Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-07-05

q was never mixed up with snug gling transaction but once in my life. said a New Orleans business man, whose name may as well be left out. and my experience was so painful that I swore off then and there. I had a deal in West Texas on hand at the time and had made a short trip over the Mexican frontier, during which I picked up handful of very fine opals. A wicked friend showed me how easy 1t was to carry them over the line with out paying tribute to Uncle Sam, and was weak enough to yield to the temptation. When I got on the cars at Fl Paso, however, to come east to Dallas I was haunted by a guilty con science and had a horrible premoni- tfon that some secret service officer was on my track. Presently my at tention became attracted by man with black beard, who kept looking at me furtiVely from a seat across the way. l tried to persuade myself that it was all imagination, but number of things occurred during that ride that satisfied me I was really being watched. l went into the smoker, for instance, and before long caught glimpse of the black beared chap peer ing through the end of the window from the platform. It was the same in the dining car, and, to make a long story short reached Dallas thoroughly unstrung. That evening I began to think I had shaken the fellow of my track. when I happened to stroll out of the hotel. and there he was, stand ing behind a pillar. Needless to say, didn't sleep a wink, and when I bumped into the sleuth next morning and saw that he had shaved off his beard I gave myself up for lost. How ever, that was the last of him, and for the balance of my stay 1 was un~ molested and gradually regained my equanimity. That the man had been shadowing me was undentable, but what his purpose could have been and why he dropped the game so abrupt ly were mysteries which I was forced to leave unsolved. It was two years before found out. Then I ran across the man one day by accident in St. Louis restaurant and he owned up. It seems that he had been a public of ficial in small Texas town, and got mixed up in his accounts. He swore to me that it was only bad bookkeep- ing, but the grand jury indicted him for embezzlement, and he skipped un- til things calmed down. I happened to coincide with description he had of a detective, and all his strange moves were actuated by exactly the same mo- tive that prompted me to run-name- ly to see whether he was Delng watch ed. We were both fooled by our fears. His affairs had since been settled up and we enjoyed d good laugh and cold bottle together. But I am a rs- formed smuggler for life.
 Harem Elopemsnt.
 A daring young Englishman of good family (name not giyen) has succeeded in abducting and eloping with one of the ladies of the Sultan's own harem. According to the version of the story, the young man made her acquaintance during the recent festival of the Leilat l el hadFat, when all men anu women alike go to the mosques to pray. Each of the ladies of the Sultan's harem who goes is jealously guarded by an eunuch, but the hero of this adventure succeeded in winning over the guard ian of the beauty he admired by heavy bribes. The eunuch acted as go-between and made the necessary ar engagements for the elopement. The Englishman succeeded in getting his Mohammedan lady love on board a steamer bound direct to Bombay. Sev- eral eunuchs, suspected of being ac- complices, have been thrown into dungeons. and the Sultan utters fear ful maledictions on the English.