LIFE IN AMERICA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 82, Issue 305, 24 December 1938, Page 8

LIFE IN AMERICA

AUSTRALIAN POSES AS U.S. CITIZEN DEPORTED AFTER ELEVEN YEARS | Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, Dec. 23. Deported from the United States where, for 11 years, he lived a nomadic existence as a salesman, “hobo," labourer and real estate agent among other things, E. W. Ellis, an Australian, who says he deserted his ship when it reached New Orleans from Rotterdam, passed through Auckland to-day by the Monterey on his way back to Melbourne, where he was born. His speech betrayed many traces of American idiom but his accent was but slightly different from that of the average Australian. But for a slip he made when talking to a Californian detective, he might still be in the United States. For some years before he left Melbourne in 1927 he had conducted areal estate business. He wound that up and left for England. After a brief holiday there he went across to Holland and it was while he was at Rotterdam that he had an opportunity bf ■signing on as a seaman on a round trip to the United States. “The life didn’t appeal to me," he said, “and just before the ship reached New Orleans another seaman and 1 decided to go ashore and stay there. We made good our escape and after walking many miles in the darkness we arrived at a farmhouse early the following morning. A negress was baking bread and she gave us breakfast. We wandered around the countryside until the hue and cry had subsided and at last I decided to I spend some of the money I had on a passenger trip to Tampa, Florida, where 1 felt sure I should get a job. “Soon after 1 arrived at Tampa I got a job selling mattresses. In three months I made enough money to go north and I went up to New Yofk city. In the meantime I had read in some old newspaper files about the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 and that the city records were destroyed, so I decided to use that information as to rriy birth-place in case anyone asked me where I came from. The few who did ask me seemed quite satisfied that I was an American citizen. I sold real estate on Staten Island, sewing machines in New York city and circulation fw Benipapcrs in the Middle-West. Did Well at Times. “At times I did very w«H. id others I was right up against it and in the teeth of very bad winter when the whole countrywide was snowbound 1 saw some pitiful sights among the American poor—sights I’d never seen before. I ‘rode the rods’ (stole rides on the railways) for about 4000 miles, slept in empty box-cars, on top or covered trucks and underneath tnem in search for work. I sold sewing machines for eight years in New York and they were happy years. I learned to like America and the Americans but wished to remain a Britisher. “I eventually made my way across the Continent and arrived at Los Angeles. I was talking one day to a detective when, quite inadvertently while off my guard I told him I was an Australian. That led to questioning and before I knew where I was I was clapped into the Los Angeles county gaol, where they kept me for 47 days before putting me on board the Monterey. Excepting for the monotony of the food and the prison routine, I was wejl treated." Because he gave his word not to attempt to escape, Captain Johansen, master of the Monterey, allowed Ellis his liberty on the voyage south, but he was not permitted to land at any intermediate port. While at Auckland, for instance, he had to stay in his cabin and report hourly to the purser. He said he willingly did so, since the alternative was a voyage in the ship’s brig. He had no idea of what he would do when he arrived at Sydney.