The rain was falling on the dirty
pavements of Liverpool as Jerome left the vessel after
her arrival. Passing the custom-house, he took
a cab, and proceeded to Brown’s Hotel, Clayton
Square.
Finding no employment in Liverpool,
Jerome determined to go into the interior and seek
for work. He, therefore, called for his bill,
and made ready for his departure. Although but
four days at the Albion, he found the hotel charges
larger than he expected; but a stranger generally
counts on being “fleeced” in travelling
through the Old World, and especially in Great Britain.
After paying his bill, he was about leaving the room,
when one of the servants presented himself with a low
bow, and said,
“Something for the waiter, sir?”
“I thought I had paid my bill,”
replied the man, somewhat surprised at this polite
dun.
“I am the waiter, sir, and gets
only what strangers see fit to give me.”
Taking from his pocket his nearly
empty purse, Jerome handed the man a half-crown; but
he had hardly restored it to his pocket, before his
eye fell on another man in the waiting costume.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“Whatever your honor sees fit to give me, sir.
I am the tother waiter.”
The purse was again taken from the
pocket, and another half-crown handed out. Stepping
out into the hall, he saw standing there a good-looking
woman, in a white apron, who made a very pretty courtesy.
“What’s your business?” he inquired.
“I am the chambermaid, sir, and looks after
the gentlemen’s beds.”
Out came the purse again, and was
relieved of another half-crown; whereupon another
girl, with a fascinating smile, took the place of the
one who had just received her fee.
“What do you want?” demanded the now half-angry
Jerome.
“Please, sir, I am the tother chambermaid.”
Finding it easier to give shillings
than half-crowns, Jerome handed the woman a shilling,
and again restored his purse to his pocket, glad that
another woman was not to be seen.
Scarcely had he commenced congratulating
himself, however, before three men made their appearance,
one after another.
“What have you done for me?” he
asked of the first.
“I am the boots, sir.”
The purse came out once more, and
a shilling was deposited in the servant’s hand.
“What do I owe you?” he inquired of the
second.
“I took your honor’s letter to the post,
yesterday, sir.”
Another shilling left the purse.
“In the name of the Lord, what
am I indebted to you for?” demanded Jerome,
now entirely out of patience, turning to the last of
the trio.
“I told yer vership vot time it vas, this morning.”
“Well!” exclaimed the
indignant man, “ask here who o’clock it
is, and you have got to pay for it.”
He paid this last demand with a sixpence,
regretting that he had not commenced with sixpences
instead of half-crowns.
Having cleared off all demands in
the house, he started for the railway station; but
had scarcely reached the street, before he was accosted
by an old man with a broom in his hand, who, with
an exceedingly low bow, said,
“I is here, yer lordship.”
“I did not send for you; what is your business?”
demanded Jerome.
“I is the man what opened your
lordship’s cab-door, when your lordship came
to the house on Monday last, and I know your honor
won’t allow a poor man to starve.”
Putting a sixpence in the old man’s
hand, Jerome once more started for the depot.
Having obtained letters of introduction to persons
in Manchester, he found no difficulty in getting a
situation in a large manufacturing house there.
Although the salary was small, yet the situation was
a much better one than he had hoped to obtain.
His compensation as out-door clerk enabled him to
employ a man to teach him at night, and, by continued
study and attention to business, he was soon promoted.
After three years in his new home,
Jerome was placed in a still higher position, where
his salary amounted to fifteen hundred dollars a year.
The drinking, smoking, and other expensive habits,
which the clerks usually indulged in, he carefully
avoided.
Being fond of poetry, he turned his
attention to literature. Johnson’s “Lives
of the Poets,” the writings of Dryden, Addison,
Pope, Clarendon, and other authors of celebrity, he
read with attention. The knowledge which he thus
picked up during his leisure hours gave him a great
advantage over the other clerks, and caused his employers
to respect him far more than any other in their establishment.
So eager was he to improve the time that he determined
to see how much he could read during the unemployed
time of night and morning, and his success was beyond
his expectations.