The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1879-11-13

There, now! Place be civil;
Oh huE me to death-pm not Kitty Magee.
Your kisses confuse me
Well, I'll not refuse ye-
know yoa'lbe tindher and lovin' wild me;
To ahq imy contrition =. -
For doubts and suspicion
III ask for first bridesmaid Miss Kitty Magee.
rnEPA1Nlc IN rnEDEsERr.
y~H Tale Of seven Years Since.
II am afraid, sir, is it true"
Upon @y Yo y. Mr. Aarston' I am very
The second speaker was, like myself,
an Englishman=-a tall dignlfied old man,
who, rs he ,sPoke, cast quick, anxious
glance towards bright-eyed, slender
girl Of nineteen, who stood at the tent
door watching the picturesque process OF
saddling and loading the knccling camels
for the start. Mr.. Wynne was widower,
with an 6ntailed estate, large income,
aud but two children, one OF whom was
the son in England, heir to the property,
and NJ. p tor some borough; and the
other, his young daughter, Ethel, with
whom, after travelling in the Holy Lands,
the father had ventured so far as Bagdad.
As for myself, / was simply a young
English civil engineer, lately employed
by Midhat Pasha in some of his magnif-
cent projects for irrigating neglected
Mesopotamia, and now homeward bound.
There were rumors of war and disturb
ancc among the Anayzc Bcdouins, and
consequently both the Wynne family and
myself had been glad to avail ourselves Of
the opportunity of joining the Bagdad
Damascus caravan, which was under the
protection of Turkish military guard.
Caravan travel is tedious, but full of
interest to- those whose curiosity as to
Eastern nahnen and Eastern costumes
is notyet ddl1ed by custom; and Miss
Wynie never stmed tired Of sketehing
some group of pilgrims in flowing robes
turbans Of sacred green, some knot OF
the irregular soldiery as they cooked
their pilaff or groomed their horses, or
party of solemn Arabs shrouded in their
white hacks.
All went ON prospcrously until, on the
evening of the fourth day, ugly rumors
began to circulate through the camp, and
the inquiries which Mr.. Wynne, more
anxious on his daughters account than
on his own, requested me to make, had
but served to prove their truth. The
plague was among us, and two members
Of our mi grasory community-one Kur-
dish householder, the other a Syrian
Christan-had died III the night. To
return, however, Is Impossible; not mere
)y on account of the desert robbers who
doggcd our course, but because Bagdad
itself was already a hot-bed of disease, to
which fatallstic apathy might render Mo-
hommedans Indifferent, from which ELL
ropcans Were glad to escape.
knew but TOO wcll-fOr I spent three
years already in the Enst-that when one
sickness breaks out in caravan it is a
grisly companion very difficult 70 shake
of. And &C., in this instance, it proved
itself to be. Never day passed with
ouefredh ,xictims being claimed by the
Destroyer that shared our march and BIZ
vouac; never hating place but was
marked, when we left it, by mounds Of
sand heaped hastily over the shallow
graves scoopcd in the yellow soil, and in
somey cases protected by thorn-bushes
and loose stones from the jackals that
pf6wlcd in the rear of our motley multi
tude, and the vultures hatshovered high
aloft in the sunny sky, and which follow
ell us as shark pursue some water-logged
ship ii thct tD0pic seas Familiar faces
were constantly missed from the circles
that formed at evening around the camp
fires. Now it was some gallant soldier,
whose gay Albanian garb and bronzed
n
her textbook, now venerable Hadjii
with silver beard and flowing robes; and
anon fat Parsee merchant from Bonn
bay, or shrewd, supple young Creek,
who was lett behind in the wilderness.
None seemed exempt save the brown
skinned. scantily clad camel-drivers,
WHO plodded on-true children of the
sun-unconcernedly, under the sultry
glare.
Under these circumstances it is not
surprising that my casual acquaintance
with my fellow-t,avellers of my own
speech and race should have rapidly rip
ened into close intimacy. Mr.. Wynne
w9Sa Proud man, and like most old fash
ioR(d: Epgjshmcn, reluctant to make
rev friends without the formality OF an
Introduction, but it 80 happened that he
had, at Bagdad, dismissed his roguish
dragoman for population beyond the ira
ditional percentage which such interpret
erf nre allowed to levy, and was there
fo1Bglad to avail himself of the smatter-
ing ut Arabic and Turkish, which had
Iakk6&p. =, -.
Ever sircc the outbreak Of the plague
had observed the old man to be thought
full and anxions, and at times he would
glance apprehensively at his daughter, as
if he feared to see the first signs of the
deadly blight dim her girlish beauty
Miss Ethcrs own high spirits began ia
declinds-pot from, fear, but from sym.
p6thy With the distress that re,gned
round us. There were bereaved fathers
and orphaned children in the caravan
and saddcr still, perhaps, were thu last
hours ofthosc who were journeylng alone
and to whom care and burial had to be
padaetedby tlicshands Of strangers.
"Poor people, I wish I could helu
them!" said the English girl, more than
once to me as I re,gncd up my horse be.
side the camel on whose high saddle
trapped with embroidered. cloth, she wa.
modntod. ''''''
''1n1eed, Miss Wyune, it would be nsc
less," rfeplicd. "Thcse poor creatures
have an almost suderstitious faith in
European medical skill, but We have nei
ther doctor nor medicine-ch hest, and from
the moment of the seizure there is little
hope Of necovcry. All we can do is t.
struggle on"
The Wynnes were rich, and travelled
NPeople OF means and station usual,
do &c comfortably. Their tent-with it,
gilded ball towering alott, and Its com
partments walled in with snowy canvas,
carefully pegged down-was large anc
handsome; whereas the black little Gov
cring under which I slept, with my good
fese, which had for years been the com
rade of my rambles, tethered outside
was just such . shelter q an sArad or .
Kurd required. They had servants, too
such " they were-a set of rsscally Lev
ts nk3aAa ShS H. ~ ,u,1osn VI srnneA ana~Aa Il,