The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-11-12


For doubts and suspicion
I'll ask for first bridesmaid Miss Kitty Magee.
THEPANIC IN TIE DESERT.
A Tale Of Seven Years Since.
81 am afraid, sir, is it true"
Upon my word, Mr.. Marston, I am very
sorry to hear it."
The second speaker was, like myself,
an Englishman-a tall dignlfed old man,
who, as he spoke, cast a 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 knceling camels
for the Start, Mr.. Wynne was widower,
with an entailed estate, large income,
and but two children, one Of whom was
the son in England, heir to the property,
and M. 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, l was simply young
English civil engineer, lately employed
by Midhat Pasha in some of his magnif-
cent projects for irrigating neglected
Mesopotamia, and aew homeward bound.
There we're rumors of war and disturb
ance among the Anayze 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 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 semed 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 MI. 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 a Kur-
dish householder, the other a Syrian
Christian died in the night. To
return, however, is impossible; not mere
ly on account of the desert robbers who
logged our course, but because Bagdad
itself was already hot-bed of disease, to
which fatallstic apathy might render Mo-
hommedans Indifferent, from which Eu-
ropeans were glad to escape.
I knew but TOO well-for spent three
years already in the East-that when one
sickness breaks out iii a 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 heaped hastily over the shallow
graves scooped in the yellow soil, and in
some cases protected by thorn-bushes
and loose stones from the jackals that
prewled in the rear of our motley multi
tude, and the vultures that lowered high
aloft in the sunny sky, and which follow
ed US as sharks pursue some water-logged
ship IN the tropic 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
features Miss Wynne had transferred to
her sketch book, now a venerable Hadiii
with silver beard and flowing robes; and
anon fat Parsee merchant from Bonn.
bay, or a 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 moi
surprising that my casual acquaintance
with my fellow.travellers of nv owl
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 al
introduction, but it SO happened that h.
had, at Bagdad, dismissed his roguisf
dragoman for pcculation beyond the tra
ditional percentage which such interpret
VS. oAS oAAO"Vu " AOVyS duO Wd6 tlCE6
fore glad to avail himself of the smatter
ing of Arabic and Turkish, which hai
picked up.
Ever since the outbreak of the plagu,
had observed the old man to be thought
full and anxions, and at times he woult
glance apprehensively at his daughter, Al
if he feared to see the first signs of til,
deadly blight dim her girlish beauty
Miss Ethel's own high spirits began t,
decline-not from fear, but from sym
pathy with the distress that reignet
round us. There were bereaved father
and orphaned children in the caravan
and sadder still, perhaps, were tho las
hours of those who were journey1ng alone
and to whom care and burial had to b,
rendered by the hands of strangers.
"Poor people, / wish I could hell
them!' said the English girl, more thai
once to me az relgncd up my horse be
side the camel on whose high saddle
trapped with embroidered cloth, she wa
mounted.
Indeed, Miss Wyune, itwould be nse