The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1899-11-02
A Warming TURQUOISE
When Trouble Threatened Its
Owner, 1t Turned Pale.

St:s1st.st3a,ss :sts sst1sta,s
If it had not been that every other
bed in the hotel was occupied, | GER
talnly would not have consented to
share a double bedded room with a
stranger. AS it was. found when we
reached a city-a considerable city in
Indiana, If the readers curiosity
prompts him to ask about it--that a
big political convention was going on
there, and that was how | found my
self with Mr.. John Spears for a room
mate.
Not that there was anything in John
to which | felt inclined to take eXcep-
ton; on the contrary, he struck me as
very neat. prosperous looking and
presentable specimen of the American
commercial traveller, so much so that
congratulated myself that chance and
politics had not thrown me with any
one less pleasant.
BY the time we both felt ready for
bed John and | had become pretty
good friends. and | really thought he
must have told me all the stories, good
bad and Indifferent, that he had to tell
but there | was mistaken.
He was making a somewhat elabo-
rate toilet before retiring, that being
as he told me. Indispensable to his get
ting a good nights rest, and in the
course of his ablutions his arms were
left entirely bare. Then it was that
noticed his singular decoration.
Half way between the elbow and the
shoulder John wore a superb specimen
of goldsmith's work 1t was n brace
let, In fact, eXquistely chiseled in Per
sian characters. very massive and con
tanning a turquoise which must have
measured, | suppose, two inches one
way and an inch and a half the other.
He noticed my establishment and
laughed.
You never saw a drummer wearing
gold bracelet beforeT he said. NO;
1t was not given to me by lady. If it
were not so late. I'd tell you all about
it."
There was no denying that the hour
was rather late to begin another Of
his stories, SO we went to sleep soon
after this, John sleeping with the tur-
quoise and massive gold still on his
arm. But next day he told me the
story of it.
THE person who gave me that
bracelet" he said, twas not a lady.
but very far from 1t. 1t was given me
by a poor. broken down devil who had
sold or pawned everything else to buy
drink, but would not part with this
while he lived.
81 needn't tell you his name. We
met out west, and had several easy
opportunities of giving him helping
hand. But he was one of those cases
where a helping hand can't help. The
man was utterly broken down by
drink.
when death came-after a magnlii-
cent spree ending in fight in which
a bullet intended for some one else
clipped short the little span OF life that
drink had left him-he insisted on hay
ing me with him, because, he said.
was the only human being left who
cared whether he lived or died Then
he said that | must take the bracelet
and wear 1t. just as he had done ever
since he got possession of 1t in Afghan
lstan In 1873.
"He had been an officer Of an Indian
cavalry regiment then and might have
risen high In the army If he could on
ly have let the brandy bottles alone.
Ia ho
turquoise bracelet from the arm of an
Afghan warrior whom he had killed
in a hand to hand fight. You know,
bracelet on the arm is n common orna-
ment for an Asiatic swell to wear And
then there is "A superstition in the east
that a turquoise with text of the
Koran cut into it. as this has, Is e
charm against all sorts Of evil.
But the eastern legend also says
that when you wear a turquoise on
your left arm yoa can always trust the
stone to warn you of any evil that may
be threatening you
at was only when he was dying that
this poor fellow told me how he believ-
ed the turquoise had served him well.
and think that his aking that view
of it showed there must be some good
still left in his nature
when he went to England OF laaYe
of absence after the Afghan war, he
said, he had made strong resolution
never again TO touch intoxicating spir-
its. He found himself among a num-
Der of old friends whom he had known
at different times, and they were ell
q very convivial crowd. so he allowed
himself to join in their carousings to a
one day as he was dressing he noticed