win in the artistic field.
Finding it probable that he woufd
starve If he remained here, he promised
to go back to the United States or to
Norway, where he had relatives, but af
ter his ticket was bought for the latter
country, he received a draft from his de
voted sister, who had been able to go
to work again and divided her first
month's pay with him. He is still here. '
The pathos in his story is all on th
side of the sister, who with blind faith
supports him, but in the cases of some of
the women students, particularly with,
those who are studying music, there Is
pathos and despair on both sides; in
America, where their families are scrimp
ing and mortgaging to keep the students
here, and in Paris,' where sooner or later
they are bound to find out the magnitude
of their mistake in coming here at all.
Some of them break their hearts when
they discover the truth, and some of
them do worse.
(Coprlght, 1907. by Dexter Marshall.) .. ;
The Norse Christian name Haakon and
the English family name Hawkin or Hawr
kins come from the same root, and arjp;
pronounced In the same fashion. ' '