Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-09-24
MEHMED'S LUCK.

Mehmed Agha was one of the most shift
less and useless OF the refugees from Bull
garia who came to Constantinople after
the Russian war made that region a Chris
tian country. He was strong in build, he
WAS good looking, and he seemd fairly in
telligent. But do what he would he could
find no steady work. AT almost any hour
Of almost any day his bright yellow waist
coat and crimson girdle cleaned among
by the carriage stand at Beshiktash, for
there he lounged away hts time, waiting
for something to turn up. At night he
wrapped himself in his brown homespun
cloak and slept on one of the coffee house
benches, barely tolerated by the coffee
house keeper, because he, having been a
refugee himself, knew the pitiful bitter
ness of the refugees lot. How Mehmed
lived no one knows. He was never seen
to eat, and people looked at him askance,
a. though he had mastered the chsmeleon's
secret. At last Mehmed's long and pa
tient expectancy was justified. Something
did turn up, and from that moment the
mans character as we'll as his life was
revolutionized.
What turned up was a very simple and
pleasing solution of his difficulties. One
day the stout and jolly old imam of the
parish received a visit from Melek Hanum,
a buxom widow living nearly opposite the
little coffee house by the carriage stand,
She held her white veil modestly over her
face, and, with a certain amount Of hest
tation and incoherency, she asked the as.
tonished old gentleman to obtain for her
the hand of Mehmed the refugee in mar
fiage. She explained that, being a lone
woman, she needed a husband, and that
Mehmed Agha, being a good looking man
who had nothing in particular to occupy
him, she fancied that he might have been
destined by fate for the vacant post in her
house. "Of course 1t will amount" she
said, "to my doing everything for him.
but then tho poor fellow needs to have
some one to take care Of him"
The good imam had not quite that right
Of disposal of Mehmcd Agha's hand which
Melek Hanum seemed to ascribe to him.
Nevertheless as pastor of the parish he had
more than once performed similar fayors
for anxious and hopeless ones Ho there
fore Jaw no reason to refuse to act as WOO
or of Mehmed for tho widow, and, thanks
TO his wise diplomacy, a match was quick
ly arranged
Not long after the marriage Melek Ha-
mum casually remarked to her husband
that sho knew how to make very good
beurek pastry cakes. "There Is no rea-
son." she said, 'why you should not go
out early in the morning and sell my
beurek cakes Of the streets. People will
buy them for breakfast, and we shall mako
on them at least enough to pay for u
COAL" This seemed unimpeachablc sense
Thus Mehmed Agha became a beurekji,
rising early every morning and peddling
the toothsome cakes from house to house
in a little tray slung about his neck. The
profits reoonciled him to the inconvenience
of regular duties.
After the trade in pastry cakes had be-
come an established and successful enter
prise Melek Hanum one day hailed her
husband with q new proposal. "Oh, Meh-
med, soul Of my SOUL, " she said, 'it Is no
shame to work II we oan get money in
that way to pay the bakers account. The
.neighbors have just told me from their
window that Yusuf, the school porter, has
gone away. He is to be stableman at XII
anil Pasha's. Run quick to tho imam
and ask him to let you DO school porter.
Your beurek cakes are sold off long before
Il is time to take the children to school.
You might do this work as we'll as not"
The imam was kindly disposed, and 10
the next day, after selling his beureks,
Mehmed Agha began his new duties,
gathering up all the little children Of the
quarter and taking them and their dinner
tins under bis protecting shadow to the
school.
After a few weeks there came again a
day whom the good imam knocked at the
door Of the little house opposite the cof1ee
shop and called for Mehmed Agha. "May
God give you endless days." said he. "A
may whom / put into the Bezostan as
broker has died. If you like, / can get you
his place. Perhaps you might make a lit
tie money out Of the business"
Before Mehmed Agha had a chance to
answer q gentle voice from behind the
screen where Melek Hanum had taken
refuge on the arrival Of the imam said:
Mehmed, you ought to take
this position. Fortunately the Bezestan
does not open until the middle Of the fore
noon. You will not have to hurry at all
after taking the children to school. 1t 10
not every day that you can get a chance to
take up a business which will pay the rent
OF the house." Needless to say, Mehmed
Agha became a Bexestan broker. Every
day after selling his beurek cakes and TAX
ing the children to school he hurried over
10 Stamboul and spent three or four hours
In perambulating the basaars, now with a
watch and again with a copper kettle or
perhaps an amber cigarette holder in his
hand for all to see, while he cried aloud
the amount Of the last bid and accepted
new ones. He succeeded pretty well, for
the Bssestan merchants liked his looks
and bis manner Of talking and gave him
plenty Of opportunities to make his o \,
mission.
One evening when Mehmed Agha re-
turned from STEAMBOAT he found bis wife
In a state Of great excitement. Hand,
the night watohman Of the district, wal
an old man. He had now been taken sick
again and had been forced to acknowledge
that he could mo longer perform the duties
Of his Office. ct Is u rare chnnce for you,