The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-12-15
ROLLING STONES THAT
HAVE GATHERED MOSS.

An American paper has the follow
ing from its correspondent in the City
of Mexico:
Men who begin life in a rut, and
grow gray hairs in routine. afraid to
risk step beyond the well-worn path,
may reap the reward Of the diligent
apprentice, but they will have little
fun out Of this glorious and puzzling
world, which the gods have made a
tangle of, and where they award the
prizes of fortune to the adventurous
and foolhardy. 1t is most remark
able thing how the copybook maxims
get reversed in practice, and Rolling
Stone not only gets covered with moss,
but golden fleece as we'll.
Every day / rub up against old char
acters. men of many chimes, who have
been ION the road of Msndalay," and
have "seen the dawn come up like
thunder outer China crost the by!"
Well, they're mighty interesting, even
if their cash is low and "they forbear
to pay"
One bright and superlatively clever
friend of mine is cockney born, in
deed, quite in the sound of Bow Bells.
His father is clergyman, and has sew
eral children. He is still young, this
now successful contractor, who handles
millions. His first adventure WAS when
after leaving home with the traditional
blessing, he took passage for Zanzibar.
In the realm of the palm and the
strange African commerce. he arrived
mere lad and went into the miscel-
lsneous trade. He became purveyor to
the sultan, who took shine to him
and wanted him to take to wife one of
his innumerable daughters, all bona
fide princesses. My friend reflected
long and we'll, but, fearing that a white
man might never aspire to the throne,
and he aimed at nothing else in those
days, he put the matter off. AS the
sultan, a big, bouncing black man, was
Mohammedan, the youngster thought
he was no wine drinker. 30 he sent him
several dozen cases of Appollinarie,
which so incensed his majesty that he
executed for him a decree Of perpetual
Punishment.
The youthful cockney, not at all dis
hesrtened by the oontiscation of his
stock in trade, took passage for the
Cape of Good Hope, went up into Zulu
land, and discerned the golden future
that awaited it, but the "naygurs" were
many, and armed with assegais, which
they had habit of throwing around
promiscuous like,s the youth deemed
it prudent to decamp.
He stayed bit at the cape, and then
made a straight run for New York,
whence he came to Mexico on steamer
of the old Alexander line, acting as
general assistant to pay his way. Ar
irving here he got employment in
railway office, and distinguished him
self by having prize fight impromptu
with a man of thrice his weight and
half again as tall, and whipped him out
of his boots. This event established
his reputation and he forged ahead,
soon becoming broker and next
merchant, and now nothing less than
million dollar contracts and the buying
of steamers satisfies his ambition. He
is up today and unspoiled, for he has
taken life by the seamy side, and can
pity a man down on his luck. Here,
then, is the proverbial rolling stone,
but moss gatherer, indeed.
Every day at lunch, in the stately
dining room of the aristocratic Jockey
club, the swaggerest institution here.
one sees, when he is in town, a tall
American, who drawls like an English
man, who has rosmed the ocean blue,
engineered in the civil way on the
Isthmus of Panama, lived in the soli-
tary forests east of the Andes, in Peru,
where the sands of the rivers are Of
gold, and nourished his soul in the
great silences of that loneliest of lands.
He tried to awaken interest in trans
Andean mining among rich men in
Frisco, but they were incredulous and
said to him nay, but nowadays all that
he told them has come true in official
reports, and gold excitement is deci-
dedly ION" down there.
This tall, drawing mining expert, for
that is what he is, has the confidence
of the princes of the copper and gold
world and he travels like lord, and
looks at mines all over Mexico. He
was friend of the late duke of MARI
borough, and has dined at Blenheim,
and has been served by hunkeys in
scarlet and gold livery and powdered
hair, but he can chew pigs ears out in
the interior when on an expedition.
He has been rolling stone for nigh
on to thirty years, and has handsome
bank balance now. How experience
does somehow shatter the copybook
maXims!
Another friend | have who was sent
out from merry England by his exas-
perated dad, colonel in her majesty's
service. He was apprenticed as gen.
tleman pupil to farmer in the misty,
mostly state of Oregon, and. with his
companions in misery, all younger
sons, sent from home for the peace of
their respective families, was set to
ploughing a swamp, an occupation that
80 disguised him that he ran away and
became a newspaper editor, and soon
the proprietor of a journal called, eu-
phonically, The Spotted Cayuse, copies
of which | have, written and illustrated
by himself.
Tired of being shot at while inditing
leaders and editorial notes, he left the
town of his labors and struck across the
wide Pacific, finally fetching up in In
dia, where he established a free and
easy and entirely fearless paper. One
paragraph had the evil effect of bring
ing high dignitary to deaths door
with apopleXy, as the result of intense
indignation, so it WAS "busted" by the
Calcutta government, and the eXtin-
guished Kipling, who meditated a series
of stories on Indian life, was asked to
cross the briny waters for his health
and for the peace of the government.
So he happened to drift into Mexico,
where he has married a mighty pretty
lady and holds a responsible position,