Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-10-26

GO HE waiter brought us our order
and the change out of Tom Nor.
toms half-sovereign. pushed the
latter over toward him with my left
hand.
Your change, Tom," said l.
Yes. of course" said Tom, who was
absorbed in the story he was telling
me. He put out his hand as if to pick
the money up, but seemed to remember
something, for he drew his band back
suddenly.
Good heaven"' said he, "and | had
forgotten that
He took out his handkerchief. wrap
ped it around the forefinger of his right
hand, and then, with the forefinger so
covered, gently scraped the money to-
ward him, piece by piece, and earnestly
looked at each coin.
Now, look here, Tom" said |, this
is very pretty story that you have
been telling me, but don't try and give
1t an air of reality by performance
like that"
You can believe it or not, just as you
like" said Tom, but | tell you, Fred,
that piece of money is coming along
this way some day. | have seen it
once, and-I left it on the table. You
don't catch me touching any coin while
i am certain that one is in circula ton
But let me conclude what | was telling
YOU"
is of fhn It.,,
places you could think of, and one of
our first duties was to present ourselves
to the Grand Llama. We had to get a
palanquin, for it was only meet that
Europeans of our Importance should
20 in state, and it was while en- route
that we suddenly came to the praying
mill. This was sort of roundabout
with huge wooden posts sticking out
ut the side which every Buddhist pass
Ing was supposed to take hold of, and
push the mill round at least once
What caused Phil to do what he did
then l don't know, but something seem
ed to impel him to get out OF the palan-
quin, make run over to the mill,
catch hold of one of the wooden posts
and commence to push it around at it's
topmOst pace. The square where the
mill was erected was pretty well filled
with people, and when some of those
saw what had been done they came
rushing toward us, shouting and gestic-
ulating Phil had undoubtedly com
mitted sacrilege, and l was fearful
f,,. In
Iians, once their religion is assailed in
any shape or form, would certainly
have no mercy upon the assailant.
Phil came hurriedly back to me,
jumped into the palanquin, and order
ed the bearers to get on. But they
were struck dumb with terror. The
mob came for us, smashed in the doors
of the palanquin, dragged us out, and
for two minutes there was the liveliest
fight on record going on. We got the
worst of it, and bruised bleeding and
insensible, were carted off to prison.
I'VE were taken before the Grand
Llama, and then and there he ordered
lis to be sent across the Siberian from
tier with the utmost dispatch. The
next day we were hurried along under
long before we arrived ut the frontier,
the town of Miamatshin, which really
is the Mongolian portion of Kiallta We
were taken along to the yellow posts
which marked the actual frontier, and
there the soldiers of the Llama stopped.
We were removed from the palanquin
In which we had been carried, and were
commanded to sit down few yards |
from the posts. Not twenty feet away
were the black and white posts of the
Russians, and it was indeed something
TO gladden. our eyes to see the brown
coat and the astrachan fez of the Rus
sian Cossack who stood there on sen
try.
Our guards spread themselves out, |
then there came forward Buddhist |
jargon which, of course, we could not |
understand. He finished at length and |
produced from his robe a wire on which |
were threaded some hundreds of brass |
cash which the Chinese always carry. |
He took two of the cash off the wire |
and laid them in front of us on the |
ground.
"Then the priest began waving his
arms about, and the MOngolians took |
out their hand prayer mills and began
turning them for all they were worth.
The voice of the priest then rose on the
mir. He said three or four words and
spat deliberately at each of the coins, |
which had been put on the ground be-
fore us.
That was all The priest departed,
the soldier escorted us to the posts, the
Kussinn sentry presented his rifle and |