Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1880-02-04
WHOLE NO 1862
DEAD IN THE DESERT,
am afraid air, IL IA true"


very sorry to hear IT.
The second speaker was like my
self 40 Englshman-tal' dignihed
who as he spoke cast quick anxious
glance toward q brlght.eyed, slender
girl Of nineteen, who stood at the tent
door watching tho picturesque process
of saddIIng and loading the kneel'ng
camels for the start.
Mr., Wynne was q widower, with
an entailed estate. large Income,
aud but two children. ono OF whom
was tho sou in England heir to the
property, an NJ, p. for some boroughi
and the other his young daughter
Ethel, with whom after travelling in the
Holy Land, the father had ventured
so far as Bagdad.
As for yseli was simply a young
English civil engineer, lately employ
ed by Midhat Pasha in some Of his
magnificent projects Tor irriga'ing
neglected Mesopotamia, and now
homeward bound. There were rumors
Of war aud disturbance among the
Anayzc B.douins, and consequently
the Wynnc family and myself had
been glad to avail ourselves OF the
opportunity OF joining the Bagdad aud
Damascus caravan, which was under
the protection OF Turkish military
guard.
Caravan travel is tedious, but full
of interest TO those whose curiosity rs
to eastern manners and costumes is
not dulIed by custom and Miss
Wynne never seemed tired Of sketch
ing some groupe 0: pilgrims in flow
ing robes and turbans of sacred green,
some knot Of the irregular soldlery as
the cooked their pllaff or groomed
their horses, or party OF solemn
Arabs shrouded in their white haicks.
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 migra.
tory community-one a Kurdish horse
dealer the other Syrian Christian
had died in the night. To return
however was impossible, not merely
on account of the desert robbers who
dogged our course, but because Bagdad
itself was already hotbed of the
disease, to which fatalistic apathy
might render Mahomn'edans indiffer'
ent, but for which Europeans were
glad to escape.
I knew but too we)l-for l had
spent three years already in the East
that when once sickness breaks out
in caravan, it is grisly companion
TO shake off. And so in this instance
it proved itself to be. Never a day
passed without fresh victims being
claimed by the Destroyer that shared
our march and bivouac never
halliug-place but was marked when
we LETT it, by mounds cf sand heaped
hastily over the shallow graves scoop
ed iu the yellow soil, and in some cases
protected by thorn-bushes and loose
stones from jackals that prowled In
the rear of our motley multitude, and
the vutures that lowered high alott
in the sunny sky, and which followed
US as sharks persue some water-logged
ship in the troplc seas. Familiar
faces were constantly missed from the
circles that formed at evening around
the campfire. Now it was some gal
liant soldier, whose gray Albanian grab
and bronzed features Miss Wynne had
transferred to her sketch book: now
a venerable Hadji, with silver beard
and flowing robes and anon a tat
Parseq merchant from Bombay, or
) shrewd supple young Greek, who was
lett behind in the wilderness. None
exempt save the hrown.chluned, scan
tily-clad czmel-driver, who plodded on
true children OF the sun-uncon-
: cernedly, under the sultry glare.
Under the circumstances it is not sur.
/. prising that my casual acquaintaaces
+ with my fel travellers Of my own
r speech and race should have rapidly
: ripeued into close intimacy. Mr..
,. Wynne was proud man, and, like
. most old.fashion Euglisbmen, rcluc-
, tant to make new friends without the
$ formality of an introduction but 1t
so happened that he had, at Bagdad'
dismissed his roguish dragomanl for
peculation beyond the traditional per-
. ...... ..,;,b such internreters are al.