The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-06-26
THE SON OF THE SHEIK.

The smell of the warm slime on the Jeliffe
river and the sweet, heavy and sickening
odor that exhaied into the unspeakable
heat of the desert air from the punches OF
dead and scorched water reeds Is with me
yet; also the sight of the long stretch OF
dry mud bank, rising by shallow and barely
perceptible degrees to the edge of the desert
sands, and thus disclosed by the shrinkage
of the Jeliffe during the hot months. Hal
can remember just how those mud banks
looked. They were very broad and very
black except where they touched the
desert, and there the sand had sifted over
them in light, transparens spriUklings-
and in rapidly drying under the sun of the
Sahara had cracked and warped into thou
sands of tiny concave cakes that looked for
all the world like little saucers in which
Indian ink has been mixed. Of you are an
artist, as was Thevenot, you will the better
understand thisl
Then there was the reach of the desert
that drew off on either hand, and that
rolled away, ever so gently, toward the
place where the hollow sky dropped out OF
sight behind the shimmeriug horizon,
swelling grandly and gradually like some
mighty breast, which, painting for breath
In the horrible heat, had risen in a final
gasp, and had then, in the midst of it, sud
denly stiffened and become rigid, while on
this colorless bosom of the desert, where
nothing stirred bat the waxing light in
the morning and the waning light in the
night, lay turnbled red and gray rocks,
with thin drifts of sand in their riffs and
crevices and gray green cacti squatting or
sprawling in their blue shadows, And
there was nothing n1ore-nothing, moth
ing, nothing-except the appalling heat
and the maddening silence.
And in the midst of it alive.
Now, "we," broadly and generally speak
ing, were the small right wing of General
Pawtrot's division Of the African service;
speaking less broadly and less generally,
1--WE" were the advance guard of said divis-
ion, and speaking in the narrowest and
most particular sense 1--WE" were the party
of war correspondents, specials, extras, art
it's, ETC., who were accompanying said adj
vance guard of said wing of said army of
said service for reasons herein to be set
forth.
As the long, fat, black scow of the COM
missariat went crawling up the torpid
river, with the advance guard struggling
along upon the right, eve" hay upon the
deck under the shadow of the scow's avn
ing and talked and drank kouscoussow
/ forget now what had led up to it, but
Ponscarine had said that the Arabs were
patriotic, when Bah Azzoun cut in and said
something which | shall repeat as soon as
l have told you about Bah Azzoun himself.
Briefly, then, Bah Azzoun had been born
twenty-nine years before this time at
Tlemcen, of Kabyle parents-his papa was
q sheik-had been transplanted to France
at the age of ten, and had flourished there
in truly remarkable manner. He had
graduated fifth from the Polytechnique;
he had written books that had been "cour-
ronnees par PAcademie;" he had become
he had been prominent in
politics-no one can cut wide swath in
Paris in anything without hitting against
la pelitique; he had occupied important po-
sitions in two embassies; he was diple-
mat of no mean qualities; he had lots of
influences; he dressed in faultless French
fashion; he had owned Crusader; he had
lost money on him; he had applied TO the
government for the office of ''S0uschef DIES
dams FOran," in order to
he had obtained it; he had come
on with "us," and was now on this, his
first visit to his fatherland since his tenth
year, on his way to his post
VOLTA Bah Azzoun.
And when Ponscarine had spoken thus
about the patriotism of the Arabs, Bah
Azzoun made him answer, "The Arabs are
not sufficiently educated to be true pa
triots"
"Bahp said Santander, ga man does not
require to be educated in order to be a
patriot. And, indeed, the rudest nations
have ever been the most deyotedly patri-
otic"
"Yes,n said Bah Azzoun, "but it is a
narrow and very selfish patriotism"
81 can't see that" put in Ponscarine- "a
patriot is like an egg-he is either good or
bad. There is no such thing as good
enough egg;;' there is no such thing as
good enough patriot if man is one at
all, he is perfect one"
AZ agree" answered Bah Azzoun; yet
patriotism can be more or less narrow.
Listen and will explain he raised him
self from the deck on his elbow, and ges-
chibouk. "In looking backward upon the
gradual development of patriotism in the
minds of men since the days when they
first began to band together, you can see
it pass through five very distinct stages.
first, was but love Of family
of parents and kindred, but then as the
family grows aud expands into the tribe,
it, too-as merely large family-becoines
the object of atI lection, OF patriotic devo-
ton. This is the second stage-the stage
Of the tribe, the clan, the gems; men call
themselves OF she Gothic tribe, OF the Clan
ChattaE, of the Gems Fabianus. In the
third stage, the tribe has sought protection
behind the Enclosure OF walls ii Is the
aye of cities. patriotism Is the devotion
to the city Men are Athenians ere
Grecians, Romans ere Italians, Carthagin-
ans ere Africans. In the next period pa
.riotism means affection for the state, for
the county, for the province, and Burgun-
iian, Norman and Fleming give freely of
their breast blood for Burgundy, Norman
ty and Flanders, while We OF today form
the latest, but not the last, link Of the
engthening chain by honoring, loving and
serving the country above ali considers
lions, be they Of tribe or town or tenure
Yet do not believe this TO be the last, the
highest, the noblest form OF patriotism
Ne" said Bah Azzoun. this development
shall 90 on, ever expanding. ever mount
ing. until, carried upon it's topmost crest.
we attain 20 that height from vtscn
IAN look down uPon the world As our coun-
try, humanity IS our countryn1en, aud he
shall be the best patriot who Is shs least
patriotic"
Alb, fchtrer' exclaimed Ssnts1der
iistlessly, throwing g cushion &C BAD Az
soun's head wa te es1chez. It's too hot
20 theorixe; you're either q great PEA scso-
oher, Bah, OF large sized''-he lookea ~
rim over the rim Of his glass before con
>luding-'+idios"