The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1870-07-17
AN ARABIAN KRleHT-A TALE OF LOVE
AND LARCENY. ,s

Hesitation has ceased to be n virtue.
The thrilling incident I am about to
ventilate was TO have occurred next
Christmas, and within the boundaries OF
this Oriental bailiwick. | can hold ii no
longer, and therefore scatter it to the
four winds If this determination will
bring me peace OF mind and sleepful
nights, my labor and temerity will be
amply rewarded.
Let the curtain bell be rung then.
Ben Hassan Error-fud is a Pacha OF
many tails and Of Snltanie descent. As
a prothonotary he has no equal in the
magnificent Court OF Alustapha Abou
Ben Beatti. But il is in his nice dis
elimination and inst appreciation OF
female beauty that he exeels In his
consummaie knowledge Of lovely woman
he ranks with the renowned Mohamed
Pump Ali, his royal grandfather, who
sported, in his seraglio, harem of seven
or eight hundred of the fairest flowers
that ever budded in the steppes Of Cau-
CASH DI DiDDiiltu III Niif SUI Nnd lllt-
tursque uplands OF Georgia. A critical
friend of mine, who had clandestinely
gained entrance to this spacious tomb #
living beauties, in the exuberance of his
admiration of the yoluptuous encamp-
ment, wondered at the wilderness of
loveliness caught in the old sensualist 5
magnificent trap, and in tone OF SYM
pathy designated them as ehiseed
nymphs of Phydian perfection.
The reader will therefore not marvel
much when say that in all matters per-
tanning TO the fair sex. Ben Hassan' 5
Judgment is law, and that hence women
are all smiles and naivete when he is
around.
But, to our tale
On next Christmas, Ben, with all his
fnesse in matters of love, committed an
error from which he can never rally
He had been paying his attentions to an
arch brunette, whose olive tint and
piercing jet eyes, betrayed her Italian
extraction. He felt for this classic
beauty perhaps the first real sentiments
of love that ever impressed themselves
on his marble heart As the Christian
holiday approached, our NIussulman
hero turned his back upon Mecca and
warmed toward Jerusalem. His koran
had already become rusty, and he began
to seek consolation in the majestic tra-
ditions of the Apostles. She willed it
he succumbed.
1t had been heialded throughout the
bailiwick of Mustapha Abou Ben Beatti
that the Christian Sabbath would be
celebrated with wine and dance and
roundelay at Shennanopolis, and Ben
Hassan besought his fair inamorata 10
accompany him to that great festival.
She yessed.
But it SO happened that the gay pro-
thonotary was the guest of a first-elass
clearinghouse, whereat resided whole
bevy of blooming maidens. In the in
tensity of new passion, he fell in love
with one of these charming beauties, and
a party was made up to spend the festi-
val at Shermanopolis. A diligence was
chartered, and the time had almost ar
rived for departure when Ben Hassan
bethought him of his previous engage
ment. He had time TO frame plausi-
BILE story and call on his first love. He
had business of urgent Importance,
which called him at once ont of town.
Could she forego the engagement this
time? She could; but she suspected.
As he departed from the door of her
wigwam he heard her soft musical voice
trilling madrigal that fell on his tym-
panum like molten lead.
Ben Hassan il icklc. l fear
Ben Hassan = inconstant to me,
IL false he II pay for II dear
Lie, Ben Hassan, oh never to mel
Get up, there! Whoa! you Josh
and Ben Hassan rode away, seated be-
side his beautiful blonde.
The fascination and the elite of the
Country for miles round were enjoying
themselves in the magnificent pleasure
grounds of Shermanopolis. Iced sher-
vets and fruits from the golden wales of
far-off Cathay were dispatched by the
assembled multitudes. Soon the lutes
and cymbals of Mustapha's $ royal band
signalized that the grand pavilion had
been cleared for the dance. Thither our
hero and his dulcinea repaired and as
sumed their position in the set.
Pale, trembling and inert, Ben Hassan
worried through the quadrille, for his
vis-a-vis was the handsome brunette
whom he had so foully deceived! Her
form hovered around him during the
whole of that long, long night of execra-
BILE pleasure. He alone saw the vengeful
fashings Of that retributive eye-he alone
felt that he had trifled with the affections
of a woman who could not be thrown
aside for another with impunity. He
alone saw that the pent up wrath
of forty thousand Nantippes ragged IN
that forsaken and volcanic breast. Did
she seek him out and pull his harp
mol Did she dance the canean, and aim
at him the insulting pas d'indignation?'
No. did she cuss him in tones Of un-
leashed thunder before her complacent
rival? Mo- 1t was her intensity of sup
preston that caused Ben Hassan 10 feel