As soon as my steamer got under way from Bombay, Richardson walked across the wharf and boarded the British tramp Farington. He went up on the bridge and asked the captain for passage to the Canal. The pleasant-looking skipper stated that he was sorry that he could not take him, as his ship had received her papers and was to leave that night at eight o'clock. Richardson graciously withdrew and descended from the bridge but, instead of leaving the vessel, he threw his luggage down an open hatchway and climbed down himself. Here he crawled off to a crevice in the cargo and remained there until the following morning when the ship was about two hundred miles out to sea. He appeared on deck shortly before breakfast and immediately informed the captain what he had done. The skipper took it very kindly. Instead of putting Richardson to work he greeted him cordially and said if it had been proper he would have suggested that he stow away.
Richardson's trip on the Farington was in strong contrast to mine on the Levanzo. He travelled like a civilised person. The captain was a fine type of Englishman and was very hospitable. The first officer was a thoroughly good chap and was very friendly.
Richardson had a cabin on the main deck adjoining the officers; he ate with the second mate and he had the freedom of the entire ship. He spent many hours on the bridge where the officers answered his questions. At the end of the journey he was almost a past-master at navigation. He understood the use of the log; he could locate a ship at sea by use of the sextant and he was able to handle the wheel and give signals to the engine room.
The Farington arrived at Suez and steamed through the Canal to Port Said. As Richardson was not listed on the ship's papers he had to hide down the hold while the port officials came on board for the inspection. As soon as she was received he slid over the side of the ship, jumped into a native boat and was rowed ashore.
AN AMERICAN CHRISTMAS IN JERUSALEM
Bakshish is the call of the Near East. Nearly every man, woman and child in Egypt must say this word a thousand times a day. At Memphis two hundred people greeted us a mile from the town with a chorus of bakshish. They trailed along with us for an hour with their hands extended, begging for coins. This group of people was one of the most forlorn I have ever seen. There were all ages of both sexes represented among them. The little children tripped along in front of us, the old men made earnest appeals for money and the women, attired in what appeared to be simply an assortment of rags, tottered along behind us calling bakshish incessantly.
The greatest act of kindness that any one could do these people would be to travel through the little villages with several tons of boracic acid and bathe the eyes of every inhabitant. Seventy-five per cent. of these poor creatures seem to be either blind or suffering from eye infection. It is all due to filth. The children are the most forlorn lot I ever saw. Their faces looked as though they had never been washed. I saw babies with a dozen flies on each eye and a score on their mouths, and their mothers made no effort to brush them off. Every child's face was speckled with flies. It was enough to make a person sick to look at them. The youngsters with flies on their eyes and two-thirds of the aged blind! Why don't these people realise that there is a connection between these two conditions and do something?