Then Fritz bared his grievance. He didn’t mind, he said, being a
prisoner. The size of his captor was the thing that galled. “And for
Gott’s sake,” he added, “make him give back my helmet.”
The proper authority turned to the captain’s little pal. “He’s your
prisoner,” he said. “What do you want to do with the helmet?”
“Keep it, sir,” said the captain’s little pal.
And it will be used back in Australia some day to illustrate the story,
which by that time will doubtless have more trimmings.
“But how about Fritz?” I asked. “When he gets home and tells the same
story, he’ll have nothing with which to prove it.”
“He ine’t agoin’ to tell the sime story.”
We were welcomed at our destination by a captain, another regular
correspondent, and two good English cars. The captain said he was
expecting another guest on this train, a Harvard professor on research
work bent.
“I have no idea what he looks like,” said the captain.
“I have,” said Mr. Gibbons and I in concert, but it went over the top.
The professor appeared at length, and we were all whisked some thirty
kilometers to a luncheon worth having. Afterward we were taken to the
Chinese camp. Chinatown, we’ll call it, is where the Chink laborers
are mobilized when they first arrive and kept until their various
specialties are discovered. Then each is assigned to the job he can
do best. I was told I mustn’t mention the number of Chinamen now in
France, but I can say, in their own language, it’s a biggee lottee.
They wear a uniform that consists of blue overalls, a blue coat, and no
shirt whatever, which, I think, is bad advertising for their national
trade. They brought shirts with them, it seems, but are more comfy
without.
The minimum wage is three francs a day. Two-thirds of what they earn
is paid them here, the other third given to their families in China.
The system of hiring is unique. No names are used, probably because
most Chinks have Sam Lee as a monniker, and the paymaster would get all
mixed up with an army of Sam Lees. They are numbered and their finger
prints are taken by an agent in China. He sends these identification
marks to the camp here, and when the Chinks arrive they are checked up
by a finger-print expert from Scotland Yard. This gentleman said there
had been several cases where the Chinaman landing here was a ringer,
some “friend” back home having signed up and then coaxed the ringer to
come in his place, believing, apparently, that the plot would not be
detected and that his profit would be the one-third share of the wage
that is paid in China. The ringer’s family would be done out of its
pittance, but that, of course, would make no difference to the ringer’s
friend. The finger-print system serves not only to prevent the success
of cute little schemes like that, but also to amuse the Chinks, who are
as proud of their prints as if they had designed them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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