This was really too much for white flesh and blood to bear. I said to him sharply, “Look here, young man; I may be a stranger in this country and ignorant of some of its ways, but I know enough of Americans to be quite sure that it is not right for you to conduct yourself in this way. If you don’t promptly clear off I will report you!”
But the boy was not easily to be moved. Instead of taking himself off he squared up and wanted to fight me. So I just took hold of that boy, and testing his jacket and trousers to be sure that they would bear the strain, I swung him over the sixteenth floor staircase. And there for a few moments I held him, just to give him a view of the depth, which was so tremendous.
My word, didn’t that boy shout and scream! I assured him that he was quite safe in my hand so long as it was closed, but if he ever attempted his impertinences again I would bring him to the same spot and open it. And I reminded him that a drop through sixteen floors would not be good even for nigger boys who smoked cigarettes in private rooms and affected to be indignant at the suggestion that they should clean a visitor’s boots.
The boy’s cries drew a small crowd, including Martinus Sieveking and the manager of the hotel. The manager fully agreed with the warning I gave the boy, and was profuse in his apologies, saying that such conduct from a bell boy was unprecedented.
CHAPTER VIII.
INCIDENTS OF THE AMERICAN TOUR
A fortnight after my arrival in New York I commenced an engagement at the Casino, and after each performance, whilst I was still stripped to the waist, I gave lecture on anatomy and my system of physical culture in my dressing-room. These lectures were attended by many of the most notable people in America, the crowded audiences including several ladies. I demonstrated how each feat was accomplished, and let the people feel for themselves my muscles, to prove that whilst, when they were relaxed they were as soft as butter, when contracted they were as hard as steel.
I repeated at the Casino the performances that I had been giving at the Palace Theatre in London. As my engagement lengthened I grew better acquainted with the American people, whom, let it frankly be admitted, I liked immensely. They are wonderfully nice fellows, these Americans. The only fault that is to be found with them is the too generous length to which their hospitality is liable to go in the direction of cock-tails. They like to give you a bath of cock-tails, and if a bath should not suffice, they would think nothing of making a river for you. For a moderate drinker like myself, their generosity is a little embarrassing, but as the point was emphasised that I could never have the assurance to say that I had been to America without tasting a cock-tail, I at last yielded to their persuasions, and, judging from the samples of Manhattan, Martini, and Oyster, which I tried, I am hound to confess that these drinks are exceedingly nice and that there is little to beat them. Another striking feature of life in America is to be found in the trotting horses. They are simply marvellous creatures, moving with the ease and almost with the speed of a railway engine.
From New York I went to Boston, where my system of physical training became very fashionable; and after the Boston visit came Chicago, Mr. Sieveking always accompanying me.