The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-12-12
A Warming TURQUOISE.
When Trouble Threatened Its
Owner, 1t Turned Pale.

tafnly would not have consented to
share a double bedded room with a
stranger. AS it was. l found when we
reached a cjty-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 l found my
self with Mr.. John Spears for a room
mate.
Not that there was anything in John
to which I 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 l 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 additions 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 a brace
let, in fact, exquisitely chiseled in Per-
sian characters, very massive and con-
tanning turquoise which must have
measured, l suppose, two inches one
way and an inch and half the other.
He noticed my establishment and
laughed.
You never saw a drummer wearing
a gold bracelet beforeY' he said. mo;
it 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 it. 1t was given me
by poor, broken down devil who had
sold or pawned everything else to buy
drink, but would not part with this
while he lived.
II needn't tell you his name. We
met out west and had several easy
opportunities of giving him a helping
hand. But he was one of those cases
where helping hand can't help. The
man was utterly broken down by
drink.
when death came-after a magnIfi-
cent spree, ending in a 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 hav-
ing me with him, because, he said, /
was the only human being left who
cared whether he lived or died. Then
he said that l must take the bracelet
and wear it, just as he had done ever
since he got possession of it in Afghan
istan In 1878.
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.
"One of his native troopers took the
turquoise bracelet from the arm Of an
Afghan warrior whom he had killed
in hand to hand fight. You know, a
bracelet on the arm is common orna-
ment for an Asiatic swell to wear. And
then there is a superstition in the east
that turquoise with text of the
Koran cut into it, as this has. is a
charm against all sorts of evil
But the eastern legend also says
that when you wear turquoise on
your left arm you 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 l think that his taking that view
Of it showed there must be some good
still left In his nature.
when he went to England on leave
Of absence after the Afghan war, be
said, he had made a 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 all
very convivial crowd, so he allowed
himself to join in their carousings to a
certain extent-just to be sociable. But
Dne day as he was dressing he noticed
that the turquoise looked very pale.
That, he knew, was the sign of danger
coming to him. He thought the matter
over and concluded that the danger
which threatened him was neither
more nor less than the temptation of
drink, which had always been his bug
bear, and SO, without word of warn
ing of farewell to his jolly friends, he
took the train and went off to another
part of the country, where he could
live among associations that would not
expose him to anything like the same
danger. Then. he told me, the color
he felt himself quite safe.
But it was after that that he said
the turquoise saved him from some
thing that would have been the great
est calamity of his life.
HE was very much in love with a
cousin Of his, beautiful girl. he said,
who lived in the north of England.
She cared very little for him, as l I'M
derstood, except as cousin, though
her parents would have been glad to
see them marry. Well, he pressed his
advantages military reputation
and all that-as much as he could for
long time, but there was another
sutton whom the girl seemed to prefer,
and he-as this poor fellow told me
was at least a decent man'-had held
the field all to himself before my man
appeared.
However, he was beginning to
think that, with the help of the girls
parents and one thing and another. he
would end by winning her. Then the
turquoise warned him again 1t was
turning pale once more.
You see, he couldn't interpret It
that he was going to lose this girl
whom he loved, because he hadn't won
her yet. So he came to the conclusion
that the paleness of the turquoise
must mean so great calamity that
he could not guess at. And that led
him to give up the girl and leave her
| Ii III ~
thought, he said, of taking her with
him into trouble. Don't you think il
was a splendidly unselfish thing to do!
"WelI, his cousin married the other
man soon after, and my poor fellow
actually congratulated himself that his
cousin would be happy, no matter
what became of him. But / believe
Z A