Show BOY STOWAWAY WON THROUGH INTO THE LAND OF PROMISE julian gabowsky G tho russian stowaway YORK hla eyes looked as NEW if they bad been frozen in bis head the board of special in gazed curiously at the boy before them in a small hot audience chamber at ellis island it was examining julian grabowsky a rus elan stowaway from the steamship bursk grabowsky Grabow eky the frozen eyed moved not a muscle his immobility wag embarrassing would he but cry or curse or contradict himself the keen eyed men exam ining him would know how to act the story be told seemed straight obviously true but the lad a silent ence to whatever fate bad for him was a poser dignity the dignity of stumpy nineteen year old tragedy in borrowed trousers never wavered his yellow ayea held neither insolence nor fear nor apparent pathos only fa tigue behind them bis brain also tired was incapable of connected thought only such vague impressions as these passed through four rubles 64 copeci is the tare from wilna to elbau my mother needs three meals a day why do you put the ballast room so near the boilers of steamships how long will they keep ma here how could I 1 escape what Is america filhe when julian grabowsky was als covered a few weeks ago in the bowels of the steamship bursk hiding behind a small fort of ballast bags and covering an empty water bottle and halt devoured canister of crackers with his coat he bad the moment of triumph that went from bis eyes later on much in his memory his memory went back to miles of gleaming rails that he traveled between the forest fringed town of wll na in southwestern russia and the port of he lived over again bis three weeks job as stevedore in LI bau he repainted the iron sides of the bursk as be bad done for eight days until he had located the steamers food supply and the hiding places in its ballast room he crouched behind bis fortifications again be heard the clamor of casting kofl he renewed the shout that he had smothered when he felt the iron bull meet the first deep sea swell in that long moment the weariness of 70 hours spent in the hot darkness of bis cage near the furnaces vanish ed a flash of impudence came into his ayea well be said in auslan to the ihla s captain you ve found me what are you going to do about it the kurst was three days out at sea the steamer had carried him a long way on the voyage to america it looked like a triumph to julian the captain did about it as be bad done with dozens of other stowaways julian grabowsky did not know it at the time but the rule for treating stowaways Is as inescapable as the rule of three ho was washed fed up and allotted to a bunk on the steamer four days later when the steamer reached america be was again wash ed fed up and allotted a bunk at el island then be was quietly led before the board of inquiry abo problems of stowaways are dally food for the board of special inquiry not yet promised land grabowsky s look of triumph fled after the first interview his past was analyzed and judged by experts the of ol 01 future aa a self reliant american citizen were weigh cd by the same experts to whom grabowsky was only the last comer in a long procession 0 stowaways on one hand lay to walk through the forest of skyscrapers that Is visible from the iron barred eells island window on to whatever lay beyond for grabowsky on the other the freedom to ride safely back to the port of whence be came the lad waited tor two long weeks in the detention ward of bills Is land after he bad told his story to the board twice he was refused ad bittance mit tance and each time his case was appealed to a higher authority by the russian co clety which looks after its own in this country with unexampled care well knowing in what sore straits thousands of russians leave the fatherland on august 8 the answer came in ono word admit ted his mothers sisters husband s brother a remote family connection who knew the only by name had refunded his steerage fare to the bursk s purser and supplied the necessary 25 tor entrance grab bowsky left for the home of bis benefactor in newark the same night now that the bother that was made at the gateway of the promised land about the disposition of grabowsky s short body and his adventurous soul is over als eyes are no longer frozen the dead look came into them only when the lad heard that after months of blind struggling against odds that became greater and greater as he went on bis fate etall hung in the balance it was his story of those odds which ataop out as unique even to who untangle strange knots in scores of lives daily that was his strongest recommendation to the board tragedy in life in russia julian grabowsky began life in a comfortable home his small erect body his quiet gravity his careful russian speech still show hta early breeding ten years ago his father was the employer of men in a tannery in ellna perhaps it was poor management that caused bis fall ure julian can not swear that it but bis business began to slump at the precise moment that it became whispered about the town that tie was voting with the socialists aft er the elder grabowsky had the temerity to speak in public tor the rad leal party his failure became swift and certain not only did the azars czars government withdraw its orders but the banks refused him credit with in a year in short he was penniless that isn t an unusual story in russia twice after that the elder grabow sky tried to commit suicide twice he was discovered and prevented these are the only episodes that changed a muscle of the boy 8 face when he told them to the board his eyes fill ed with tears when he related what happened a month after the last sul aldal attempt grabowsky disappear ed unaccountably and for good his son does not believe he went away of hla own accord siberia lies con near to russia especially to abo homes of the socialists julian aged nineteen now thus became at twelve the head ot a family of one invalid woman and four ahll dren two of them the two next youngest to julian are geniuses their emigrant brother bays so with pride ono of hia reasons tor corn ing to america la bis desire to send to musical school where the can train bis knack of ing tunes on ft comet and peter to teacher who will improte his inborn craft with the piano keys worked a cobbler while their talents were julian was helping feed them working as a shoemaker for years he cobbled and by the end the seventh be bad worked up the magnificence of seven rubles week which la 3 SO with the consent of bis mother he saved a out of bis income this year a void in the family bill of fare was filled by charity early in june again with the consent of bis moth er and the blessings of bis little broth era he took the eight rubles 4 00 b bad abstracted and started by tor alban the russian port of departure tor america julian had never been away borne before and bis first and emotion in elbau was homesickness he had a few left but b spent most of them for post cards ta send home instead of food then h got work at the docks first as a porte and then as a ship s painter he pick ed out the bursk which was booked to leave tor new york the second week his chanco at last he had painted hundreds of feet ot the steel hull a exterior before he was summoned one bright day to paint the railing of tho upper deck then he ws ordered to decorate the iron plat ing of the engine room that order he regarded as nothing less than an intimation that he was chosen ol 01 heaven for behind the engine room lay the commissary store room and bolow it two tiers below hugging the furnaces a neighbor to the stoke bole was the pitch dark cavern where ballast of sand bags and pig iron are kept julian committed the walls that cavern to memory through hla finger tips during the moments snatched away from painting the en gino room and he made one stealthy and profitable visit to the food supply in tho store room the morning the bursk sailed ha lay bidden la an improvised trench of sand bags his provisions away beneath him touching the yer bottom of the bursk a hull he had lagged behind the night before unnoticed as the other laborers rushed tt get their pay when the final search for was made as it alwawi Is on every ship leaving ports tra by the america seeking emigrant julian made a cocoon of him self out of ballast bags it was al most airless but it was sight proof the inspector came flashed a lantern above the hidden body and passed on A step away the man baited III crouched and picked up a beer bottle full of drinking water it was ju reserve water supply betrayed by the shining nickel of the stopper the official cast his lantern over tb darkness again saw nothing and placidly threw the bottle back fiaai ly an hour later julian grabowsky was on his way to america the joy that came to the boy then soon died for the meager draughts ol 01 air that came through the cracks in the partition were hot they smelt ol 01 the nearby furnace the heat rose to SO degrees it passed into the nineties the boy believed be could not endure it yet he did endure it foi three days on the third be was discovered by the coal passers A few weeks more of such hardship would have ended the pale young man but now he is ready to go to work for the two young geniuses in wilna and for the old mother who balei charity yet must live on it new york world |