Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1902-09-18
THE BEACHES VISION
BY ELLA w. PEATTIE-

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ing from academic halls, looked about IN
life with a patronizing air and waited for
Opportunity to come along and make him
pretty bow. He waited a good many
years, but she never stepped before him
or seemed to notice him in the least His
people all died and left him nothing but
the memory Of honorable lives, and poor
Hud, horribly lonely, married a girl be
knew after ascertaining that she had no
objection to making her own gowns and
was willing to temper the grocery bills to
suit bookkeeper's salary.
But in spite of all the dullness with which
he was surrounded, and the fact that he
toiled all day and walked home through
filthy streets TO a third Hat and a plain
wife, Hud could not come down 10 the ac-
Qualities Or, to put it more fairly, he re-
fused to notice the uninteresting actuali-
ties and confined himself to the enjoyment
of such things in life as suited him. As,
for example. the east.
Hud kept books for River street i'm.
porting house, and it was his privilege TO
handle invoices OF tea from China and cof.
fee and spices from Java and Mandalay.
1t was, without doubt, the purest lmagina.
tion, but it seemed to Hud that the very
invoices Of these things had an aromatic
scent about them, and it was his chief in
dulgence to leave his work minute be
fore the noon hour and go to the shipping
room, where the curious cases OF redOlent
wares we're opened
At first when he tried to tell his wife,
she laughed. But she loved Hud-poor
Hud who had never hsd anything that he
wanted-and when she looked in his
dreamy, OK like eyes, she made up her
mind to try to understand what he was
talking about. Very plain women are
sometimes unselfsh like that
II was she who bought him an old copy
of the astonishing travels Of Marco Polo,
and she got the chronicles of Sir John
Maundeyille out OF the public Library and
read aloud to Hud evenings. She got some
| joss sticks, too, and burned them in a tiny
| jade bowl And after that both OF the
Beaches go, in the way Of buying oriental
! trnkets and Mrs Beach begged the
| greenish plated straw wrappings that
came about the tea boxes, and made a
| dado OF them around her dining room,
neatly paneing the whole. After that the
| pungent perfume Of the dried tea leaves
were forever in that room, and made it
peculiar Moreover, size struck tiny gong
when meals were ready, and the gong had
a haunting oriental sound
So into the live. Of Hudson Irvington
Beach and his plain little wife began to
| come the color OF tie mysterious east"
and they dreamed of "far Cathay" and
talked about "the Ind 3" and were absurdly
haokneyed though they didn't know it
and they envied the people who could
cross the western seas and sail into the
toy country OF Japan, or see the vast,
thronging rivers Of China, and hear the
tinkling Of the temple bells.
81 used to think It was very silly to talk
about the incarnation of the soul" Mrs
Beech said to Hudson, "but now | feel
quite sure that ! used to walk through a
bazaar and talk with ivory-faced old men
in turbans and that used to buy curious.
delightful things. II cannot be that all
| know about marketing is going down on
Clark street to the butchers hate the
butchers, anyway. Why can't We eat rice
and sugared cherries and beautiful deli.
cate things like that"
Hud managed to get some delicious rel.
ishes such as Christians encounter when
they go to Bombay, and he and Mrs Beach
used them with scrupulous frugality. On
' III mas ne nlhtlt NtI present OF SUI
CARED cherries and ginger and small, pre-,
cious packages Of tea,
They knew but few persons on this
teeming globe and wrote 10 fewer still,
though they were people who would dear.
ly have loved an interesting correspond.
ence, and chief Of all their epistola,ory de.
lights was the letter that came now and
then from Hong Kong from correspondent
of the River street house. Hud, to tell
the truth, had rather thrust his personal
ity upon this man. and by careful coaXing.
the business correspondence had grown
into friendly interchange Of personal let
ters
at seems curious to me at times" said
Hud one day, rubbing the bald spot on his
head that in all my life | am never to
get a smell of the bazar-the garlic and
the incense and the perfumes and the dirt
How miserably dull our streets are, Mary!
What would you think Il you saw people
in white linen and red and blue and yellow
and gold and fawn colors, Mary, how
would you like a Cashmere shawl, Or a
camel hair robe' En-" Then they both
laughed like children who have a secret
and Mary, getting up, lit one Of the little
Joss sticks in the jade bowl
II was only last winter that the Beaches
began to got tired Of visions. Perhaps they
realized that youth was really gone. Any.
way they knew beyond all peradventure
that they were poor. that work was con.
stant and poorly rcmunerated, and that for
all Of the cry OF their souls for the land be.
yond SueE, they were likely to live and die
IN that neighborhood Of flat" buildings,
looking out ON endless wire clothes lines
and fire escapes They grew depressed.
They were almost illnAtured with each
other, They ceased to take pleasure in the
redolent dado
But Just as the dirty Chicago winter was
settling down upon them in most dis.
heartenlng way, and the furniture Of the
fiat was looking its meanest, and Mary
was most conscious Of the out-ofdate
character Of her three year-old jacket, Hud
came home one night with white face.
"Hud, cried Mary, when she saw him,
you're discharged"
Mary shouted Hud, throwing his arms
about her, you lie" and he kissed her
square on the mouth,
ITS the Ind" half sobbed Hud. 81
tell you, Mary, It's the Ind that has upset
me! I'm to go as agent for our house 10
Hong Kong Ii has come true"
Hong Kong isn't the Ind. said Mary. al.
most Grossly, She was surprised that she
had to be cross
Isn't it. DEAR Oh, yes it is. It's the
eust, anyhow Mary, | can smell it-I can
see it can hear ~ What fAiryland.
The sky, the flowers the people, the color,
the noise they are all different We shall
cross the continent and cross the sea and
see the stands, and then We shall come
to the old cities and live in them"
lie rubbed his bald head iercely with
his handkerchief while she trembling with
her emasement, hrewed him a cup Of the
purcst OF Ceylon, and its steam dlled all
the room with an aroma which llud smiled
and sn,lIed as Il he could never have enough
of It
Hudson lrvington Beach" said he.
dreamlly, quathng the luscious beverage,
"of Hong Kong"
=aaa....
CATARRH OF THE BOWELS
Causes b,oating after meals and
large quantities of gas which cannot
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