Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-01-26
"GRACI0US"

seen a good deal OF life in his day, and It
was not commonplace life. either. One
evening as we sat cozily together, he told
me how he found his wife. for he knew
loved Ier as well almost as he did, and
his tone was trifie more confidential than
usual II am to repeat the story it must
be in a strictly confidential manner, out OF
regard TO my friend, though there i
nOthiny that any man could be ashamed
of in it, except the parading OF ones sacred
heart t D the world. But there Is a way in
which The sacred heart can be told about
that makes it remind us Of our own
sacred hearts and the days Of our own
cOurtslips and little affairs. which, though
we mav pretend TO have forgotten them,
are always vivid enough if anything hap
pens to call them up.
viii let Mr.. Farlow tell his own story.
for he can tell it better than / could:
You know my marriage all came out Of
SOGtt American trip that once made,
and that u the interesting part Of the lit
tie romance. ! was only twenty-one and
in the employ Of a shipping com pany in
San Francisco. had been with them
about year and a half, aud think they
trusted me a good deal, in fact, they must
have done So to have sent me on the eXDe-
dition they did y captain and his crew
had run away with a ship that belonged to
the company, and they wanted me 10 catch
him. lie had started with his booty to-
ward Cape Horn, and IL he once fairly left
the South American waters he was pretty
safe from Us. | boarded the swiftest
schooner that sailed out Of Frisco bay. and
we sire ched every inch Of canvas for the
south. The runaway had good two DAYS
the start Of Us and was nearly a. good a
sailer we, but we resolved TO do our best
and hoIe for luck. In any kind Of an en-
terprise man may always hope for luck
though he can't really count On it. Atany
rae 1t serves to keep the courage up.
In five days we sighted the islands of
Colombia and stopped to make inquiries.
The vessel we were after had been sighted
two days and half before. and was going
straigh5 for the Cape. The news was not
encoura ging, bat we set off again, with
two days and a half instead of two DAYS to
gain. But we still hoped for luck, or some
happy thought. IL was not luck. but a
happy thought that finally decided me TO
leave the ship at Valparaiso and strike
across country to Buenos Ayres in the hope
OF heading OF the robbers before they
cleared that port. Sailing round the Capa
/ knew TO be hard work and often slow
and with good luck l could probably catch
the vessel, or at least have gained in the
chase
The trip across the Andes and the vast
plains beyond was memorable one to me
1t took l fortnight Of the hardest tramping
and riding ! ever did in my life, but saw
some things | have never seen since. and
never will again. The guides that we
started with were crusty, malicious fel-
lows, and made me wonder every night
when | lay down to sleep on the open
ground whether should not wake up TO
find my throat cut. Fortunately that never
happened; but the reason was that they
had the better part Of my money before we
set out. Otherwise | think my life would
have been held pretty cheap by = life in
surance company.
Half way up the mountains we found
an old monastery and a little chapel. At
first it seemed deserted, but when at last.
we hear a baby cry we knew that there
were human beings about. We peered in
at little old kitchen and saw there a lit
tie old woman who seemed to have been
born about the time the kitchen was built,
say he ndred years ago. We asked for
food an lodging in every language we
knew, hut the only reply we got was a
grunt and gesture toward an inner door
We tried the door, but some one was lean
ing against it on the other side. By this
time | was quite out of patience and lift
ing the atch of the door gave it a terrible
push inward. Some glass thing fell and
broke in thousand pieces on the stone
floor, and as the door swung open we saw
white Did priest stagger backward in the
little oratory of the chapel, and on the
paving were the fragments of a long black
bottle that had contained some black
liquid. The old fellow looked very much
frightened and deprecating, and FASTENED
to expla that at his age he found drop
now and then necessary. We made his
feelings all right on that point by Offering
to drink some more with him. if he had
any. 1t appeared that there were a num-
Der of bottles in the cellar. The old priest,
and even his wife, the old woman who
seemed unable to speak, proved very hos
pitable in the end, and we went ON our
way early the next morning
AT last the mountains were passed, and
before stretched u broad, level grassy
plain, and twenty miles away though the
distance seemed much less lay city half
the size of Boston, but whose site was on
no map in existence, and whose name prob
ably not ten educated men in this country
had ever heard. But that was forty years
ago OF course things have changed since
then.
Here my guides said they must leave
me, and though | entreated their company
to the city, they utterly refused. there
fore set c ut alone.
You can imagine my desoiation at be
ing left, even by the desperate. black hued
men who had been my companions 50 far
Even they had some sense of humanity in
them, some sympathy for my loneliness,
though IL WAS moody, silent sympathy.
But now was alone, "A strange city that |
did not know before me, the Andes behind
me. Ii WAS ever homesick in my life it
was OF: that morning. If ever wished
were at home with II wife and children