The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-03
UNCLE SAM AS A
TELLER OF STORIES.
Curious, Interesting and Unex-
pected Tales That Are Told by
Him to All His People Every
Day.

Day.
You remember, no doubt, that Ha-
roun AL Raschid and his Vizier and all
the Kings and Princes who used to
call on them, We're great story tellers
and always were ready to narrate
some wonderful happening that they
had witnessed somewhere in the world.
That was away and away back in the
dim times that we call romantic and
for which we often pine now. Yet
even while we are pining, and wishing
that our own times were not so pros
aic, our very own Uncle Sam is busily
telling us stories every day. And he
tells them to all who choose to listen,
and not only to the few favored ones
who used to hear Haroun AL Raschid.
For Uncle Sam has his stories printed
and sent everywhere. He calls them
Trade Reports" and other dry names
like that and it frightens many good
folk who never like to read anything
that does not look perfectly easy. So
they do not dream what delightful and
remarkable tales Uncle Sam tells.
Thus one day last week one of Uncle
| Sans employees, a consul, sent him a
! little story from away out in Mesopo-
| tama, where Nebuchadnezzar once
| lived, little thinking that one day a
Yankee would be prodding around that
way. This consul told how a German
| exploration expedition had uncovered
| what was part of Northumberland
| great dining hall, the very one where
| the writing of fire on the wall struck
his guests dumb with fear one night.
| And he told also how the railroad
was progressing that is to connect the
Mediterranean ocean with the Persian
gulf Now here was a story that every
child in the United States ought to
have read at once with deep pleasure.
For that railroad is to run through the
| land of the Arabian Nights. 1t is to
run into Bassorah-Bassorah the an
! cient, where once all the ships used to
come in from the Land of Pepper.
There it was that Sindbad Set sail for
the Land of Fire. 1t was to Bassorah
that he returned with his wonderful
tales of the great bird Roc, the valley
of diamonds and the Old Man of the
Sea.
Isn't it queer to think of a real,
Changing, hooting, smoking railroad
rushing into that wonderful city of
Dreams that fairy minarets and spires,
| peopled with great Arabs and Turks in
baggy trousers and with beautiful
princesses half yelled and with princes
of ravishing charm and CARRIED in gor-
| geous raiment, armed with shining
| weapons and mounted on noble Arab
| steedS?
And that railroad will run through
Haroun AL Raschids own town of
| Bagdad. It's tracks may be laid in the
very places where the great Command
er of the Faithful and his famous Viz
Ter used to prowl on those romantic
midnight wanderings of theirs, during
which they met such pleasing gentry
| as the three one-eyed dervishes, the
| three ladies with the black dogs, the
enchanted princess. the poor porter and
the wood cutter that found a diamond
and thought that it was but broken
| glass.
Then we have a consul in Noting
ham now A few centuries ago he
would have been able to send Uncle
Sam great tales of Robin Hood and
his merry men, if. indeed, Robin Hood
had gobbled him up, which is
more than likely But now the story
| that is sent to Uncle Sam from Not
| tingham is romantic because of its
very lack of romance. For the consul
makes a dry report of the condition of
the lace industry. Now, if you will
scratch your heads and think a bit,
| you may remember that the lace mer-
chants were important persons in Not
! tingham even in the days of the IA
nous outlaw. So you can sit down and
| think how strangely time makes some
| things vanish and let others iaSt-for
! the greenwood is gone, the fat Friar
and Long John are gone, nothing Is
| left of Robin Hood and his men in
| green or their brave deeds; but the
| lace looms weave as busily as ever,
| and the merchants deal and barter as
ever in the streets where merchants
dealt and bartered then.
From Korea Uncle Sam has gather
ed a story of a mean and selfish man
who deliberately destroyed Sis 0G0
worth of his own property in order to
prevent anybody else from getting it.
This man was a Japanese merchant
and he bought up the entire ginseng
| crop of Korea for the year Ginseng is
the queer plant that is so highly priced
by the Chinese. They love it not only
for food and medicine, but consider 1t
almost a sacred plant and think that il
has all sorts of magic qualities. Well.
this Japanese merchant knew
that he. could charge all
sorts of prices if he could
only prevent anyone else from getting
hold of any Korea ginseng But after
he bought all there was. he found that
he had 6S,120 pounds. That is enough
for almost three years supply, for the
Chinese regard ginseng as far too pre-
cious to eat in large quantities. The
japanese merchant knew that II he let
anyone know that he had so much, the
price would go down. So he burned 49,
100 pounds OF IT. And as he had paid