Morris tribune., 1881-06-30
SIMPSON OF BUSSORA.


George Arnold
SIMPSON OF BUSSORA.
I have profound distrust Of all travellers.
Not because they are prone to tell me I'M
truths about their experiences, for that has
IN great measure, become a dangerous
experiment; wherever they may have been,
and it is easy, if may use professional
expression to correct their proofs" my
distrust arises from the idea in my own
mird of the experiences they do not tell
me. When they get away from the regions
of civilization and out of the influence of
public opinion, think to myself what is it
these people do not do? For the very fact
Of a mans being a traveller is. between our
selves, by no means gooa sign. Why
does he not stop at home in the bosom
of his family, or, if he has no family, &C
quire one? 1t is his duty as citizen. When
boy runs away from school, it is, of course,
the correct thing to call him intrepid, :"
gallant, "high-spirited." and ''independ-
emit; but that sort of boy is in reality not
-generally speaking-a good boy. 1t may
be true that a nation owes its natural SUI
premacy to this description of youth; but he
doesn't run away to sea from that distant
and patriotic motive; he goes to sea be-
cause he doesn't like what is good for him
on land; and almost Immediately, though
that is beside the question, finds that he
has made a great mistake. Similarly, q
man does not 60 to Tartary or Kamtschatka
to improve his mind. If he ventured to
tell me that (supposing he was not a very
tall man, and had no reason to suppose
that he had yataghan or any other out
landish weapon concealed about his per-
son. should laugh in his face. No; he
flies to such obscure regions because the
restraints of civilization are abhorrent to his
undisciplined mind, and he has some NOR
bid taste; say, for human fesh-uncooked.
The mildest spoken man ever met in my
life, and the greatest traveller, once confded
to me, after most excellent dinner at our
club, that, after all, there was nothing. like
uncooked food" He did not say human
flesh, but I knew well enough what he
meant. He has repented since of having
let out so much, and endeavors to reassure
me by his conventional behavior and con-
versation.
THE world is too small, " he says, Che has
been around it two or three times,) "and
give him England, for, when all is said that
is the best place to live in" but this does
not deceive me for a moment. That man
is cannibal at heart. I have seen him
look at plump and tender people in very
peculiar way, and 1 would not trust him
alone with my baby for small fortune.
| The sweet child would take rank among the
mysterious disappearance" He would
say, "How should know" like the frog
which swallowed the ducks egg; but
should know better than the duck. If you
think these apprehensions extreme, you are,
of course, welcome to your own opinions;
some people are moe sanguine than others,
and also more simnle.
My mind is, think a tolerably fair one,
and I have never entertained suspicious
against those who are compelled to visit
distant ATTITUDES against their wills. Queens
messengers, convicts, sailors, etc., may be
very respectable in their way, notwithstand-
ing where they may have been to: Such
was my charitable belief until within the
reason to change it. One of the quietest
and best fellows ever knew-and have
known him all my ife-was Simpson, Of
Bussora. I was at school with him five an6
forty years ago, and though his house of
business is at the distant spot just men.
toned, had met him from time to time
during his periodical visits to this country
and always found him unchanged-gentle
unassuming, modest, and orthodox in hi
opinions. Our house does little with hin
in shawls and carpets, but our acquaintanc.
is mainly social. My wife and daughter
are very partial to him, and delight in hil
Persian tales, which are picturesque and
full of local color. He brings them it'll
bottles Of scent which perfume the who'll
neighborhood, and now and then scar
that is the envy of their friends. / neve
entertained any idea of Simpson as son
in law until my wife put it into my head
He lived too far away for me to pictur
him in such relation, and though I kne1
he had made money did not think he ha'
made enough to return home and settle
His income was handsome one
but living at Bussora, he had give
me to understand, was very dear
and did not admit of muc
saving. Above all, Simpson struck me a
by no means marrying man. Wheneve
the subject of matrimony was mooted h
always smiled in that dry, cynical wa,
which proclaims the confirmed bachelor
did not take much to children; he smoke
until the small hours of morning, and rails
ed his eyebrows when one said it was late
and perhaps ones wife was sitting up. Fl
would say, REALLY" as though such an ide
as ones wife sitting up for one was pre-
/ posterous, but could never concern him
l need not 60 into the causes which led t
} my conversing with Simpson on the sub
l ject of matrimony. Suffice to say that
7 did not do it of my own free will. ha
received instructions from my wife t
Sound" Simpson on the matter with rela
ton to some ideas" that she had got in he
head with respect to our second daughter
, Jane, aud to hear was to obey" as the
say at Bussora.
"Mv dear Simpson" said I, as we wer
cracking our walnuts together, after littl
dinner under our own roof, Il often wond
or how man like you, with large incom
and fine house, as you described you
home to be at Bassora, has not married.
must be rather wretched living out there O
alone"
well, it would be, no doubt. said Simp
son in his quiet way. But, Lord bles
you'll" I've been married these twent
years"
You might have knocked me down wit
feather Married these twenty years
You astound me. Why, how was it 20
never spoke about it?"
"Oh, don't know; thought it wouldn
, interest you. She was o Persian, you know
If she had been European, then shout
have told you.
+ "A Persian wife! Dear me-" said
chow funny it seems!' I said funny
, but at the same time all the suspicious thu
: entertained (and now entertain more tina
: ever respecting travellers and persons VIII
abjure civilization, crowded into my min,
Now what color, my dear Simpson, if
may put the question without impertinenc
are your children?"
well, we've got no children, " said Simr
son in his usual imperturbable tones. Nv
8 never had any,"
, don't know why, but some how or 9TH
al I thought this creditable to Simpson. Itws
: very wrong in him to marry Persian, pei
s haps fire worshiper, or at best a Mohan
4 medan, but it was comfort to think tn
y the evil, so to speak, stopped there.
!. think of Simpson with heap of parti-co
q ored children, processing, perpaps, the
: mothers outlandish faith as they grew III
Q would have been painful to me, in connet
: ton with the fact that Simpson was at tn,
Q moment under my roof, the same roof wit
o my wife and daughters, and that I was Il
q churchwarden of our distant church.
/. forsook at once the particular subject Simi