My Life in the Ring and Out by Jack Johnson

Author:Jack Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2018-07-06T16:00:00+00:00

LUCILLE CAMERON JOHNSON

CHAPTER VIII

ADVENTURES ON HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS

THERE are few countries in which I have not traveled. I have not only loitered along the beaten paths of the old and new worlds, but I have gone into many strange and out-of-the-way corners of the globe and mingled with strange and little known people. I have rubbed elbows with the aristocrats of the European capitals; mingled with the frivolous in the noted cafés and restaurants of the continent; I have disported on the French and Italian Rivieras; I have been a guest in some of the finest homes of Mayfair, in London, where the élite and semi-royalty gathered in staid and dignified receptions. I have frequented exclusive clubs in St. James Street, London, and attended gatherings of notables in Paris. In Moscow my associates were Russian field marshals and aids of Czar Nicholas; in Budapest, Bucharest and Vienna my haunts were among some of the most wonderful clubs and restaurants in the world, where I met artists, scientists, writers and idle rich; in Australia I was the guest of notable men of that country. Having thus often found myself in the most exclusive circles of men the world over, I have on the other hand leaped to the other extreme and lived side by side with the aborigines and savages of the South Seas, of the Fiji Islands, and the Hinterland in Australia; the provincials of French and English possessions; the semi-savages—the Yaqui of Mexico; ruffians and adventurers of South America and the West Indies. I have been on the seas with smuggling crews and been a fellow-passenger of Chinese coolies who were being smuggled across the border from Mexico into the United States. I have had opportunities to observe denizens of the underworld in nearly every country of the world; I have witnessed scenes among them that have no parallel even in the most imaginative fiction of melodramatic writers.

It is not my purpose to enter into a routine account of my travels, nor to attempt any description of the geography, commerce, races or customs of the lands and peoples I have learned to know. That has been done too many times by others more accomplished than I in the art of the narrative, and there is nothing I could add that would be new or interesting. Since this, however, is a personal account of my experiences I shall dwell only on certain outstanding happenings and situations in which I was concerned, not that they depict me in any particularly favorable light, or brand me as a globetrotter, but because I believe they will entertain and amuse my readers.

There is much I could write about the great World War, because I was in close contact with events immediately preceding that catastrophe and situations which came to pass in the first few months of the conflict. But of this, I am going to say little more, for that subject has been discussed and written about so voluminously that there is not much left for me to say.

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