Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-10-25
A LION AND A LIONESS.
AN ADVENTURE AND A RO-
NANCE OF A COURA-
GEOUS WOMAN.
WRITTEN FOB THB EVENING STAR By
JOAQUIN MILLER
tCopyriRhtedl
CHAPTER L

n DOUBT II you will find either profit or
Ia pleasure In reading this incident of my
kthird voyage up the Nile. 1t Is really not
~ worth reading. have written 1t down
49, merely for g few friends who know some
thing Of the facts and also to escape the annoy
auce of having to tell it over as one of the fea-
lures OF my four years travel in the orient.
but to begin. Wearying of the Levant was
rcsting a time in Rome, when L was formally
invited. as we'll az specially urged, to witness
the marriage ceremony between the Grand
duchess Alexandria and the Duke of Edinburgh
Let US pass over these wasteful follies-the
waste OF time. the waste of sense, of soul /
have only mentioned the reason for my pres
ence in st. Petersburg, have only mentioned
the fact o: my being there because saw a face
- that gathering of people that could not be
forgotten. 1t was the face of tall dark and
>erenely silent Dolores young woman who
mad surely met and made the acquaintance of
-rrrow early in the morning of life. | some
zines wonder If l could ever have known or
cared to know any one who had not sorrowed
deeply. And yet now know very well that
III whatever guise that woman could have come
there could have been no two roads for from
tine day of her coming to the day of her going.
Let me be little confidential right here. |
anew. L had always known. | should meet this
woman. / had waited for her; worked hard.
built up the battlsments and the fortress of my
~Iul that | might receive her into il and
defend her well against nv baser self when
she should come. And now tell me. have YOU
never had a thought. conviction like this; a
certainty in your own heart that your other
ana better self would come to you complete
md entirely some day, soon or late: so soon
zoo might have the fortress ready? The doc
tors said she dying. She mad been trying
10 stand between the car and the Hebrews
III. may not have been OF that peculiar peo-
pie. but / think she had the money of Roths-
,.ii.d5 and SIR Moses MOntefiOre behind her.
There had been attempts AT assassination. fol-
lowed by executions. some OF the condemned
were women. Ii vas as If this woman herself
mad been condemned IL death. L think she
suffered more than ali the others put together.
she WAS SO very, very sensitive to the pain and
sorrow of others.
There are souls Ike that But there is a
good God. The soul that suffers keenly can
and shall enjoy keenly You can If you care to
Persist Ill II make yourself rs the centuries
wheel past more than an entire nation IN this.
We had common ground to work in the
cause of the condemned people. 1t was on
Tins ground that We hrst met: two swift
streams that flow III the same direction and 30
siaalv unite forever. All that could be done
done speedily; for 1.-The laws delay" what
ever else must be iaId to the doors OF Russia, is
not one of her sins.
As summer took flight We went south with
the birds. For sine surely felt that she was DIV
!tea of restoring Jerusalem and having this
homeless race re-estdblIshed in the holy city,
Her religion! i think II Was all religions /
saw her kneel in the kremlin at Moscow. cross
herself IN 81. Peters at Rome and bend low at
rdyer In the synagogue at Alexandria. |
iIInk she would have done the same in a
mosque. As stated before. / had, previous 10
meeting her. been all over Syria And so,
whenever she referred TO her cherished idea
she often did, of forming Hebrew settle
MentS IN AMI about Jerusalem and restoring
i.ae., / took occasion to explain how impossl-
BILE and Impracticallt all WAS.
remember telling her how in a whole DAVIS
ride from Baby Ion toward Jerusalem had seen
10 living thing save single grssshopper
explained to her that the path of civilization
had been IN the track of the setting sun ever
since the dawn OF history. and that il was not
IN the power OF man TO reverse this course l
attempted to show that the tide of population
would pour upon the salubrIous ana fertile
shores Of the farthest west TIL the heart OF CIV
4IzatiOn would beat right there. i explained
10 her that wherever the great strong heart of
commerce beat strongest there would be found
fno strongest and best of these people whom
shs hoped to help, while the weak and helpless
q. that race would remain stranded by the
waters of the Leys.nt III Russia now.
Why not then let US anticipate this and
build the city OF refuge by your great sea in
the path OF this civilization which you say will
surely Gomez
Like the golden doors Of dawn was the great
e.-Tuest idea to me as she spoke. But of course
/ knOw. as said before. that the peculiar peo-
pie could not be induced to brave the desert
They do nOtseek rest. but action-employment
II the marts They would rest but "A single
night even by tbs sweet waters of Jacobs
well