The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-06-27
WHITE MAGIC AND ARAB ROB-
BERS.

Now, professor. your baggage is
all p the boat, and whenever you're
ready am.D
30 spoke the captain of the Aus
TRAN Lloyd steamer (which had Just
|aflehored before the Syrian port Of
Jdnal to a big, light haired, yellow.
bearded man in enormous green spec-
y sles, from behind which pair of
5arge blue eyes looked out very kind
~ and pleasantly.
Both the captain and his passen-
gers seemed to treat the spectacled
Hpan with great respect, as we'll they
Q Ight, for he was no less a parsonage
Y sn the famous German professor,
/ efHJulius Altenstein, who had Just
|e nseout to the Holy Land for the
''.l>,ai sinie in order to dig up few
noret'antiques" for the Berlin Mu-
seHm.
AS every Eastern traveller knows,
1t Is no joke to get ashore at Jaffa,
which Is merely an open roadstead,
with dangerous reef right across it,
upon WHICH the waves break so furi-
ously that it is often impossible to
land at all. Hence the captain thought
1t best to take the professor ashore in
his own boat.
But just IS Herr Altenstein was
stepping toward the gangway, a
gaunt, ragged, wid-looking figure
started up right in his path, crying,
in queer jumbIe of Italian, French,
and German:
"Signor signOr! Fine music box !
You buy him, me sell very sheap."
The professor, annoyed at being
stopped, was going to push past but
the poor Italians hungry, Woe be-
gone face touched his warm German
heart, and he felt in his pocket for
some small change, though without
any idea of buying the musical-box.
Fine box, signor," repeated the
Italian, seeing that he had made some
impression. "Play German song fine.
Ecco 10! (see).
He touched the spring as spoke
and instantly the musicaI-box struck
up "Die Wacht am Rhein."
This was too much for the patriotic
professor, who hastily dropped a
handful of silver into the Italians
extended palm, and, thrusting the
box into his pocket, pumped into
the boat like a scared elephant.
Herr Altenstein was half way tc
land before he had done examining
his new purchase, which was queer
looking affair enough. The spring
being quite hidden, and the box itsel
completely coated with "grits" Qike
the rough side of a match-bOX), il
looked at first like a lump of sand.
stone. But its tone was so clear and
sweet that the professor thought he
had made very good bargain and
so, indeed, he had, though in way
Of which he little dreamed just then
That very night our hero and his
dragoman rode across the Plain o
Sharon (the ripe corn upon which
came up to his saddleboW) and
through the hills of Abu-Gosh, up to
jerusalem.
Here he stayed just long enough to
get the necessary "papers" from the
Turkish pacha (governor), and then
trotted off again along the steep, mar
row path that winds through the ire.
nendous precipices between Jersua-
lem and the Plain of Jericho.
Within two days of his landing oul
energetic professor had got over the
Jordan, and was right in among the
blue hills of Moab, where his work
lay.
1T is easy enough to get workmer
in Palestine when you have pacha's
order in your pocket, and easier still
when you pay your men well, instead
of making them work for nothing
like the pacha himself. Herr Alten
stein did not take long to muster 6
gang of tough, wiry, bare-limbed
Arabs, able and willing to labor from
sunrise till sunset on the hottest day
in summer, provided they got enough
ptdStreS (flve-cent pieces) to make il
worth their while.
The Arabs, however, although
quite satisfied with the wages paiC
for their work, were sorely puzzleC
by the work itself. When they frs
saw Altenstein begin digging anC
grubbing among the stones and dirt
they naturally thought that the Fer
inghi HaKim European doctor), as
they called him, must be on the track
OF some of those ''buried treasures
about which the Syrian Arabs tell Sc
many strange tales. But when nj
treasure appeared, and they fOunC