His limited knowledge of English was regarded by the captain
as a personal affront, and that fire-eating old-timer made it his
particular business to let young Pulitzer feel the weight of his
authority. At last the overwork and the constant bullying drove J. P.
into revolt, and he left the boat after a violent quarrel with the
captain.
Whenever J. P. reached this point in the story, and I heard him tell it
several times, his face lighted up with amusement, and he had to stop
until he had enjoyed a good laugh.
"Well, my God!" he would conclude, "about two years later, when I had
learned English and studied some law and been made a notary public, this
very same captain walked into my office in St. Louis one day to have
some documents sealed. As soon as he saw me he stopped short, as if he
had seen a ghost, and said, "Say, ain't you the damned cuss that I fired
off my boat?"
"I told him yes, I was. He was the most surprised man I ever saw, but
after he had sworn himself hoarse he faced the facts and gave me his
business."
Mr. Pulitzer always declared that the proudest day of his life, the
occasion on which his vanity was most tickled, was when he was elected
to the Missouri Legislature. Things were evidently run in a rather
happy-go-lucky fashion in those early days, since, as he admitted with a
reminiscent smile, he was absolutely disqualified for election, being
neither an American citizen nor of age.
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