218 EAST PRUSSIA TO THE GOLDEN GATE 



bor, and that is just what makes life in the mines so free 

 and pleasant. There is no distinction of rank ; everybody 

 is his own boss; I do not meddle with anybody's affairs 

 just as nobody else would dare to interfere with mine. 

 The manner in which one man approaches another is 

 characteristic of the life here. The usual way of address- 

 ing a young man is to call him "boy;" or one man calls 

 another in a joking way ' ' Captain ' ' or ' ' Boots. ' ' The lat- 

 ter nickname they here give to one another on account 

 of the high boots which everybody wears. Generally, 

 however, people address one another by their first names, 

 and you may be acquainted with a man for years without 

 ever learning his family name or anything about his pri- 

 vate affairs. But since many men have the same first 

 name they are distinguished from one another by cer- 

 tain epithets, and by these they are known at the bar. 

 There is, for instance, a "long Johnny" and a "little 

 Johnny," a "Swedish Johnny" and a "Johnny Snakes." 

 The latter received his nickname on account of his being 

 often drunk; and when a man gets drunk they say that 

 he is "looking for snakes." Then there is a "red 

 Johnny" and a "blue Johnny," according to the color 

 of their shirts. I myself — to distinguish me from 

 another namesake, am called "Doctor Frank" or 

 "Colonel Frank." Corresponding to this free mode of 

 addressing one another is the ordinary daily intercourse; 

 nothing is easier than to get acquainted with one 

 another, yet without ever becoming intimate, in one word 

 —"sailor-like" well describes the whole situation. 

 Everywhere you hear people laugh, joke or sing, and if 

 you ask anybody: "how goes it?"— ninety-nine times out 

 of a hundred he will answer you: "First rate," that is, 

 excellently. 



Though most of the miners have been sailors or are 

 men used to manual labor, there is no lack of represent- 

 atives of the educated class. I am acquainted here with 

 several former clerks and supercargoes, one lawyer, a 

 Greek, formerly an officer of engineers, a professor from 

 the University of Strassburg, etc. My best friend, how- 



