a few inches shorter than Heidi with grey-blue eyes and blonde braids with amber highlights, let her sister take the lead.
“Levi says you might have work for us?” Heidi said in English with only a trace of an accent. Manon and I both raised our brows in surprise.
“We have a food canteen and wine bar on the Long Wharf. Our two women employees are needed in other jobs—one to help in our restaurant and the other to sell Levi’s work pants. So, we are looking for an experienced, capable couple to run our concession. Do you think you could handle the job? You start early, work late and as single women, you’d be fending off Lotharios right and left,” Manon said soberly and matter-of-factly.
Heidi laughed. “What’s new about dealing with aggressive men? Anneliese and I worked as barmaids in beer halls in Bremen because we are pretty and it was the only job we could find with the country in recession. Just like here, sailors and the upper class males thought they had a right to proposition us and try to pinch our asses as we served them; we were considered one step above the girls who sold themselves on the street to support jobless parents, siblings and kids. That’s part of why we scrimped and saved to come here, to escape dead end jobs in a spiritless port town. But so far, it’s no different here. There is so little work for women if they won’t sell themselves. We’ve been offered jobs in saloons and dance halls here, but we’ve turned them down because the employers expect us to do favors for them and their special clients. We’re currently doing laundry and scrubbing floors in a Dutch boarding house until we can find a job with more to offer,” Heidi said gravely. I noticed that Anneliese nodded vigorously to everything her sister said and Levi Strauss, who stood behind her, was holding her hand.
“The woman who tends our wine bar is Chilean. She is very attractive and isn’t shy to wear colorful peasant costumes that showcase her figure or to banter with clients. She claims she made as much or more in tips as her daily wage of $10.00 by dressing in costume. She prudently saved her earnings and now will be opening her own store. Is this something you would be comfortable doing here?” Manon directed her question to Anneliese who quickly dropped Levi’s hand held behind her back.
“Sure, why not? We wore our dirndls serving beer. Bar maids are expected to wear traditional attire in beer halls. Drunks and rowdies are going to make a pass at you no matter what you’re wearing. If women-starved men here are willing to tip us just because we are dressed in pretty costumes, then sure, I’d love to make more than $10 a day in tips. We work our butts off now for $5.00 a day and the male boarders never stop pestering us,” Anneliese said in very confident English.
I could see Manon, like me, was impressed with the sisters’ command of English. “Were did you learn to speak such good English in such ashort time?” Manon asked.
The sisters looked at each other, then at us and chuckled. “If you plan to stay and work in a new country, you need to speak the language; we studied on the ship to San Francisco and attend classes when not working. Most Germans plan to stay in California and make our futures here, so we all study to speak good English,” Heidi stated proudly. Oh boy, I thought. Wouldn’t it be nice if the French had the same attitude. We were the laughing stock of the English speakers who mocked us by calling us the “Keskydees” because we were forever asking “what did he say?” as most of us understood little English. Unlike these two sisters, most French couldn’t be bothered to learn English as they envisioned themselves returning to France rich men hauling heavy bags of gold.
Manon nodded her head. “Do you speak French or other languages in addition to English and German?”
“We don’t speak French, but we can learn it fast if that’s necessary for the job,” Heidi blurted out. “We speak Yiddish and some Polish as well.”
“Why don’t you both visit our operation on the Long Wharf and see if it’s something you could run efficiently and would want to do? You’d have a chance to see and meet the two women who’ve been running our stands and get a feel for the work. We could discuss the positions more fully then. What are your days off where you now work?” Manon asked.
Both sisters looked at each other and laughed so as to say, “you must be kidding.” “We don’t have any days off. We have to work every day. The woman who runs the boarding house threatened to dismiss us when we pleaded for for some time off today to celebrate our national holiday,” Heidi stated bitterly.
“Well then, if you don’t mind to miss the rest of the festivities here, perhaps you should accompany us back to the boat now as our stands will be open for another hour or so. Levi can come along and escort you back here,” Manon suggested.
Both sisters nodded their agreement vigorously and dashed off to get their capes. Levi Strauss’ face beamed like a kid who’s just been told he can eat as much as he likes out of the cookie jar. He undoubtedly expected a reward from Anneliese if he was instrumental in getting her a good job. From our perspective, the sisters’ fluency in English and Germanic tongues would be an added bonus to business on the wharf. In addition to our regular clientele, Germans, Poles and other eastern Europeans would be attracted to food and wine stands tended by attractive, single young women in peasant costumes who spoke their language. While Teri and Giselle were paid $16.00 a day, they were partners, not employees. If the sisters could handle the work for $10.00 day each without a drop off in sales, we’d all be ahead.
I suggested to Manon in French as we made our way to the Long Wharf that we offer the cabins Teri and Giselle would be vacating to the sisters for a nominal rent of $30.00 month. That way they’d be at the job site ready to open for business early and Georges would be there to help them set up. Teri’s dog, Fido, would be staying on our ship when Giselle moved as the dog hated Hawthorne and tried to nip him every time he got near Giselle. We needed the piebald terrier both as watch dog to signal alarm at the top of the gangway and to keep our ship free of rats. Giselle would take her fat cat, Gamelle Boy, as Hawthorne had won him over with tasty morsels from his plate.
As we approached our wine bar, Teri was busy serving glasses of wine and bantering with her clients while Giselle watched, hugging her jacket behind her food stand. Teri was dressed in a colorful Peruvian peasant dress with lots of embroidering which showcased her mature figure despite the breezy conditions on the wharf. We introduced the two sisters and Teri immediately invited Heidi to give her a hand with the stand; it was quitting time for many wharf laborers and they tended to congregate around the wine bar to knock down a glass or two of red wine or Chilean brandy before heading off to their spartan boarding houses and their bowls of gristly stew and hard bread. Most could not afford both to eat and drink at our stands. Most preferred to drink and chitchat with an attractive woman given the choice.
Heidi doffed her cloak and set to work serving drinks and bantering in English to the delight of the coterie of men, which included several Irish elbowing each other for a place at the small bar and access to Heidi. The sight of two attractive women in peasant dress created quite a sensation that was not lost on Anneliese. She motioned Giselle aside, peeled off her cloak and said politely to three arriving customers, “What may I serve you to eat from our delicious menu?”
I motioned Giselle and Levi Strauss to follow Manon and me up the gangplank and onto the poop deck where we could observe the phenomena of three attractive women in peasant costumes holding forth with an ever growing crowd of men who probably would have paid just to be present. We could see how comfortable Heidi and Anneliese were in their new roles. They would be a perfect fit to our wharf-side business. Even Fido seemed to like the changing of the guard. He was still tied on a short leash to Giselle’s stand and was now protecting Anneliese against anyone getting too close just as he’d done with his mistress.
Giselle and Teri were delighted with their replacements on the wharf. Heidi and Anneliese were thrilled with the job, the pay and a private cabin on the ship. They’d been forced to sleep on the same small mattress in the cramped attic of the boarding house where they worked. They’d had to dodge the advances of residents on the floor below in order to use a water closet or fetch water to wash. Levi Strauss looked longingly at Anneliese’s cabin. One could see he was smitten and hoped to share it with her one day. We hoped he’d make a lot of money with us and be