it is possible to distinguish two sorts of hospitality, one which is given to a person because of his introductions, and the other which is given to the person who has no introductions, the one given on the strength of a man's importance, the other on the strength of the common love of mankind. america is rich in the one species, she is not so rich in the other.
there is no country in the world where an introduction helps you more than in the united states. in this respect how vastly more hospitable the americans are than the british! it is wonderful the extent to which an american will put himself to trouble in order to help a properly introduced visitor to see america. it is a real hospitality, and it springs from a great belief in america and in the american people, and a realisation of the fact that if nation and individuals are to co-operate to do things in the world, they must unbend and think of others beside themselves.
to me, in the literary and artistic clubs of new york, in the city institutions and schools, in the houses of the rich and cultured, and in the homes of the poor,[pg 142] america breathed kindness. new york seemed to me more friendly and hospitable than any other great city i had lived in. there also, as in russia, one person came out and took me by the hand, and was america to me.
but when i shed respectability and the cheap fame of having one's portrait and pages of "write-up" in the papers and put pack on back, and sallied forth merely as a man i found that the other and more precious kind of hospitality was not easily come by. little is given anonymously in the united states.
not that the country people despise the tramp, or hate him or set the dogs on him or even refuse him a breakfast now and then, but that they simply won't have him in their houses for the night, and are otherwise indifferent to his hardships. they do not look on the stranger as a fellow-man but as a loose wheel, a utility lying rusting in a field; or at best they look upon him as a man who will "make good," who will get a job later on and earn his living. no one is good enough for the american till he has "made good." but this is the same in all commercialised countries, commercialism kills the old christian charity, the hospitality of house and mind and heart.
an indiana farm
an indiana farm: the wind-well behind it, the wheatfield in front.
in the old colonial days there was extraordinary hospitality in america, and this still survives in the west and north and south in places out of touch with the great industrial beehive of the east and centre.[pg 143] the feeling still survives in the spirit that prevents americans printing prohibitions. you never see the notice "trespassers will be prosecuted," though i do not know what one is to make of the uncharitable poster that frequently met my gaze in indiana and illinois:
keep out!
that means you.
that is brutal.
tramping up to williamsport from scranton i encountered forty-eight hours' rain, and only with difficulty on the second night did i obtain shelter. after being refused three times the first rainy evening, i found an old covered well beside an empty, padlocked shed. in this i spent twenty hours, sleeping the night and waking to a day of down-pour.
it was an interesting little hermitage, the three walls were of stone but the roof and floor of wood. one side of the building was completely open to wind and weather. in a corner was a dark square of clear water—the well. half-way up the stone wall was a narrow ledge, and there i slept. i covered the ledge with two sacks, for pillow i had a book, a duplicate pair of boots, and a silken scarf. i slept with my feet in a sack and a thick tweed coat spread over the rest of me,—slept well. by day i sat on a box and looked out at a deserted garden, and the rain pouring on the trees and rank grass. there were young pines and hemlocks[pg 144] and maples, and a shaggy hickory tree. beyond them an apple orchard climbed over a very green hill, and the branches were all crooked and gnarled and pointing. the blossoms had shed their petals, and there was much young fruit.
i gathered dry wood and made a fire on the threshold, and dried wet wood and boiled a kettle, the smoke blowing in to me all the while, and the raindrops hissing and dying as they fell into the embers.
about mid-day a dutch farmer came and stood in front of the little house, and stared for some minutes and said nought.
i hailed him: "good-day!"
he did not reply to this but inquired:
"hev you not seen that notice on the wall—'any one meddling with this house will be treated as he deserves'?"
i had not.
"waal," said he, "it's there. so you'll put that fire out."
i complied.
"it's a wet day," said i.
"yes, it's wet."
"i'd like to get put up for the night somewhere, and get a good meal. do you know of any one who would do it?"
he was silent for some while, and stared at me as if irritated, and then he said:
[pg 145]
"guess about no one in this hollow'd take any one in. but you might try at the store at the top of the hill."
"couldn't you take me in?"
"no; couldn't do it."
"then, could you put me up a meal?"
"we have been out of food and are living on buckwheat cakes."
"i wouldn't mind some of them and some milk."
"no, no. no use. wife wouldn't have any one in."
after some converse he learned that i was british, and he said, "there was one of yours here two-three years back."
"what did he think of this country?"
"he said it was the darndest country he ever saw."
there was no help for it. i had to abandon the well and go out through the never-ceasing down-pour and seek shelter and a decent meal. on my way to the store i met another farmer, and we had this interchange of talk:
"can you put me up for the night?"
"no."
"can you make me up a meal?"
"no."
"i'll pay you for it. you can have a quarter or so for a hot meal."
"we've just had our supper, and the women are[pg 146] doing other things now. there is a place on top of the hill."
a mile farther on i came to a general store. it was locked up, and as i stared into the window the owner eyed me from a house over the way.
he came out, looking at me apprehensively.
"can you put me up for the night?" i asked.
"no; not to-night."
"why not?"
"we don't take only our own people. there's a place two miles on."
"two miles through the wet."
"you're right."
"i can pay you what you get from your own people, and a little extra perhaps."
the storekeeper shook his head and answered:
"my wife is a little unwell and does not want the trouble."
"i can tell you you wouldn't get turned away like this in my country," said i.
"where are you from?"
"from england."
"oh, wouldn't they?"
"there are plenty of places where they'd take you in without charging for it. there are places in europe where they'd come out and ask you into their houses on such a night."
"i dessay, i dessay."
[pg 147]
"well, i think the people about here are very inhospitable."
"i reckon you're right."
"i think you are inhospitable."
"um!"
"well, you're a storekeeper, i want some bread and some butter, and anything else you've got that doesn't need to be cooked."
"are you hungry?"
i told him i was, and he determined to be more charitable than i had given him the name for.
"well," said he, "i can let you have a slice of bread and butter and a cup of cawfee i dessay."
"thanks. i should like to buy a loaf of bread and a quarter pound of butter all the same," said i.
"we haven't any bread in the store. the baker leaves it three times a week, and we've only enough for ourselves; but i can let you have a slice, and that'll keep you going till you get to unityville. it's only about two miles away. there's a hotel there. the folks have taken away the keeper's licence, and you won't be able to get anything to drink. but he'll take you in for a dollar. you'll get all you want. in half an hour you'll be there. there are two more big hills, and then you're there."
he brought the bread, and as i was ravenous i was tamed thereby, and i thanked him. the bread and butter and coffee were gratis. he was really a kindly[pg 148] man. i shouldn't wonder if his wife had an acid temperament. the night's lodging, no doubt, depended more on her than on him.
i sat on rolls of wire-netting outside the store and finished the little meal. then i went away. over the hills in the dusk! it was real colonial weather; the light of kerosene lamps streamed through the downpour of rain, the dark woods on each side of the strange high road grew more mysterious and lonesome, silent except for the throbbing of the rain on the leaves and on the ground. i stopped at a house to ask the way, but when i knocked no one answered. i looked through the kitchen window at the glow of the fire and at the family round the well-spread table, and the farmer's wife directed me through the glass.
at last—in a flow of liquid mud, as if arrested in floating down-hill—a miserable town and a hotel.
when i asked the host to put me up he said his wife had gone to bed with a headache, and if i had not rated him soundly i should have been turned into the rain once again.
"well," said he, "i cahnt give you any hot supper, you'll have to take what's on hand."
so saying, he opened a tin of boston beans, emptied them on to a plate, and put before me a saucerful of those little salt biscuits called oysterettes. my supper!
in the bar, deprived of ale, sat half a dozen youths eating chocolate and birch beer, and talking excitedly[pg 149] of a baseball match that was to be played on the morrow. mine host was a portly american of the white-nigger type. the villagers, exercising their local option, had taken away his right to sell intoxicating liquor, and now on the wall he had an oleographic picture of an angel guiding a little girl over a footbridge, and saving her from the water. somehow i think this was unintentional humour on the part of mine host. he was an obtuse fellow, who mixed the name jesus christ inextricably with his talk, and swore b'god. but he gave me a warm bed. and he had his dollar.
another evening, about a month later, i sought a lodging in a town on erie shore. the weather was very hot, and i was tramping beside marshes over which clouds of mosquitoes were swarming. there was no good resting-place in the bosom of nature, so i imagined in my heart, vainly, that i might find refuge with man.
i came to a town and went into the store and asked where i would be likely to find a night's lodging. the storekeeper mentioned a house in one of the bye-streets. but when i applied there the landlady said her husband was away, and she would be afraid to have a stranger in his absence. i went to another house: they hadn't any room. i went to a third: they told me a man there was on the point of death and must not be disturbed. i returned to the store,[pg 150] and the storekeeper said it would be impossible to be put up for the night anywhere in the village. i told him i considered the harbouring of travellers a christian duty.
"they don't feel it so about here," said he politely.
there was an empty park-seat at the end of the main street, i went and sat on it and made my supper. whilst i sat there several folk came and gazed at me, and thought i might be plotting revenge. in america they are very much afraid of the refused tramp—he may set houses on fire.
but i was quite cheerful and patient. i had been sleeping out regularly for weeks, and shelter refused did not stir a spirit of revenge in me. in any case, i was out to see america as she is, not simply to be entertained. i was having my little lesson—"and very cheap at the price."
but i found hospitality that night. as i sat on the park-seat a tall labourer with two water-pails came across some fields to me, passed me, and went to the town pump and drew water. "surely," said i to myself, "that is a russian."
i hailed him as he came back.
"zdrastvitye! roosky?"
i had guessed aright; he replied in russian.
"are you working in a gang?" i inquired.
"no, only on the section of the railway; there are six of us. we have charge of this section. where[pg 151] are you going to? to chicago? looking for a job? going to friends there? where are you going to sleep? this village is not a good one. ne dobry. if you sleep there, on the seat, up comes the politzman, and he locks you up. so you be three weeks late in getting to chicago perhaps. why do you walk? you get on freight train and you be there to-morrow or the day after. you come with me now. i sleep in a closed truck with five mates, four are magyars, one is a serb. it's very full up, and i don't know how the magyars would take it if i brought you in. but i know a good place. a freight train is waiting here all night. there are plenty of places to sleep, and you go on in it to-morrow morning to toledo."
he showed me an empty truck. i was very much touched, and i thanked him warmly.
"how do you believe," he asked in parting, "are you a pole or are you orthodox?"
"oh," said i, "i'm not russian, i've only lived some years there. i'm a british subject."
this somewhat perplexed him. but he smiled. "ah well," said he, "good-bye, sbogom—be with god," and we parted.
a little later he returned and said that if i were lonely and didn't mind a crush, the magyars would not object to my presence. but by that time i had swept the sawdusty floor of the truck, made a bed,[pg 152] and was nearly asleep. "thanks, brother," said i, "but i'm quite comfortable now."
the russians are a peculiarly hospitable people. their attitude of mind is charitable, and even in commercial america they retain much of the spirit that distinguishes them in europe. i met a queer old russian tramp in eastern pennsylvania; he exemplified what i mean. he was, however, rather an original.
in a district inhospitable to tramps i obtained my dinner by paying for it. in this way and by these words:
"can you give me a meal for a quarter?"
"well, if you've got the coin i reckon we can do that."
i was sitting at a meal of canned beef, beans, and red-currant jelly, sipping from a mug of coffee, in which might possibly be discerned the influence of a spoonful of milk. the farmer was cross-examining me on my business—where had i come from? was i looking for a job? was i walking for wager?—when a strange figure appeared at the window, a broad-faced, long-haired, long-bearded tramp in a tattered cloak.
he approached the house, and about ten feet from the window where we were sitting he stood stock-still, leaning on his staff and staring at us.
"a hobo—looks a bit fierce," said the farmer, opening the window. "how do? wha—yer—want?"
the cream-vans come to buy up all the cream
"the cream-vans come to buy up all the cream."
[pg 153]
"give me a piece and a cup o' milk," said the foreigner.
"a polander," said the farmer. "i guess i turn him over to the missus. sue, here's a man wants a crust and some sour milk."
"ee caant 'ave it," cried the farmer's wife.
"no go," said the farmer, and shook his head at the tramp.
the latter did not utter a word of reproach, but what was my astonishment to see him cross himself delicately, and whisper a benediction. a russian, i surmised.
"it is not over-safe refusing them fellers," said the farmer. "they may burn your barn next night. i reckon sue might have put him up something. hear him curse as he went."
the old russian was going eastward, i westward; but i resolved to turn back, carry him some bread, make some coffee, and exchange those tokens of the heart which are due from one wanderer to another upon the road. i hurried back and overtook him.
the old man was nothing loth to sit on a bank of grass whilst i bought a quart of milk at a farm. "coffee, uncle," said i. "russian coffee. varshaffsky, such as you get at home in russia, eh?" uncle smiled incredulously.
"twigs, uncle, sticks, dry grasses; we must make a fire," said i. uncle got up and collected a heap of[pg 154] wood. my coffee-pot soon reposed on a cheerful blaze. the creamy milk soon began to effervesce and boil. in went six lumps of sugar and eight spoonfuls of coffee. uncle recognised he was going to have a good drink when he saw that no water was to be added. it was a pleasure to see him with a mug of it in one hand and a hunk of good white bread in the other.
i learned that my friend was tramping his way to new york. at that city he would buy a ticket to libau, and from libau would walk home to his native village, or he would get under a seat in a train. he had come 250 miles of his journey from minnesota in an empty truck of a freight train; perhaps he would get another good lift before long.
"why are you going home? can't you find work?"
"going to pray," said he. "i am going to my village to see my father's grave, and then to a monastery. i would finish my years in russia and be buried in russian ground."
"i suppose you didn't take root here; american life doesn't suit you? didn't you like americans?"
"well, i lived with other fellows from our village, and we succeeded sufficiently well. some seasons we gained a lot of money. but i never felt quite at home. we reckoned we would build a church after a while—a high wooden one that one could see from the wheat-fields when we were at work. but my[pg 155] friend turned evangelical; he became a sort of molokan, and one by one all the other fellows joined him and they went to meetings. i was the only one who remained orthodox. they reckoned i got drunk because i was orthodox; but i reckon i got drunk because they were evangelicals—because they had all deserted me, and i was lonely. it's hard on a man to be all alone."
"and why did you leave, uncle? what determined you to go?"
"i'll tell you. i had a strange dream. i saw my father, who is, as you know, dead long since and in his grave, and i saw a figure of st. serge—st. serge was his angel—and both lifted their arms and pointed to the east. i knew it was the east because there was a great red sunset behind them, and they pointed right away from it, in the other direction. when i wakened up i remembered this, and it made a great impression on me. i told basil, my friend, who worked with me lumbering, and he laughed. 'but,' i said, 'that's not the thing to laugh at.' at last i decided to start for home. the idea that i might die in america and be buried there was always pricking me. i am not american. the american god won't take me when i die. some of the fellows are going to take out their papers, because a jew came round pestering them with books to learn english and prepare for examination, saying they ought to make themselves[pg 156] citizens; but that is not for me. i am russian. mother russia! she is mine. they may keep you down and oppress you there, but the land is holy, and men are brothers.
"when i started home i was surprised that so many farmers said 'no,' when i wanted to sleep in their barns. i even got angry and shouted at them. but as i went further i got patient, and came to pray to god every day and often, to give me my bread and bring me safely to russia. then i got peace, and never was afraid or angry, reckoning that even if i did die in america i should be dying on the way home, and my face would be turned towards russia. i reckon that if i die my soul will get there just the same."
"it's not often that in russia, when a man is refused bread, he says, 'glory be to god!'" said i, recalling how the tramp had crossed himself after the farmer's refusal.
"no; not often. i thought out that for myself. at first i was silent when people turned me away. i gave thanks only when they took me in. but after a while my silence seemed a sort of impatience and angriness. so i recollected god even then, and crossed myself. a tramp has no ikons, so he needs all sorts of things to remind him."
the poor exile had told his story, and looked at me with dim, affectionate eyes. he held my hand tightly[pg 157] in his as we said, "good-bye"; he going eastward, i westward.
that was a way of living in the fear of god. that old man had real hospitality in his soul.
but in depicting the american farmer and storekeeper it would be unfair to characterise him as an inhospitable person. he is a great deal more hospitable than his actions would suggest. he is a kindly being. he has love towards his neighbour, and is more inclined to say "yes" to the wanderer than "no." but he has often been victimised. he has been robbed, assaulted, insulted, his property has been damaged, barns set on fire, his crops in part destroyed by wilfully malicious vagabonds. the behaviour of the tramp is often a sort of petty anarchism; he has suffered in the heartless commercial machine, has got out of it only by luck, and his hand is against every man. he has cast over honour, principle, and conscience, and is able to gloat secretly over every little cynical act or meanness perpetrated at the expense of the good-natured but established farmer.
america has more tramps than any other country except russia, and it would have more than russia but for the fact that there are often about a million pilgrim-tramps on the russian roads. the russian tramp is, moreover, a gentle creature; the american is often a foul-mouthed hooligan.
in several little districts that i passed through i[pg 158] was questioned by the farmers as to whether i belonged to a gang of tramps who had been lurking in the neighbourhood for weeks. a tramp was evidently regarded as an enemy of society. whenever i remarked on the inhospitality of the people a rueful expression came over the farmer's face, and he would begin to tell me that the old days were gone, money was tighter, the cost of living was higher, taxes were double, the land did not yield what it did of old, there were many demands on them here; but out in the west it was different. there, as in former times, every farm-house had open doors and free table to the tramp and wanderer. no one was more welcome than the tramp, he brought news and stories of personal adventure; he might even be persuaded to do work in the fields.
i believe the americans would be a truly charitable and hospitable people if the evils of over-commercialism were remedied, and if business were made kinder and more human, and taxes were evenly distributed. there is an immense good-will towards man in america: it is only rendered abortive by mammon. i for my part have to thank numberless farmers, east and west, for kindly interest and good talks, loaves of bread, cups of coffee, and pleasant meals. several times when i have been cooking by the side of a road a farm wife has come running out to me with something hot from her kitchen, with an "eat this, poor man, and god bless you, you must be hungry."
ploughed upland all dotted over with white heaps of fertiliser
"ploughed upland all dotted over with white heaps of fertiliser."
[pg 159]
then the farmer's wife is often mollified when you are able to buy her milk and eggs. she is the person who counts in the farm. she must be approached; the husband has very little say in what shall be given to the wanderer. as a fantastic old tramp said to me:
"whilst you are yet afar off the farmer's wife standing on her threshold, espies you and takes you to be a hungry lion pawing the road and seeking whom you may devour. she calls to her husband and he peereth at you. perchance she fetcheth down the ancient blunderbuss from the wall; but when you come closer and hail her in english she says to herself with relief, even with pleasure, 'it is a man,' one of the attractive male species. you ask for bread and milk,—oh yes she has it, and with a scared look still on her face, though transfigured with a mild gladness, she fetcheth you bread and milk and eggs; and then if you can pay her market price the scared look goes away entirely; and out of the goodness of her heart and the abundance of her pantry she addeth cookies and apple butter, and for these you pay nought—they are her favour. don't ask her, however, to put you up for the night."
the tramp always has a hard time to get a night's lodging. a poor, weak, bedraggled jew, whom i met shortly after the forty-eight hours' rain, told me that he had been all one night in the wet—his pedlar's pack had got ruined, he was suffering from pneumonia,[pg 160] and had thought that such weather meant sure death to him. he had tried every house in five towns and had been refused at every one. it was a sad comment on modern life.
in the middle ages, and in the days when christianity meant more than it does now, the refusal of shelter was almost unheard of. and in peasant russia to-day it would be considered a sin. an old pilgrim-tramp once said to me, "when we leave this world to get to heaven we all have to go on tramp, and those find shelter there who sheltered wanderers here." but americans will not be judged by that standard. the early christians received strangers and often entertained angels unawares, but the modern american is afraid that in taking in a strange tramp he may be sheltering an outcast spirit. once tramps were angels; now they are rebel-angels.
