Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1883-12-26
AN AMBITIOUS YOUTH
Arrested while ON His Way 60
Egypt 10 Aid the False
Prophet-His Equip
ment.



A new field Of enterprise has been
opened to the sanguinary small boy.
On Sunday last small boy was ar
rested IN this city who vas on his way
to Egypt to help I'll Mahdi. Doubt
less he has been preceded by other
small boys as sanguinary as himself,
and II SO, we can readily understand
ow,with their help, the False Prophet
has so completely overwhelmed the
Egyptian army.
The equipment of the small boy in
question was different from that Of the
small boy who devotes himself to the
determination Of Indians. 1t com
prised a horse pistol and big knife,
with which to slaughter the False
Prophets enemies. A horse pistol
would not be Of much use on our
plains, where every Indian carries a
rihei but in Egypt, where Egyptian
soldiers are all mounted on Camels, q
horse pistol can be used with great
effect in frightening the cam
els. The small boy also
had with him forceps,
monkey wrench, and a collection Of
collar buttons The ferceps we're
probably designed for use in collect
ing ivory, from the sale Of which Ii
small boy expected tC reap fortune.
he intended to shoot elephants in his
leisure moments and to extract their
tusks with the iorceps instead Of the
old fashioned turnkey, which is still
used by conservative Arab hunters.
What he intended to do with the
monkey wrench is less clear. No
small boy bent upon the overthrow Of
the Khedive and the expulsion of the
English from Egypt would have
thought Of wasting his time in wrenchS
ing monkeys; and hence bis monkey
wrench must have been meant for
other than its legitimate purpose. II
is barely possible that both the for
ceps and monkey wrench were to be
used as instruments of torture where's
with to extract from the Khedive
revelations as to the places where his
treasure is kept, By drawing the
Khedivo's teeth one by one, and BY
slowly wrenching him with the mon
key wrench, the wretched man could
doubtless be induced to give up his
last plaster 10 order to induce his
tormentors to leave him in peace.
But what in the world did the small
boy intend 10 do with his collier but.
toni The simple Arab who picks up
a collar button dropped by touristat
the Pyramids or among the ruins Of
Thebes invariably offers to sell it to
the next tourist an an antique found
in the tomb Of an Egyptian King, but
no such purpose could have animated
a small boy bent on helping the False
Prophet to drive all tourists out Of
Egypt. He could not have meant to
wear innumerable clean collars, and
to that end have furnished himself
with spare buttons, for if there is one
thing rather than another from which
the soul Of small boys turn in loathing
IL is a clean collar. The most proba-
Bile conjecture is that he meant to use
the collar buttons as currency, and to
bride the black troops Of the False
Prophet with them, so as to procure
the deposition ofthat great leader and
to secure to a fearless American small
boy the leadership Of the False Proph-
cts host.
Although the arrest Of this iugeni.
Gus small boy has for the moment
frustrated his plans, others can adopt
and carry them out. Egypt is a far
better place for a small boy with a
taste for blood than is the great West.
The climate is we'll adapted for
camping out" aud the native Egyps
tian, instead Of showing fight and
scalping his enemies, like the North
American Indian, runs away with
great enthusiasm when he is attacked.
There is, Of course, some slight diff
Guilty in making ones way to Egypt,
but no difficulties should appall
small boy who has the glorious ambi-
ton to become False Prophet and
the successor Of the Pharoahs, the
Ptolomies and the Calipbs.