Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian WorkerGolden, M. (Meletios)
Religion
Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker
Golden, M. (Meletios)
Golden, M. (Meletios)
When I went up to the Mountain, looking for employment, because I
wanted to locate myself in such a place, if I could, till the
celebration of the Knights Templar was over, I was surprised to find
that the General Manager of the Hotel and the R. R. Station was a lady,
of a striking majestical appearance, she was the controlling power of
the whole business on Mount Tamalpais, and she was not a suffragette
either. But she was a loving mother of two beautiful children, a typical
Yankee girl, well up in her teens, supervising over the chambermaids,
and variously assisting her mother, and an active boy of sixteen, the
good-fellow of everybody, and especially to the Chinamen employed in the
kitchen. Mr. Johnson was the husband and father of this happy family,
and he occupied the position of butler of the house, receiving orders
from his beloved wife.
I presented my credentials to Mrs. Johnson and she, being satisfied, was
very kind to give me the charge of two tables to wait upon in the dining
room. It seemed as though I made good as a waiter, judging by the coins
which the customers, began to forget, beneath their plates, in leaving
the table, some call it tips, I called it real money.
September was well at hand, one day old, and Mrs. Johnson was very
anxious to have the premises well decorated, and a big arch should be
erected at the entrance, with the sign, "WELCOME," to Knights Templar,
as news came from San Francisco, that the Knights were already in
possession of the Golden Gate. Mrs. Johnson was almost in despair,
unable to find someone among that great army of employees, to have any
artistic ideas of decorating or even to make a few flower designs and
put up the arch out of some green foliage. We were all green, in that
respect. But as I always find myself at hand, wherever help is to be
rendered, I offered my services, and by what I could remember from my
friend Jack, in New York, how he could decorate everything to a good
taste, I have been able to put up a nice decoration and the third of
September, 1904, the flags of all nations were waving and everything was
ready for the reception of the Knights Templar. Mrs. Johnson was pleased
to the extent of presenting me with an extra three dollars and relieving
me from the dining room, she appointed me in charge of the pavilion, an
out-doors building, where the Knights Templar would privately entertain
their families and lady friends. In this position I was enabled to see
more of the high American life than I ever dreamed of before. The
English Lord, and the Parisien Dame de Honor, were eclipsed as they
would look like pygmies by the side of the sunshining, bright-hearted
American gentlemen, and the sweet and graceful demigoddess American
lady. But my enthusiasm reached its zenith when a gentleman from
Pittsburg, in company with his ladies, after an enjoyable dinner, at the
pavilion, he left under his plate a shining five dollar gold piece; at
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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