THE GREAT TRAVELER
Alexander Ginkel has been around the world. A week ago he came to Chicago and, after looking around for a few days, located in one of the less expensive hotels and started to work as a porter in a well-known department store downtown.
A friend said, "There's a man living in my hotel who should make a good story. He's been around the world. Worked in England, Bulgaria, Russia, Siberia, China and everywhere. Was cook on a tramp steamer in the south seas. A remarkable fellow, really."
In this way I came to call on Ginkel. I found him after work in his room. He was a short man, over 30, and looked uninteresting. I told him that we should be able to get some sort of story out of his travels and experiences. He nodded.
"Yes," he said, "I've been all around the world."
Then he became silent and looked at me hopefully.
I explained, "People like to read about travelers. They sit at home themselves and wonder what it would be like to travel. You probably had a lot of experiences that would give people a vicarious thrill. I understand you were a cook on a tramp steamer in the south seas."
"Oh, yes," said Ginkel, "I've been all over. I've been around the world."
* * * * *
We lighted pipes and Ginkel removed a book from a drawer in the dresser. He opened it and I saw it was a book of photographs—mostly pictures taken with a small camera.
"Here are some things you could use," he said. "You wanna look at them."
We went through the pictures together.
"This one here," said Ginkel, "is me in Vladivostok. It was taken on the corner there."
The photograph showed Ginkel dressed just as he was in the hotel room, standing near a lamp post on a street corner. There was visible a part of a store window.
"This one is interesting," said Ginkel, warming up. "It was taken in the archipelago. You know where. I forget the name of the town. But it was in the south seas."
We both studied it for a space. It showed Ginkel standing underneath something that looked like a palm tree. But the tree was slightly out of focus. So were Ginkel's feet.
"It is interesting," said Ginkel, "But it ain't such a good picture. The lower part is kind of blurred, you notice."
We looked through the album in silence for a while. Then Ginkel suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, I almost forgot," he said. "There's one I think you'll like. It was taken in Calcutta. You know where. Here it is."
He pointed proudly toward the end of the book. We studied it through the tobacco smoke. It was a photograph of Ginkel dressed in the same clothes as before and standing under a store awning.
"There was a good light on this," said Ginkel, "and you see how plain it comes out."
Then we continued without comment to study other photographs. There were at least several hundred. They were all of Ginkel. Most of them were blurred and showed odds and ends of backgrounds out of focus, such as trees, street cars, buildings, telephone poles. There was one that finally aroused Ginkel to comment:
"This would have been a good one, but it got light struck," he said. "It was taken in Bagdad."
* * * * *
When we had exhausted the album Ginkel felt more at ease. He offered me some tobacco from his pouch. I resumed the original line of questioning.
"Did you have any unusual adventures during your travels or did you get any ideas that we could fix up for a story," I asked.
"Well," said Ginkel, "I was always a camera bug, you know. I guess that's what gave me the bug for travelling. To take pictures, you know. I got a lot more than these, but I ain't mounted them yet."
"Are they like the ones in the book."
"Not quite so good, most of them," Ginkel answered. "They were taken when
I hadn't had much experience."
"You must have been in Russia while the revolution was going on, weren't you?"
"Oh, yes. I got one there." He opened the book again. "Here," he said.
"This was in Moscow. I was in Moscow when this was taken."
It was another picture of Ginkel slightly out of focus and standing against a store front. I asked him suddenly who had taken all the pictures.
"Oh, that was easy," he said. "I can always find somebody to do that. I take a picture of them first and then they take one of me. I always give them the one I take of them and keep the one they take of me."
"Did you see any of the revolution, Ginkel?"
"A lot of monkey business," said Ginkel. "I seen some of it. Not much."
The last thing I said was, "You must have come in for a lot of sights. We might fix up a story about that if you could give me a line on them." And the last thing Ginkel said was:
"Oh, yes, I've been around the world."