The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1897-05-15


ground swell which rolls in upon that
coast in the spring, and the Angra
man despoiled 1t OF watch, chain and
pendant. Only the guinea will ever
be heard Of again"
"Did you write Hufcland?" queried
his friend.
eyes, out Of curtesy, thanking him,
and telling him where the coin had
started and how it had probably
reached him, and asking him not to
return it, but to set it on it's travels
again in the regular course of business.
! had no reply to my letter and doubt
whether the Boer ever received it.
Something more than year later this
third chapter arrived"
He handed the American large,
square envelope of rough paper, bear.
ing the strange. postmark, "Irkutc, p"
Mackor Sunt," and the sheet within
was headed "Yakutsk." The letter
was in English.
10 the Unknown: Except to drink vodka,
attend Greek church and gamble there re-
mains nothing for II Christian CD to do in
this "heel Of the world" but write. Two
days since, when paying for some furswhich
l had bought from Tuususe Indians, one of
them gave me in change an English guinea,
Happening to examine 1t later I discovered
engraved in small letters near the head,
write P. o. Box 1901, London" AS an
american have all u Yankees curiosity,
and therefore am writing. I must insist,
however, upon reply. My personal
knowledge of this coin begins only as stated:
put when saw the inscription hunted ;p
the native and dragged from him by bride and
| irrigation all that he knew of the same. He
had received it months before from q Rus
sian official, recently arrived from st. Peters,
burg, whom he met on the Lena River
Where that man got it is only to BIZ con-
Jectured. shall probably spend it. set it
in motion again soon; but i would be
pleased to hear why it bears this strange re-
quest. lam a United States naval officer
sent to this far land by my Government to
aid IN the search for the crow OF the lost
jeanette. Very respectfully.
JOHN NJ. HARLOW.
The American laughed.
"Qulto a characteristic letter. You
surely wrote Mr.. Harlow"
ooh, yes, replied the other, "and
have still an epistolary acquaintance
with him, maintained in q desultory
manner ever since. He is now in
Washington, in your country, I think.
He has promised to visit me should he
ever get to England on leave. OF
course how the guinea reached Russia
from South Africa I shall never know.
Here is the fourth letter."
"LonEro, Lower Call,
Dec. IS. 1889.
"For month have anticipated tho time
when should BIZ strong enough to write P.
0. Box 1901, London. Dear old. smoky.
foggy London If you only knew how
strong is the love that wraps an English
mans heart about for his Cheat City, espe>
cially when far from the place OF his birth.
you will be able to estimate how such love
and longing is increased when the English
man !..es &c wes:s on his back in cot bed
with forty 'caitIser hole through ono lung.
Ned-that's my chum-eays have slept with
the home guinea clasped in lay hand night
after night. We'll, I may have done so. 1t
is the first thing that has come direct from
| dear old England to me in three long wears
and l doubt If ever see anything 50 near
my beloved home again. am one of the
neer-do-welIs who has drifted up and down
| tho earth, never content, never at rest, until,
| perchance, put to rest as l have been, by an
enemy's shot from behind Il mesquite BUSH
This little coin was paid me for gold dust
one wild night across the Gulf in Guayanas,
Mexico, three months ago, and although
guineas don't grow on trees in this blazing
desert, have chung to 1t.
write me, Box 1001--write me for hu.
manitys sake! They tell me I'm going to
get well, but l know better. The catch at
| my heart and tho hole in my lung don't mean
| life, but something else. And perhaps it Is
just as we'll. The world has not been the
better for me; it will not be- much the worse
without me; but my soul is hungry for lot
| ter. A big yellow envelope. with my name in
| round hand on tho outside. My friends do
not know where am, and If am to die it
| is better 80. Even my dearest sister, who
| never gave mo up, has lost me; for I have
been ashamed to tell her how low I had
fallen. But, Box 1901, you only know that
| have your guinea, and you don't know all
| my foolish and my evil decds Write me-,
here; Tor shall never 20 away.
ARTHUR JAMESON"
''Iou sec how long time had passed
since the third letter." SAID the Eng
lishman; "six years. I had all but
forgotten my golden wanderer when
this came; but you may know that
wrote at once and ut length to poor
Jameson, dying amid the horrible
wastes of Lower California. I even
wrote twice; but no answer came, and
l concluded that his course was run.
Sometimes I remembered the fellow,
plying his loneliness if living; but as
time passed the recollection slowly
faded from my mind, when, two
years ago, the fifth and last of the
series came to hand"
The American took the letter. It
was written in lady's hand, post
marked "Cranbrook, Kent, England, "
dated May 10th, 1892, and ron Us fol-
lows:
Dear Sir: Almost ten years AGO nv
| brother Arthur, then boy of only seven
teen, ran away from home. For time he
used to write me and most gladly replied,
| for he was my only brother, four years older
| than myself, and greatly loved. He was
never quite successful, but always hopeful: