Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1903-04-24

30 long ny uHDrloiou Paooioho on"o AZ
self-control, no power of assembling,
was left to him.
Fear and hatred were mingled in
his glance. For, like all tyrants, the
fellow was a coward at heart.
When Hen-Ko-Hi had been placed
before me, and the soldiers had taken
their positions on either side. said:
$3.50 Bark, we will hear from you
first. Arraign the prisoner"
The talented lunar slowly arose,
and with knitted brow, stood mo.
ment looking at his fallen foe. Then,
in a deep, impassioned voice, he
spoke:
SO king, you of white skin and
honest heart, who have come to us
out of the Sacred Forest, listen to
what I have to say. Listen, o king.
while I tell you once more of the de.
scent upon our beautiful land of
horde of murderers and woman-steal-
ers, who debauched and killed the
fairest of our loved ones. Listen
while tell you how the sun of Tai
mooch was darkened for twenty years
by this Mantchoo tyrant, who now
stands covering before you, pleading
for mercy he never gave"
The ugly eyes of Hen-Ko-Hi grew
uglier still, and blazed with awful in.
tensity at the lunar who was hurting
these terrible accusations at his
head.
"Once, o king" continued Oso-
Bark, "when the family of Brando-
neck, the Kalek, occupied this palace,
the land of Talmooch gave forth in
plenty, and her shores were the only
limit to the happiness of her people.
Our men were strong and brave. Our
women were beautiful and good. Our
children were pretty and quick to
learn. They sat at the feet of the
good teacher there and drank in his
words of wisdom about God of
when their fathers had been in ignor-
ance. No idols desecrated our happy
homes. The Sacred Forest was our
temple, and in it we knelt in simple
prayer.
"Our lives were good. Our laws
were few, because our crimes were
few. We knew not the feeling of dis
content. The singing of the birds in
the forest was not more joyous than
the singing of our wives and mothers
while at their daily work.
"But, o king, QUE day, in an hour
that seemed all brightness, when our
fighting men were at work in the
fields and mines and our women were
busy spinning or weaving. there came
to our shores a number Of foreign
ships. A people of whom we knew
but little came from them upon our
land. We, who were at peace with all
nature and with all men, gave them
welcome. We opened to them our
homes and gave them shelter. Better
had it been had we taken the poison
from the fangs of the serpents in the
mountains, and inserted it into the
veins of every being in the land.
"The strangers to whom we had
given welcome, whom we had fed and
to whom we had given drink, gathered
together in the darkness of a star
less night and ruthlessly sacked
our homes. They murdered our
soldiers who sought to stay their
course. They swept away our chill
dren, taking cruel delight in the dy-
ing cries of our petted ones. They
stole the fairest of our women. Woe,
grief, misery were all they left to the
survivors of that invasion.
'tBut not only were the women of
the Jumars and of the Kaleks their
victims, but all, now, o king, listen
carefully, I beseech you!-the lovely
wife of the good missionary, Mr..
Avery, who had come among us to
teach us of his God, was torn from
her husbands arms and brought here
brought here to become the sport
of the monsters that fawned before
this--this quaking, crawling thing
that stands cringing before you now.
"Where is that white face now? Is
it, as have seen it, bright with the
brightness of happy smiles and lighted
as by the sun of pure and kindly
soul?
"Does the soft, kind voice that once
spoke words of tenderness to our
women in their hours of pain now
speak with the words of earth? Does
the hand that was stretched out to re-
ceive in kindness our newly born, to
care for them as only good woman
can care for them-does that gentle
hand now live to soothe the furroYed
brow of her aged and sorrowing hus.
band?
"No! No! No! o king, those
eyes are closed in death! That gentle
voice is stilled and hushed with the
silence of the breathless night. Those
hands are withered and decayed. But
I see them now, 0 master, see them
now, waving there-there, above your
head-there, by the brow of our good
old teacher-and there, pointing with
the finger that dooms to death at the
monster who so cruelty destroyed her
life!
"Ah, with that pure spirit, driven
forth by this fend and his rotten
horde, there departed from this earth
all the happiness of him we have
learned to love! And with her, too,
have gone the hundreds of women of
Talmooch who have fallen under the
blasting touch of this awful murderer!
"And shall he 60 unpublished?
''Shall the wretch who commanded
and led in the awful deeds that made
the grounds Of Talmooch tremble in