Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-02
When I
w as King

N NE warm afternoon in July I
~ passed through the palm avenue
Of WestIake Park, in Los Angeles.
The mood Of the day brought me a
fuller enjoyment of its beauty than /
had ever felt before, though / had
often been held by its magical charm.
Half an hour later / had mounted a
strange horse to join friend for a
ride. The ANNA was fractions and be-
gan to prance as soon as struck the
saddle A mile from the stable we got
cornered by street car. / pulled him
through with some difficulty, but at
the cross street another car blocked
the passage and had to turn his head.
He took the bit in his teeth and settled
into a gallop for home. It became
the highest race I was ever in. My
chief recollection Of it is the scared
face of the boy at the second corner,
who had not needed my shouts and
whose head was completely cleared at
bound. My first concern was to get
firmly seated, and then / hoped to
turn my horse into one of the long
north and south streets-we were gal
Looping down Tenth-andf tire him out
with a four or five mile run, but as
we'll try to direct a cyclone; he was
headed for home and / had to let him
run his own way. There were two
turns to get there. We made the first
all right and I was braced for the sec
ond; it was long lane at the end of
which stood the stable. / saw the
open door of the stable; then came
the haze and vista of a tropical isle.
Broad palms waved at my back, their
great fans projecting into canopy
over my al, For my seascape the
broad 2; reached It's e1panse.. The
beach c, IN slightly, and in the
dent. thus LINED rode rude canoe.
From it came IL men, nude except fer
: breech cleuts. They twere beautiful
bronzed figures, each an Apollo They
STROBE i'll 81 stately way to the fore
ground. there, halted and paid .obei-
,sance majestically, to ,me;sthe king,
seated on a. bamboo idais, attended by
two black dwarfs and attired as 1 was
when I first saw light. There was no
question in my mind as to my siden-
tity. ] was surely the king. / was
perfectly familiar with the part, but
[ was notoup on cues; L lacked some
thing-the ~ men were g. puzzle. ~ 1
thought to question one of the dwarfs
!azily tanning the flies that peeked
about my legs, butt I had been used to
reading intel1ig in faces and knew
that Beyond f*'those, thick foreheads
light had never pierced. I had to rely
On myself. :,s. @a .. -
Two of the Greek statues, in copper
stepped from the group and advanced
to within go feet of my throne. Their
manners had perseverance, and dignity
Considering what was revealed later
they appeared then in their. native
beauty as savage paragons.%s. They
seemed to be endowed with single
purpose thesternest justice. No SEN
ator of the United States in the great
days half a century ago ever debated
with calmer, weightier or more con-
siderate speech than was used by the
two advocates who stood before me.
Each was temperate and deferential,
and, T must belieye, chaste,. In their
eyes wa S hehoIy appeal of Inspiration,
and their air had the mute question of
disinterest ed zeal. ~ 81 .- : ~ 49, =
1 listened. gravely to the argument;
it was easy to see that [ was to be the
arbiter of IA distinguished and difficult
ease. The advocates finished and
withdrew; the ten were together
again, disdaining intercourse. ] was
absolutely at a loss whatsto do. They
we're plainly confident in my appar-
ent confidence, and as plainly but wait
ing my pleasure for the verdict. /
knew nothing of the nature of the
case and of course nothing of il mer-
its. / was not sure what .o-Iwhere
was, but l. was as. positive of what
have related as. man is of his mother.
At that moment there appeared to my
mental vision the printed page of an
Illinois law book on torts. It came, of
course, from an unused portion of my
brain, and, as I look back now, I re-
membered that it had been unused for
four years. At that moment the re-
lease from the dilemma seemed entire
ly natural; indeed, had not become
worried at the situat ton, for felt sure
that everything would be finally re-
solved in good fashion. From the
page a sentence burned itself into my
brain; then the book Vanished.
There must have been something in
my manners which startled one of
the dwarfs at my side, for he advanced
to the council of ten and the advocates
again came forward. / opened my
mouth to repeat the sentence and
there came forth, not the simple, rug
ged English in which / had read it nc
which had been my greatest love. bat
a liquid and laborious jargon, incola-
prehensibie Q me, but perfectly pain
in its meaning to the ten. could not
detect, rs / had hoped to, from tile
faces of the ADVOCATES, which of them
had been favored and which had lost
both were inscrutable. The ten ST.
lently withdrew to the canoe. Each
seized a paddle and in a few minutes
had pulled past the throne and were
behind me. The sun had now pro-
ceeded to within an hour Of setting
it was Eve o'clock in the afternoon
when / had started on the horseback
ride--and the dwarfs left me. I cam
not account for my contentment
through It all, nor for my serene con-
fdenee, but I never for moment