Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-11-13

Cold, hearttess, and brutal she'll And ye TO be
When ye she'll be gettln'
She'll soon be regretin'
sho Ger changed her name from plain Kitty
Magee.
What's that? Am dhramin'?
You've only been shammin'.
just trying to test the affection in me:
But you're tho sly divil!
There. now! Plaze be civil;
Don't hug me 10 death-rm not Kitty Magee
Your kisses confuse me-
Well, I'll not refuse ye-
Iknow you'll be tindher and lovin' wild me
To show my contrition
For doubts and suspicion
Pll ask for first bridesmaid Miss Kitty Magec
THEPANIC IN THEDESERT.
A Tale Of Seven Years Since.
II am afraid, sir, is it true"
Upon my word, Mr. Marston, am very
scry to hear it."
The second speaker was, like myself,
an Englishman-a tall dignl6ed old man,
who, as 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 entailed estate, largo income,
aud but two children, ono of whom was
the son in England, heir to tho property,
and NJ. P. tor some borough; and the
other, his young daughter, Ethel, with
whour, after travelling in the Holy Lands,
the father had ventured so far as Bagdad.
As for myself, l was simply young
English civil engineer, lately employed
by Midhat Pasha in some of his magnif-
cent projects for irrigating neglected
Mesopotamia, and now homeward bouni
There were rumors Of war and disturb
ance among the Anayzo Bedouins, 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 a Turkish military guard.
Caravan travel is tedious, but full of
interest to those whose curiosity as to
Eastern manners and Eastern costumes
is not yet dulled oy custom; and Miss
Wynne never stmcd 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 a
party of solemn Arabs shrouded in their
white hacks.
All went on prosperously 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 migrasory community-one Kur-
dish householder, the other Syrian
Christian-had died III the night. To
return, however, is impossible; not mere
~ ON account of the desert robbers who
dogged our course, but because Bagdad
itself was already hot-bed of disease, to
which fatallstic apathy might render Mo-
hommedans indifferent, from which Eu-
ropcans were glad to escape.
I knew but TOO well--for spent three
years already in the East-that when one
sickness breaks out III caravan it is a
grisly companion very difficult 70 shake
off. And SC, in this instance, it proved
itself to be. Never day passed with
out fresh victims 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 hcaped hastily over the shallow
graves scoopcd in the yellow soil, and in
some cases protected b., thorn bushes
and loose stones from the :jackals that
prowlod in the rear of our motley multi
tude. and the vultures that lowered high
aloft in the sunny sky, and which follow
cd US as sharks pursue some watcr-logged
ship in the tropic seas. Familiar faces
we're 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
features Miss Wynne had transferred to
her sketch book, 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 tho wilderness.
None seemed exempt save the brown
skinned. scantily clad camel drivers,
who plodded on-true children of the
Fundamentally, under the sultry
glare.
Under these circumstances it is not
surprising that my casual acquaintance
with my fellow-t1avellers Of my own
speech and race should have rapidly rip
ened into close intimacy. Mr.. Wynne
was proud man, and like most old fash
toned Englishmen, reluctant to make
new friends without the formality OF an
introduction, but it so happened that he
had, at Bagdad, dismissed his roguish
dragoman for population beyond the ira
ditional percentage which such interpret
ers are allowed to levy, and was Their
fore glad to avail himself of the smatter-
ing Of Arabic and Turkish, which l had
picked up.
Ever sirce the outbreak of the plague
! had observed the old man to be thought
full and anxions, and at times no would
glance apprehensivelv at his daughter, as
if he feared to see the first signs of the
deadly blight dim her girlish beauty.
Miss Ethel's own high spirits began to
decline-not from fear, but from SYM
patty with the distress that relgned
round US. There were bereaved fathers
and orphaned children in the caravan ;
and sadder still, perhaps, were tho last
hours Of those who were journeylng alone,
and to whom care and burial had to be
rendered by the hands of strangers.
"Poor people, I wish I could help
themw said the English girl, more than
once to mo as I 'rc1gncd up my horse be-
side the camel on whose high saddle,
trapped with embroidered cloth, she was
mounted.
"1ndeed, Miss Wyune, it would be nsc-
less" replied. "These poor creatures
have an almost suderstitious faith in
European medical skill, but we have nei-
Their doctor nor medicine.c chest, and from
the moment Of the seizure there is little
hope of recovery. All we can do is to
struggle on"
The Wynnes were rich, and travelled,
rs people OF means and station usually
do, comfortably. Their tent-with its
gilded ball towering alott, and Its COM
partments walled in with snowy canvass
carefully pegged down-was large and
handsome; whereas the black little COW
ering under which I slept, with my good
horse, which had for years been the COM
rade OF my rambles, tethered outside,
was just such shelter az an Arad or q
Kurd required. They had servants, too,
such az they were-a set Of rascally Lev
antines-half of whom, more scared by
the hardships of the desert than BY the
plague, absconded, and went off with
everything salable and portable towards
p p r..