HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe East Huron Gazette, 1892-03-10, Page 2aSt
A MATTER OF, FACT.
The Astounding ; Experience of Three
Ne,aper Men in the Indian Ocean.
BY RWYAED KIPLING.
'And if ye doubt the tale I tell,
Steer through the South Pacific swell;
Go where the branching choral hives
Unending strife of endlesslives;
Where, leagued about the wildered boat,
The rainbow jellies fill and float ;
And, lilting where the laver lingers,
The starfish tl-ips on all her fingers ;
Whwe,'neath his myriad spines ashoek.
The sea egg ripples down the rock ;
An orange wonder dimly guessed,
Froth darkness where the cuttles rest,
Moored o'er the darker deeps that hide
The blind white seaWsnake and his bride,,
Who droning, nose the long -lost ships
Let dw
awn through darkness to their li
—The Patine•
Oace a priest, always a priest ; once a
Mason always a Mason ; but once a jour-
nalist, always and forever a journalist.
There were three of ns, all newspaper men
the only passengers on a little tramp steam-
er that ran where her owners told her to go.
She had once been in the Bilbao iron ore
bu& cess, had been lent to the Spanish Gov-
ernment for service at Manilla, and was end-
ing her days in the Cape Town coolie trade,
with occasionaltrips to Madagascar andeven
as far as England. We found her go to
Southampton in ballast and shipped in her
because the fares -were nominal. There was
Keller of an American paper on his way
back to the States from palace executions
in Madagascar ; there was a burly half
Dutchman called Zuyland, who owned and
edited a paper up country ; and there was
myself, who had solemnly put away all jour-
nalism, vowing to forget that I had ever
knowr the difference between an imprint
and a stereo advertisement.
Three minutes after Keller spoke to me,
as the Rathmines cleared Cape Town, I
had forgotten the aloofness that I desired
to feign, and was in a heated discussion on
the immorality of expanding telegrams be.
yond a certain point. Then Zuyland came
out of his state -room, andwe were all at
home instantly, because we were men of the
same profession needing no_ introduction.
We annexed the boat formally, broke open
the passenger's bathroom door—on the Man-
illa lines the lions do not wash—cleaned out
the orange peel and cigar ends in the bottom
of the bath, hired a Lasear to shave us
throughout the voyage, and then asked each
others names.
Three ordinary men would have quarreled
through sheer boredom before they reached
Southampton. We, by virtue of our
craft, were anything but ordinary men. A
large percentage of the tales of the world,
the thirty-nine that can not be told
to ladies and one that can, are common pro-
perty coming of a common stock. We told
them all, as a matter of form, with all their
local and specific variants which are surpris-
ing. Then came, in the intervals of steady
card play, more personal histories of adven-
ture and things seen and reported, panics
among white folk, when the blind terror ran
from man to man on the Brooklyn bridge,
and the people crushed each other to death
they knew not why ; fires, and faces that
opened and shut their months horribly at
red-hot window frames ; wrecks in frost
and snow, reported from the sleetsheathed
rescue tug at the risk of frost -bite ; long
rides after diamond thieves ;.skirmishes on
the velt and municipal committees with the
Boers ; glimpses of lazy tangled Cape poli-
tics; card tales, horse tales, womantales,
by the score and the half hundred ; till the
first mate, who had seen more than all -us
put together, but lacked words in which to
clothe his tales, sat open-mouthed far into
the dawn.
When the tales were done we picked up
cards til a curious hand or a chance remark
made one or other of ins say : " That reminds
me of a man who—or a business which—"
and the anecdotes would continue while the
Rathmines kicked her way northward
through the-wartn water.
On the daybreak of one particularly
warm night we three were sitting im-
mediately in front of the wheel -house where
an ofd Swedish boatswain whom we call
" Frithiof the Dane" was at the wheel pre-
tending that he could not hear our stories.
Once or twice Frithiof spun the spokes
curiously, and Keller lifted his head from a
long chair to ask, "What is it ? Can't you
get any steerage way on her ?"
" There is a feel in the water," said
Frithiof, "'that I can not understand. I
think that we run downhills or something.
She steers bad this morning."
Nobody seems to know the laws that
governihe pulse of the big waters. Some-
times even a landsman can tell that the
solid ocean is a -tilt, and that the ship, is
working herself up some long, unseen slope ;
and sometimes the captain says, when
neither full steam nor fair wind justify the
length of a day's run, that the ship is sag-
ging downhill ; but how these ups and
downs come about has not been settled
authoritatively.
" No, it is a following sea;" said Frithjof
" and with a following sea yon shall not
get good steerage way.
The sea was as smooth as a duck -pond,
excep for a regular oily swell. As I looked
over the side to see where it might be fol-
lowing us fro -n, the sun in a perfectly clear
sky struck the water with its light so
sharply that it seemed as though the sea
should clang like a burnished gong. The
wake of the screw and the little white
streak cut by the long -line hanging over the
stern were the only marks on the water as
far as the eye could reach.
Kelle rolled out his chair and went aft to
get a pineapple from the ripening stock that
were hung inside the after awning.
" Frithiof, the log -line- has got tired of
swimming. It's coming hcme," he drawled.
" What ?"said Frithiof, his voice jumping
several octaves.
"Coming home," Keller repeated, lean-
ing over. thaostern. I ran to his side and
caw the log -line, which till then had been
drawn tense over the stern railing, slacken
and loop. -Frithiof called up the speaking -
babe to the bridge, and the bridge an-
ltwered : "Yes, nine knots an hour, you old
Idiot." Then Frithiof spoke again, and the
answer was, " What do you want of the
pipper ?" and Frithiof bellowed, "Call him
By this time Zuyland, Keller, and myself
had -caught something of Frithiof's excite-
ment, for any emotion on shipboard is
most contagious. The Captain ran out of
bis,cabin, spoke. to Frithiof, looked at the
fog -line, jumped on the bridge, and in a
-*mute we felt the steamer swing round, as
Frithjof turned her.
" Qoing back to Cape Town ?" said Keller,
Frithiof did not answer, but tore away
it the wheel. Then` he beckoned . us three
helve and we held the wheel down till
flit~ Rat hrnines answered Iii, and we found
-a---4.4vP%-i-einhmo into tbewvdu€e of oar own the dyes t for -those were sightless—white, in
..re -Wt$ toe atilt tiny sea = tearing fast 1'soekts #s white as serape bone, and blind.
cur bows, though we were not going more Yet -for all this the face, wrinkled as the_
Alan half steam ahead. mask of a lion is drawn on Assyrian scalp-
:The Captain stretched out his erm from ture, was alive with rage and terror. One
Ilia- brid a and ,shouted. A minute later long -white feeler touched: our bulwarks.
f-tt`oilld' ve given a great deal to have . Then. the face disappeared- with the .swift-
dtt ulttr , toe, for one -hall -tre
of the sea ness of a blind worm,'and -the next thing
nrsheuldeniteelf above the other half, and that I remember is my own voice in my own
litiattattbdAtatiliape,of, e► bill. There was
neither crest, comb, nor curl -over to it
nothing but blue water, with little waves
chasing each other about the flanks. 1 saw
it steam past and on a level with the
Rathmines' bow -plates before the steamer
made up her mind to rise, and I argued that
this would be the last of all voyages for me.
Then we rose for ever and ever and ever,
till I heard Keller saying in my ear : "The
bowels of the deep, gopd Lord 1" and the
Rathmines stood poised, her screw racing
and drumming on the slope of a hollow that
stretched downward for a good half -mile.
We went down that hollow nose under
for the most part, and the air smelt wet
and muddy like an emptied aquarium.
There was a sewed - hill to climb ; I saw
that much ; but the water came aboard and
carried me aft till it jammed me against the
smoking -room door, and before I could
catch breath or clear my eyes again we
were rolling to and fro in torn water with
the scuppers pouring like eaves in a thun-
derstorm.
"" There were three waves," said Keller;
" and the stoke -holds flooded."
The fireman were on deck waiting, ap-
parently, to be drowned. The engineer came
and dragged them below, and the crew,
gasping, began to work the clumsy board of
trade pump. That showed nothing serious,
and when I understood that the Rathmines
was really on the water and not beneath it,
I asked what had happened.
" The captain says it was a blow-up un-
der the sea—a volcano," said Keller.
" It hasn't' warmed anythi..g," I said. I
was feeling bitterly cold and cold was al-
most unknown in those waters. I went be-
low to change my clothes and when I came
up everything was wiped out in clinging
white fog.
"Are there going to be any more sur-
prises ?" said Keller to the captain.
" I don't know. Be thankful you're alive, '
gentlemen, That's a tidal wave thrown up
by a volcano. Probably the bottom of the
sea has been lifted a few feet somewhere
or other. I can't quite understand this cold
spell. Our sea thermometer says the water
is 44 degrees and it should be 68 degrees at
least."
" It's abominable," said Keller, shivering
"But hadn't you better attend to the tog
horn ? It seems to me that I heard some-
thing."
"Heard! Good heavens!" said the cap-
tain from the bridge. " I should think you
did." He pulled the string of our fog horn,
which was a weak one. It sputtered and
choked, because the stoke hold was full of
water and the fires were half drowned, and
at last gave out a moan. It was answered
from the fog by one of the most appalling
steam syrens that I have ever heard. Keller
turned as white as I did, for the fog, the
cold fog, was upon us, and any man may be
forgiven for fearing the death he can not
see.
" Give her steam there 1" said the captain
to the engine -room. "Steam for the whistle,
if you have to go dead slow."
We bellowed again, and the damp dripped
off the awning on the deck as we listened
for the reply. It seemed to be astern this
time,but much nearer than before.
" The Pembroke Castle, by gum !" said
Keller and then, viciously, " Well, thank
God, we shall sink her, too."
" It's a side -wheel steamer," I whispered.
" Can't you hear the paddles?"
This time we whistled and roared till the
steam gave out, and the answer nearly
deafened us. There was a sound of frantic
thrashing in the water, apparently about
fifty yards away, and something shot past
in the whiteness that looked as though it
were gray and red.
"The Pembroke Castle bottom up," said
Keller, who, being a journalist, always
sought for explanations. " That's the colors
of a castle liner. We're in for a big thing."
"The sea is bewitched," said Frithiof,
from the wheel -house. " There are two
steamers."
Another syren sounded on our bow, and
the little steamer rolled in the wash of some-
thing that had passed unseen.
" We're evidently in the middle of a
fleet,"said Keller, quietly. "If one doesn't
run us down, the other will. Phew! what
in the world is that?"
I sniffed, for there was a poisonous rank
smell in the cold air—a. smell that I had
smelt before.
" If I was on land I should say that it was
an alligator. It smells like musk—the musk
of snakes," I answered.
"Not ten thousand alligators could make
that smell," said Zuyland; "I have smelt
them."
" Bewitched! Bewitched!" said Frithiof.
" The sea she is turned upside down, and
we are walking along the bottom.
Again the Rathmines rolled in the wash
of some unseen ship, and a silver gray
wave broke over the bow, leaving on the
deck a sheet of sediment—the gray broth * * * * *
of the sea. A sprinkling of the wa"e fell " We must pool our notes," was the first
on my face, and it was so cold that it coherent remark from Keller. "`We're three
stung as .boiling water stings. The dead trained journalists—we hold absolutely the
and most untouched deep water of the sea biggest scoop on record. Start fair."
had been heaved to the top by the subma- I objected to this. Nothing is gained by
rine volcano—the chill still water that kills collaboration in journalism when all deal
all life and smells of desolation and empti- with the same facts, so we went to work,
ness. We did not need either the blinding tach According to his own lights. Keller
fog or that indescribable smell of musk to triple -headed his account, talked abort our
make us unhappy—we were shivering with " gallant captain," and wound up with an
cold and wretchedness where we stood. illusion to American enterprise in that it
"The hot air on the cold water makes was a citizen of Dayton, Ohio, that had seen
this fog," said the Captain; "it ought to the sea serpent. This sort of thing would
clear in a little time." have discredited the resurrection, much
"Whistle, oh, whistle ! and let's get out more a mere sea tale. Zuyland took a heavy
of it," said Keller. column and a half, giving approximate
The Captain whistled again, and far and lengths and breadths and the whole list of
far astern the invisible twin steam syrens the crew whom he had sworn on oath to
answered us. Their blasting shriek grew testify to his facts. I wrote three-quarters
louder, till at last it seemed to tear out of of a leaded burgeois column, roughly speak
the fug just above our quarter, and I cow- ing, and refrained from putting any jour-
ered while the Rathmines plunged bows un- nalese into it, for reasons that had begun to
der on a double swell that crossed. appear.
" No more," said Frithiof. " It is not Keller was insolent with joy. He ° was
good any more. Let us get away, in the going to cable from Southampton to a New
name of God." York paper, mail his account to America on
" Now, if a torpedo boat with a City of the same day, paralyze London with his
Paris syren went mad and broke her moor- three columns of loosely knitted headlines,
ings and hired a friend to help her, it's and generallyefface the earth.
just conceivable that we might be carried " You'll see how I work a big scoopwhen
as we are now. Otherwise this thing I get it," he said.
is—"_ "Is this your first visit to England?" I
The last words died on Keller's lips, his asked.
eyes began to start from his head and his " Yes," said he. " You don't seem to ap-
jaw fell. Some six or seven feet above the preciate the beauty of our scoop. Its pyr-
port bulwarks, framed in fog, and as utterly amidal—the death of the sea -serpent ! Good
unsupportedas the full moon, hung a face. heavens alive, man, it's the biggest thing
It was not human,
and it certainly was not, ever vouchsafed to a newspaper t"
animal,for it did not belongto this earth as " Curious to think that itwillnever a
known to man. The mouth was open, re• pearany paper, _ F
in isn't is?" I said.
vealing a ridiculously tiny tongue—as ab- Zuyland was near me, and he nodded
surd as the tongue
es of an elephant ; there quickly.
were tense wrof whitskin at the What do you mean ?" said Keller. "If
angles of the drawn lips, white feelers like you're enough of an unenterprising Bri-
those of a barbel sprnn3 from the lower jaw, Britisher to throw this thing away, I shan't
and there was no sign of teeth within the I thought you were a newspaper man."
month. "-But the horror of the face lay in.. "I am. That's why Iknow. Don tslop
over, Keller. Remember I'm seven hundred
years,your senior, and whatyour grand-
children may kno wive hundred years hence,
.)`learned from my grandfather about five
hundred years ago. You won't- do it, be-
cause you ,
Thisconversacanttion[ was held in an open sea,
where everything seems possible, some hun-
dred miles from Southampton. We passed
eana, saying gravely to thennainmast. ," But the Needles light at dawn, and .the lifting
the airbladder ought to ,have been forced
out of its mouth, you know."
Keller came up to me, ashy white. He
put his hand into his pocket, took a -cigar,
hit it, dropped it, thrust his shaking thumb
into his mouth and mumbled. "The giant
gooseberry and the raining frogs l Gimme a
light—Gimme a light ! I say, gimme a light."
A little bead of blood dropped from his
thumb nail.
I respected the motive, though the man-
ifestation was absurd. " Stop, you'll bite
your thumb off," I said, and Keller laughed
brokenly as he picked up his cigar. Only
Zuyland, leaning over the port bulwarks,
seemed self-possessed. He declared later
that he was nothing of the sort.
" We've seen it," he said, turning round.
" That is it."
" What?" said Keller, chewing the un-
lighted cigar.
As he spoke the fog was blown into
shreds, and we saw the sea, gray with mud,
rolling on every side of us and empty of all
life. Then in one spot it bubbled and be-
came like the pot of .- ointment that the
Bible speaks of. From that wide -ringed
trouble a Thing came up—a gray and red
thing with a neck—a Thing that bellowed
and writhed in pain. Frithiof drew in his
breath and held it till the red letters of the
ship's name, woven across his jersey, strag-
gied and opened out as though they had
been type badly set. Then he said with a
little clutch in his throat, "Ah me ! It is
blind," and a murmur of pity went through
us all, for we could see that the
thing on the water was blind and in
pain. Something had gashed and cut
the great sides cruelly and the blood
was spurting out. The gray ooze of the
undermost sea lay in the monstrous wi ink -
les of the back and poured away in sluices.
The blind white head flung back and bat-
tered the wounds, and the body in its tor-
ment rose clear of the red gray waves till
we saw a pair of monstrousshoulders streak-
ed with weed and rough with shells, but as
white in the clear spaces as the hairless,
maneless, blind, toothless head. Afterward
came a dot on the horizon and the sound of
a shrill scream, and it was as though a
shuttle shot all across the sea in one breath
and a second head and neck tore through
the levels, driving a whispering wall of
water to right and left. The two Things
met—the one untouched and the other in
its death throe—rale and female, we said,
the female, coming to the male. She cir-
cled round him, bellowing, and laid her
neck across the curve of his great turtle
back and he disappeared under water
for an instant, but flung up again,
grunting in agony while the blood ran.
Once the entire , head and neck shot clear
of the water and stiffened, and' I heard
Keller saying, as if he was watching a
ing a street accident, " Give him air ! For
God's sake ! give him air !" Then the death
struggle began, with crampings and twist-
inge and-jerkings of the white bulk 14 ted.
fro. Still our little steamer rolled again,
and each gray wave coated her plates with
the gray slime. The sun was clear, there
was no wind, and we watched—the whole
crew, stokers and all—in wonder and pity,
but chiefly pity. The thing was so helpless
and save for his mate, so alone. No human
eye should have beheld him; it was mon-
strous and indecent to exhibit him there in
trade waters between atlas degrees of lati-
tude. He had been spewed up, mangled
and dying from his rest on the sea floor,
where he might have lived till the Judgment
Day, and we saw the tides of his life go
from him as an angry tide goes out across
rocks in the teeth of a landward gale. The
mate lay rocking on the water a little dis-
tance off, bellowing continually, and the
smell came down upon the ship, making us
cough.
At last the battle of life was ended in a
battle of colored seas. We saw the writh-
ing neck fall like a flail, the carcass turn
sideways, showing the glint of a white belly
and the inset of a gigantic hind leg or flap-
per. Then all sank and the sea boiled over
it, while the mate swain round and round,
darting her blind head in every direction.
Though we migh :, have feared that one
would attack the steamer no power on earth
could have drawn any one of us from our
places in that hour. We watched, holding
our breaths. The mate paused in her search,
we could hear the wash beating along her
reared her neck as high as she could
sides, reach, blind and lonely in
all that loneliness of the sea, and
sent one desperate bellow booming across
the swells, as an oyster shell skips across a
pond. Then she made off to the westward,
the sun shining on the white head and the
wake behind it, till nothing was left to see
but a little pin point of silver on the hori-
zon. We stood on our course again, and the
Rathmines, coated with the sea -sediment
from bow to stern, looked like a ship that
had been made gray with terror
IOW
day -showed the stucco villas on the green
and -the awful orderliness of England --line
upon line, wall upon wall, solid stone dock
and monolithic pier. We waited an hour in
the customs shed,and there was ample time
for the effect to soak in.
" Now, Keller, you face the music. The
Havel goes out to -day. Mail in her, and
I'll take you to the telegraph office," I
said.
' I heard Keller gasp as the influence of
the land closed around hint, cowing him as
they say Newmarket Heath cows a young
horse unused to open country.
"" I want to retouch my stuff. Suppose we
wait till we get to London ?" he said.
Zuyland, by the way, had torn up his ac-
count and thrown it overboard that morning
early. -
In the train Keller began to revise his copy
and every time that he looked at the trim
little fields, the red villas, and the embana-
ments of the track, the blue pencil plunged
remorsely th tough the slips. Heed
ape
to have dredged the dictionary for adjectives
I could find none that he had not. Yet he
wasa perfectly sound poker player and never
showed more cards than were sufficient to
take a pool.
Aren't you going to leave him a single bel-
low. I asked, sympathetically. " Remember,
everything goes in the States, from a trouser
button to a double eagle."
".That's just the curse of it," said Keller
below his breath. " We've played 'em for
suckers so often that when it comes to the
golden truth—I'd like to try this on a London
paper. You have first call there, though."
"Not in the least. I'm not touching the
thing in the papers. I s fall be happy to
leave 'em all to you ; but surely you'll cable
it home ?"
" No. Not if I can make the scoop here
and see the Britishers sit up."
" You won't do it with three columns of
slushy headline, believe me."
" I'm beginning to think that, too. Does
nothing make any difference in this country
he said, looking out of the window. " How
old is that farm house ?"
"New, It can't be more than 200 years
at the most."
"Um. Fields, too?"
"That hedge there must have been clipped
for about eighty years."
"Labor cheap—eh?"
"Pretty much. Well, 1 suppose you'd
like to try the Times, wouldn't you?"
"No," said Keller, looking at Winchester
Cathedral. "Might as well try to electrify
a hay -rick. And to think that any New
York paper would take three columns and
ask for more—with illustrations, tool It's
sickening."
"But the Times might," I began.
Keller flung his paper across the carriage,
and it opened in its austere majesty of solid
type—opened with the crackle of an ency-
clopedia.
"Might! You might work your way
through the bow -plates of a cruiser. Look
at that first page!"
"It strikes you that way, does it?" I said.
"Then I'd recommend you to try a light and
frivolous journal."
"With a thing like this of mine—of ours?
1.,"'s sacred history!"
I showed him a paper which I conceived
would be after his own heart, in that it was
modeled on American lines.
" That's homey," he said " but it's not
the real thing. Now I should like one of
these fat old Times' columns. Probably
there'd be a bishop in the office."
When we reached London Keller disap-
peared in the direction of the Strand. What
his experiences may have been I can not tell,
but it seems that he invaded the office of an
evening paper at 11 :45 a.m. (I told him
English editors were most idle at that hour),
and mentioned "My name as that of a wit-
ness to the truth of his story.
" I was nearly fired out," he said furiously
at lunch. "As soon as I mentioned you, the
old man said that I was to tell you that
they didn't want any more of your practical
jokes, and that you knew the hours to call
if you had anything to bell, and that they'd
see you condemned before they helped to
puff one of your infernal yarns in advance.
Say, what record do you hold for truth in
this city, anyway !"
" A beauty. You ran up against it, that's
all' Why don't you leave the English papers
alone and cable to New York? Everything
goes; over there."
"-Can'tyou see that's just why?" he re-
peated.
" I saw,it a long time ago. You don't in-
tend to cable, then ?"
" Yes I do," he answered, in the over
emphatic voice of one does not know his
own mind.
That afternoon I walked him abroad over
the streets that run bean een the pavements
like channels of grooved and tongued lava,
and the bridges that are made of enduring
stone, through subways floored and sided
with yard thick concrete, between houses
that are never rebuilt, and by river steps
hewn to the eye from living socks. A black
fog chased us into Westminister Abby, and
standing there in the darkness, I could hear
the wings, of the dead centuries circuling
round the head of Litchfield A Keller, of
Dayton, Ohio, U. S. A., whose mission it
was to make the Britishers sit up.
He stumbled gasping into the thick gloom,
and the roar of the traffic came to his be-
wildered ears.
" Let's go to the telegraph office and
cable," I said. " Can't you hear the New
York papers crying for news of the great
sea serpent, blind, white and smelling of
musk, stricken to death by a submarine
volcano, assisted by a loving wife to die in
mid -ocean, as visualized by an independent
American citizen, the breezy, newsy, brainy.
newspaper man from Dayton, Ohio ? 'Rah
for the Buckeye Stat . Step lively ! Bdth
gates ! Szzboom - ah !" Keller was a Prince-
ton man, and he seemed to need enco rage•
menta
" You've got me no your own ground,''
said he, - tugging at his overcoat pocket.
He pulled out his copy, with the cable
forms—for he had written out his telegram
—aud put them all into my hand, groaning
"I pass. If I hadn't come to your cursed
country, if I'd sent -it off at Southampton,
if I ever get you- west of the t Alleghenies,
"Never mind, Keller. It isn't your fault.
It's the fault of your country. If you had
been, 700 years older you'd have done what
I anngoing to do."
" What are you going to do?" -
" Tell it was a Jie." -
" Fiction ?" This - was _the full-blooded
disgust of a journalist for the illegitimate
branch of the profession.
•" Yon can tell it what you like. I shall
can it a lie." -
And lie it has become, for truth is a nak-
ed lady, and if by accident she is; drawn up
from, the bottom of the sea, it behoves a
gentleman eman either to give heirs petticoat or
to turn his face to the wall and vow that he
did not see.
Twenty English and American women ar
studying at the University in Leipsic.
"To what do you attribute .your -longevi-
ty?" asked an investigator ofa centenarian•
" To the fact that I never died," was the
conclusive reply. _
MODERN JERUSALEM.
The Population of the Ancient City—Cus
toms of the People.
"The conservative estimate of the popu
lation of Jerusalem," says ex -Consul Gil
man, who has just returned, to a Detroit
Free Press reporter, " is about 50,000, of
whom one-half are Jews and the remainder
Moslems and Christians, the former being
in the majority. It is impossible to esti-
mate the number, however, as the gathering
of statistics is made unlawful by the koran,
the Mohammedan bible. A copy of that
book is very hard to obtain, and anything
published concerning it that falls into the
hands of the Turkish government is immedi-
ately destroyed.
" The English Missionary society still ex-
ists in Jerusalem, but makes no Moslem con-
verts, owing to the fact, in great measure,
that a converted Moslem is at once driven
out of the country by the natives. Indeed,
I am better satisfied that they remain as
they are, for, as a general rule, a proselyted
Christian who has to renounce the koran
usually loses his best characteristics and
goes to the bad.
" There are practically three Sabbaths in
Jerusalem—Friday, the Moslem day of wor-
ship, Saturday for the Jews, and Sunday
for the Christians. Practically there is no
Sabbath, for business goes on uninterrupted-
ly every day in the week.
"Jerusalem is growing—toward the north-
west—just as was predicted by the prophets
Jeremiah and Zachariah. The city is sur-
rounded by a wall and to accommodate this
increase in growth a new gate has been cut
through. The old gates were made in the
shape of the letter L, probably to prevent
the easy entrance by enemies, but the new
gate was cut directly through. It is situa-
ted near the old tower of Goliath.
" The Americans have a colony by them-
selves, and are very popular with the high
caste Turks, who visit them iu large num-
bers. Probably one reason for this is the
fact that the American ladies are not hid-
den from their sight, as a ;their women.
To see and talk to an unveiled American
woman charms them. Some years ago a
number of Americans, mostly from Chicago,
went to live in Jerusalem, believing they
were to see Christ on earth. Their belief is
shattered by this time, I think, for five of
them have died. The visitor to this coun-
try must be exceptionally well read. There
is so much to see that a man must be well
versed, especially in bible history, to ade-
quately comprehend it all. The foreign re-
sident consuls have the best opportunities.
for seeing and learning everything there that
the customs allow them to see. A consul is
looked upon as a sort of prince, has the
entre to the highest places, and is heralded
when he comes and goes.
" Society is unlike our own. Caste is
rigidly the rule. The highest class is com-
posed of effendis, pachas and the oldest fam-
ilies, and the scale graduates down to the
peasant. There is no color line there, the
negro being given equal privileges with
themselves, and for that one thing the Mos-
lem laughs at the American.
" In dress the natives have not changed
since the time of Abraham. Their methods
of pursuing agriculture are the same also.
The primitive wooden plow is still used, and
this they guide with ene hand, while with
the other they hold the reins, thus literally
following out the words in scripture. The
soil is naturally fertile, and with more rain
or some method of irrigation could be made
to yield bountifully. The land is very rocky
also, and the fertile soil exists only in
patches."
Their First Parting and What it Meant to
Him.
They stood in the Union depot. It was
their first good-bye.
" Good-bye, dearest." .
" Good-bye, love."
Silence.
He gets a new grip on her hand.
They kiss.
" Good-bye !" she gurgles.
" Good-bye !" he murmurs.
" Oh, yes," she says, backing away, "
—I—see that the bird has fresh water every
day."
" Yes, love !"
" See that the door is locked daily and
nightly when you go to the store !"
" Yes, darling 1'.
" See that the gas is turned off and the
rooms aired."
" Always."
" That Mrs. Casey does not use any coal
out of our bin, George, dear ; do not forget
that ?"
" Never !"
Silence. -
" You—you have everything ?" he gasps,
looking into her eyes.
" Yes, love 1"
" Everything ?"
" Everything !"
They kiss.
" Good-bye, dearest 1"
" Good-bye , de :rest !"
" Good-bye !"
" Good-bye !"
" Good-bye !"
" Good-bye !"
They kiss.
They kiss.
They kiss.
He breaks away slowly. He moves off.
" Good-bye !"
" Good-bye !"
" Oh, George," she gasps as he leaves her
at the sound of the gong.
" Yes, Iove !"
'"Will you promise, dearest ?"
'• Anything ! Everything ! What is it
—dear ?"
was only a fancy. Forgive me !
But do not —do not flirt with the hired girl
while I am gone !"
`" I swear it !"
" Yes ! And say, if there comes along a
hot spell, use the bathtub for a refrigerator
for the canned fruit and the butter and eggs !
I—I—I guess that that is all "--
And with a great cry of pain he crept
softly out in the lonesome streets, alone in a
great city.
Tennyson's Tribute -
The bridal garland falls upon the bier,
The shadow of a crown that o'er him hung
Has vanishedin the shadow caused by Death ;
So princely tender, truthful, reverent, pure.
Mourn! That a world-wide Empire mourns
with you,
That all the thrones are clouded by your loss,
Were slender solace. Yet be comforted ;
For if this earth be ruled by Perfect Love,
Then, after His brief range of blameless days,
The toll of funeral in an Angel ear
Sounds happier than the merriest marriage -
The face of Death is toward the Sun of Life,
His shadow darkens earth ; his truer name
Is "Onward," no discordance in the roll,
Andmaish oftha Eternal
Harmony
Whereto the worlds beat time. tho' faintly
Until theme
great Hereafter mourn [Tennyson.
Belgium exported last year ".x.5,400,000
worth ofgrearms to every fighting nation
on the globe..
-The jeweler has drills so small that they
can bore a hole only one -thousandth of an
tech in'diiameter through a precious atone,
` d
WHAT JOHN SAYE
About the Smuggling of Chinamen 4.erost
1Jncle Sam's);
Sometimes, for reasons ''' •wn to
themselves, Toronto Chinamen acome an-
xious to pay a visit to Uncle Sam's terri-
tory. When luck attends those who maks
the attempt to get across the line and they
show up in Buffalo the papers of that city
send up a howl and call upon the policy
across the waterfront ,$o -pay a little stricter
attention to business. -'--Just now tho Buffale
press is engaged in this periodical cry, be.
cause of the arrival in that city of a few Ce,
lestials from no one knows where.
A couple of prominent city Chinamen were
spoken toon the subject -of smuggling, and
both said that their fellow -countrymen is
Toronto were quite satisfied to remain v
Canada.
"Of course this business is carried on right
along," said one, "and occasionally there art
people caught, but it is five months since
any Toronto Chinamen had that misfortune.
Billy McDowell, of Buffalo, and a man named
Kennedy, could tell you something about
the business as regards Toronto."
The reporter asked his Celestial friend
how the smugglers managed to get their con-
traband goods across the line without de-
tection. He did not receive a direct answer.
The man interrogated smiled, and intimated
that he could not tell of such things.
" Is there any possibility of the smuggl-
ers getting across on the ice at Buffalo ?"
asked the reporter.
" ave they found out ? immediately
asked the Chinaman. He was told that it
was supposed the men must have been taken
across the Niagara river on the ice. His
manner indicated that he was sorry to hear
the news.
" But ever since that man, a couple of
months ago, got a party of Toronto China-
men to give him some money to take them
across, and then fooled them, there have not
been any parties leave the city that I know
of," concluded the citizen of the Flowery
Kingdom. _
An American Monte Oarlo.
A statement comes from Chicago that a
company has been formed with $10,003,000
capital to establish and carry ona great
gambling establishment on a small island in
the Pacific. Most of the stock is said to
have been subscribed in New York ; but
Mr. Gardner S. Chapin, a business Haan of
Chicago is also interested, and has made the
following remarks in the course of an inter-
view :—`° Just as soon as the company can
get the island preparations for fitting it up
will begin. You see there are international
differences about this island. It lies about
30 miles off Santa Barbara, in the Pacific.
Between it and the mainland is the island
of Vera Cruz. The island the company has
inview—I forget its Mexican name—is about
four miles long and two miles wide. Both
the United States and Mexico claim it.
When the idea first originated it was
thought that Mexico had perfect control
over it, and negotiations were opened to
lease it. Mexico did not hesitate to lease
the land for that purpose, but our Govern-
ment did, and the scheme was hindered by
the United States pressing its claim of own-
ership. We have a lawyer working on She
case at Washington, and I heard the other
day that he had everything fixed. When
we secure the use of the island it will be fit-
ted up with hotels and palaces for gambling
in the finest style. It will be the Monte
Carlo of the United States. A line of
of steamers will be put on to ply between
the island and California ports. The idea
took form when the talk began cf abolish-
ing the European Monte Carlo. People will
gamble, and no doubt there is big money in
this enterprise. Santa Barbara has a new
railway, which brings San Francisco -400
miles away—within a ten hours ride. At
Santa Barbara the Southern Pacific Rail-
way Company is to build a million dollar
hotel near Hope Ranch. It is a great enter-
prise, and will help Southern California's
future immensely."
Wise Words.
It is better to sacrifice one's love of sar-
casm than to indulge it at the expense of a
friend.
A beautiful woman pleases the eye, agood
woman pleases the heart ; one is a jewel,
the other a treasure. -
It is always a sign of poverty of mind
where men are ever aiming to appear great,
for they who are really great never seem to
know it.
Sometimes it is hard to tell whether a
man is firm in principle or simply obstinate ;
but the man himself never expresses any
doubt.
When we are most filled with heavenly
love, and only then, are we best fitted to
bear with human infirmity, to lire above it
and forget its burden.
The art of putting the right men in the
right places is first in the science of govern-
ment ; but that of finding planes for the din -
contented is the most difficult.
Laziness grows on people ; it begins in
cobwebs and ends h iron chains. The more
business a man has to do the more he is
able to accomplish, for he learns to econ-
omize his time.
Buried Alive.
A te'egram to Dalziel's agency from Pari
states that the Petit Parisien hears from
Rouen of a most extraordinary occurrence
at the village of Notre Dame de Boudeville,
where a man named Tougard has been buried
alive. For a long time past Tougard had
suffered from paralysis, and on Monday
morning he was believed to have died. The
doctor who was sent for, after examining
him, gave a certificate of death. The burial
took place on the following day. Whilst
the grave was being filled up the gravedigger
thought he heard some groans,and imformed
one of the municipal council, who, in pres-
ence of more than 50 people. had the earth
thrown out again. The coffin was found to
to be broken open, and it was evident that
the unfortuuate man had . made gigantic
efforts to force his way out before he became
exhausted, and finally succumbed to suffo-
catitr. His face showed that he had gone
through fearful suffering. His hands were
clenched, and the skin was rubbed off in
several places. It appears that he was in a
state of coma when supposed to be dead.
The authorities have opened an inquest.
To Remind Him.
She (shortly after the blissful silence that
the delicious affirmative brought about)—
Darling, now that we are engaged, I have
the right to ask you a question, have I
not?"
He Most certainly."
She—" Andyouwill answer truthfully?"
He—" Of course."
She —" What . is that string tied round
your finger for, then ?"
He—" Great Heavens ! To remind me that
I am already engaged 1
"Who is that across the street?" "Oh,
that is a very close friend of mire." In
deed!" " Yes, he never lair/4, :•ie sent
-TEL4 VO
The book of Isa
the books of the
its vale ml-. Bi
iiderabie a, ember
and sou in pnetr
verbs, some letter
book of Isaiah bel
The word proph
mind, means prea
othfrrir atyng in
n bri onvcea.'tion.
and Jupiter il3 ins
what we are ace
the exercise of pr
Yale University, i
of the word is qui
idea of predictio
this old world onl
?art century. In
Taylor -wrote in d
Prophesying," ev
he was advocati
speech:
In the bible, t
We may read a g
of the Old Testa
discovering any p
.diet is not a fore -
ohs the man who sp
lr the business of
day. Thus God
to be the prophet
to speak for Mose
messages, Ira i
book of Isaiah is
I want to say so
this prophet and
er and his sermon
preacher.
Concerting the
know little. Th
which is a headin
gathered these se
volume, tells us t
Uzziah, Jotham,
of Judah. This
before Christ.
Christ was that
among the little
which saw the de
Kingdom bythe
fearful dangeis o
before the same
Hosea ware the
during the youth
in Judah:
Isaiah was a ma
evident literary
famity_4aflugh So
'-cratic circles of t
in Jerusahan, an
and was a person
the Jewish sover
Hezekiah. Isaia
married man.
wife was called th
cause she helped
her sympathy, by
knows haw muc
Isaiah is hidden
title. There is n
news of Isaiah, a
religious world, t
Perhaps he re
great sermons.
so much intereste
ly every chapter
written by two o
may some day dis
things in Isaiah's
gestions of his w'
Isaiah?, two so
names. The Cl
many of them a
Fathers and mo
nowadays to the
First Book of Ch
their children.
burdened with n
dayainust-hase s
and awkward •
named Shear-jash
shalal-hash -ban
many of the old n
ones—they mea
meanings of thes
connection with t
preachin r.
Thus Shear-jas
remain." That,
one of the most
of Isaiah. Ma
"speedy prey, s
Isaiah said when
refused to=#oilow
'foreign relations
declared -that eh
`be deatroyed.
Thus Isaiala's b
°condensed Berm
the prophet and
hearts in the gre
to get away fro
never shut the
whole of their I
had, even their
and included in t
terest, their inte
the state. They
their country.
It is likely tha
ing 40 years. 11
ish. He was pr
died. His death,
was by mart3 rdo
King Manasseh,
been sawn asund
.The call of Isa
-ministry, is dese
for some reason
is numbered in t
Iii the sixth c
shat it yeas that
It was not bean
avocations and h
- Tai any of them, t
clerical pro€essio
count of the pers
was it even in co
decision made at
ieavor to discove
;ailed to God. Ai
sintself, who ougl
The prophets, i
in the assertion t
xi.yere ggiing on ab
h and -�
xodi eed�them
r siniesalanwilli
,ii3n upward
-oWleenirnI
ams nf-thelxr; iia
vise and prudent
:rept silence. Th
nto this ministry
rom without. .
They were stop
bout, and sent
!'henceforth the vj
vords. "" Thus
ace to their se
notable in this co
dd preachers that
r Via+ tha,tbat
fad a vision
•�nding=iii ��teli
hundred times g!
,ad eit
he mercyever sseaten a
,,nd upon this thro
3lde beide of .'is
ee