"Toussaint," Fuellenberg, who seemed to be fairly loaded with Berlin
gossip, explained, "needs money. He needs the money that his wife spends
and the social season in Berlin swallows up. He and his wife and his
wife's maid are all travelling free on his reputation. When he lands in
New York, he won't have enough in his pocket even to pay his hotel bill
for three days."
Fuellenberg pointed out the sculptor, Toussaint. He was lying in a
steamer chair, rising and falling in unison with the _Roland_. As
Frederick turned to look at him, he noticed an odd man without arms
being led across the deck by his attendant, who grasped him by his
collar and carefully dragged him through a small door close by into
the smoking-room.
"That man's a vaudeville star," Fuellenberg continued with his descriptive
catalogue. "He will appear in New York with Webster and Forster."
Some stewards came oscillating across the deck to serve the chilly
passengers with bowls of hot bouillon. After Fuellenberg had seen to it
that his lady was duly served, he deserted her and went with Frederick to
the smoking-room. Here, of course, loud talking and tobacco smoke
prevailed. The two gentlemen lit their cigars. In one corner of the small
room, some men were playing skat, and at several tables, German and
English politics were being thrashed out. The main theme of discussion
was the rivalry between America and Europe. Wilhelm, the ship's doctor,
with whom Frederick had become acquainted at breakfast, came in from his
morning inspection of the steerage, and seated himself beside Frederick.
"There are two hundred Russian Jews emigrating to the United States or
Canada," he told him, "thirty Polish families, and about the same number
of German families from the south, north, and east of Germany. Altogether
there are nearly four hundred steerage passengers, among them five babies
at the breast and fifty children between the ages of one and fifteen."
Doctor Wilhelm invited Frederick to accompany him the next day on his
tour of inspection. He was a man of not more than twenty-six. He had a
fair complexion and wore glasses. His manner was somewhat stiff. Ever
since he had passed his examinations, two years before, he had been a
physician on a vessel. Once he had taken the trip to Japan, once to South
America, and several times to the United States. Frederick, of course,
immediately thought of his dying friend, George Rasmussen, put his hand
in his pocket, and presented his new colleague with Simon Arzt
cigarettes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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