Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1916 — INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES

Railway Porter No. 20 Worthy of Consideration

NEW YORK. — When you arrive at the Grand Central station and a polite but dusky porter offers to carry your bag, treat him with respect. He may know more than you do. Especially if he has “No. 20" on his cap.

Consider it a great honor to have your bag carried by “No. 20.” He is George , Gabriel, only Abyssinian in the United States. He speaks eighteen languages. He is a polished gentleman and a friend of Lord Kitchener. George is treated with great deference by the Grand Central officials. Nobody calls him “John” instead of his right name, and nobody remarks genially, “Hey, you inky son of darkness, what you doin’ loafin’ around here?” As to dignity, Chaun-

cey Depew and Mr. Gabriel are in the same class. How many college professors can say they speak English, French, German, Russian, Greek, Polish, Slavish, Turkish, Armenian, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Syrian, Indian and five African tongues? George can do it. If it weren’t for the war, George wouldn't be toting grips at the big station. He has a white wife and two little Bons in Austria, and some day he will be able to go back there. Here is George’s story, as he tells it: “My name, in Abyssinian, is Oualdo Gorghis, but they call me George Gabriel. When 1 was ten years old my father was killed in the Italian war and I lost track of my mother and have never been able to find her. Then I,ord Kitchener took me with him and I went to India and Egypt, acting for two yei&s as Abyssinian interpreter for British diplomatists. “Then I went to Mecca, the forbidden city. Mohammedans would have killed me there, but I pretended to be *a Moslem and knew enough about the religion to answer questions correctly. I passed through Damascus and stopped six months in Jerusalem, following which I entered the service-of Sir Nicola Okoma In Constantinople. It. was there I learned most of my languages. There are many peoples in Constantinople and for three years I applied myself to mastering their tongues. Next I was three years m Paris, and from there I went to London for two years. My next homes were in Berlin and Vienna, and I married in the latter city. . “I have been a guide to Colonel Roosevelt in Africa and I also was guide and interpreter for W. B. Hurd in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Bulgaria and South America. The governments of Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey have given me medals for languages.”