Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1854-03-02
An Eastern Tale.
[rnAxsLArKD ron THE EVENING JounSSL]


tai Lakes. Prosperity and happiness were the
lot of his subjects, such as were not equalled
throug hout all the East. Famine was unknown
in that land and Treason was an unheard OF
crime. The Fountain of Youth was said to flow
in its eastern forests and the City of Ell Dorado
stood on its western shore.
He was wise and prudent monarch withal--
Each of his thirty-one sons, sovereigns though
they were, were bred up TO some useful handicraft
One wrought in iron and coal, another Piled the
| loom, another made and guided boats upon the
| rivers and another tended focks ami neards upon
the mountains. There was one region In the
| kingdom that was fruitful and fair to look upon
beyond all the rest Ii lay at the head of a val
lev called the Valley of the Father of Rivers, and
stretched far away westward to the Mountains of
Perpetual Snow. 1t a land for the culture of
Corn, and Wine, and Oil, and it was called Ell
Nebraska, or The Refuge. This the King had set
apart for an inheritance to his children, when they
should arrive at man Is estate. A line OF seiinels
was stationed along its confines, TO keep off ma
RAIDERS The sentines were $500 in number
and stirred not from their posts night nor day.
| AS the King was sleeping one day in his coun-
| Gil chamber, he had strange and perplexing Wis
| ion He dreamed that beggar came and knet
before him, whose aspect was like the aspect of
the most hideous of the Jim. He was deformed
and SCARED, and lame, and had but single eye.
| In his hand he held whip of bulls hide which
he vainly endeavored TO conceal among his latter
| ed garments. Humbling himself before the King,
| he said, 80 King, live forever! 1t is not who
to blame for being here to curse thy donin-
ions, but my father wicked Engishman, who
brought me and laid me at thy gate while was
yet an infant, and then deserte,i me. | am nearly
| dead with hunger and cold Give me- pray
| thee, spot OF ground wheleon l may work and
earn my livelihood SO that | may be no longer
| trouble to thee
| So the King took compassion on him, and babe
him go down into the FIELDS of Tobacco and Rice
and work there with his sons. And the beggar
went. But he out of the Kings
sight than he despoiled the Kings sons of their
lands and squandered their substance in ideness
and profigacy. Finally he came again and stood
before the King, in pitiable plight than
ever.
"Oh King" said he, olive forever! The To-
bacco fields thou gavest worthless and
Improbable, and the Rice patch is nothing but an
infected swamp Give me, pray thee, another
spot OF ground, wherein may work and earn
my livelihood, SO that may be no more trouble
to thee
Again the King took compassion on him, and
gave him the Cane Brakes and the Fields of Cot
ton. And he departed again. But he wasted their
substance also, and lived riotously He took the
children and the women that lived there and sold
them for silver to certain merchants who were
going with caravans to the City of the Crescent
At last, when the silver was spent, he came and
stood before the King third time
"May the King said he, alive for ever. But
the Cane Brakes thou gavest me are small and
well nigh exhausted; and for the Cotton Fields
| cannot pick from them enough even TO make
my clothes. Moreover, my neghbor Neil
CO of the Mines, has fallen upon me without
provocaton, and matreated me- Help me, there
fore, pray thee. to remove westward out of his
reach, and will promise that will be no more
trouble to thee.
Then the King dstrusted him. But to avoid
controversy, he did as he desired He beat Meii-
co of the Mines, and took his house and lands and
gave them to the beggar. And he gave him also
all the Vineyards of the Sea coast, and all the
Plains of the Bufaloes, away up to the Great
Lake of Salt
All this while the Kings sons were toiling in
the workshops, and upon the rivers, and in the
fields. earning their bread, and the beggars too by
| the sweat of their brows But as for the beggar
| he went down and feasted and made merry at
| their expense. Worse than ALL he actually ac-
cused them of conspirirg 10 destroy their father,
and pretended that what he had received was a
reward for saving the Kings life from Them in a
certain garden called the Garden of the Castle!
| Three years passed. and then the Beggar came
again, and stood before the King But this time
his manner was changed. His ugly form was
clothed in the purple of kings, and he spoke
one having authority all the earth. "Fel-
| low, said he Il am come to demand my rights.
Thou hast kept me out of my territories too long
already. will not insist on the division of the
kingdom as might, but | will rule over it in
common with thee. But especially, and first of
ALL thou shalt give the region called Ell Ne
braska, that lies at the head of the Valley of the
Father of Rivers and at the foot of the Noun
tains of Perpetual Snow.
Then the King arose in his anger "Ungrateful
wretch ~ said he, "have l not preserved thee, and
nourished thee, and kept thy breath in thy miser-
able body, all the days of thy life 2 Is it not
enough that thou hast exhausted my Tobacco
fields and Rice lands, and ruined my Cane Brakes
and my Cotton fields, and sold thy women like
cattle and beaten thy children like dogs, and en-
broiled me with Mejico of the Mines, and made
me the door of Injustice and the sheet-anchor of
Crime, but that thou must now come to rob nv
children of their Inheritance a.
But the beggar retorted 1T is |, not thou, who
am the Sultan and Lord of this land. and have
sworn TO rule over it. Three times have spared
thee but now what is to hinder me from taking
thy life g So saying, he drew a hitherto conceal
ed dagger, and-
The King awoke with great start In the
hrst moments of waking consciousness he fancied