The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-02-22


every morning last spring and sum
mer on magnificent cream-white
Arabian stallion. Be that as it may
it is certain his advent caused quite
a flutter of curiosity. | have known
him since we were boys together
boys in little North of England town.
He's in South Africa now and will
hardly resent what l am going to tell
the readers of the Pathfinder about
him. His name is Ford-Charlmers
Ford. 1t is name not unknown
among artists. If you have attended
the exhibitions you have probably seen
it at the bottom of more than one wat
or color. ~
/ happened in at his cozy studio one
evening last August, only a day or
two, before he sailed. The walls of
the room were covered with the tro-
phies of his travels. My attention was
fixedrbyra sketch in water colors of
a young girl of the dark-haired Eastern
type. On it read the name "Zuleika" !"
"You world-rovers gather good
many barnacles in your wanderings,"
I remarked. II suppose, too, many of
these relics Of yours have history"
l added, desirous Of drawing him out
eyes, that's so. That sketch, for
instance could tell story, and this old
thing here could corroborate it," he
answered, handing me venerable pis-
tol with a, long barrel of large caliber.
THAT ancient piece of ordnance not
only saved my own life, but was the
chief instrument in the rescue of one
Of her majesty's vessels out in the Per
sian Gulf last December" ,. Z,
Ford is a man singularly reticent
about his own exploits, though he has
had enough of them. But the cigar l
handed him made HIM communicative.
only wish might have taken his
story down in shorthand, for he told it
infinitely better than | can. However,
this is about what he said:
Il had taken passage on the British
India Company's steamer Kilwa at
Bassorah, for Bombay. l was just
reaching comparative civilization
again after more than six months of
privation and adventure in the interior
of Asiatic Turkey. With much Difficult.
ty had made my way overland all the
way from Trebizond, on the Black sea.
Part Of the distance | had followed the
route traversed by Xenophon and his
devoted 10000 in their disastrous "Ka-
tabasis." had visited the squalid city
of Mosul-once renowned for its mus
Inns and like fabrics, and whence, in
fact, the name muslin is derived
TO. make some drawings in the excavat-
ed ruins of ancient Nineveh, near by
1t is there, by the way that the royal
palaces of Sennacherib and Sardan-
apalus, after twenty-six centuries of OBJ
hvion, have been laid bare. After stop
ping en- route at now decayed and in
glorious Bagdad, had completed my
arduous journey at Hillah, modern
town built near the site and from the
ancient brick of Babylon. Finally
having finished some further archaeo-
logical observations in sthe neighbor-
hood, respecting some ancient irriga-
ing works, l had caught passage on
small dhow loaded with dates and
tloated down the lazily-fowing, mystic
Euphrates At first, beyond the will
low and plane-lined banks of the great
river, stretched the once blossoming
levels of Yrak, the very cradle of his
tory; then came lagoons which merged
ultimately, into pestilential swamp.
Thus had reached Bassorah, the mod
ern Balsora of the Arabian Nights
tales--once, during the ascendency of
the Caliphs, the port and entrepot of
Bagdad, but now, like that city, dilapi-
dated and dwindled into insignifcance.
1.-THE Klwa had sailed from Bassor-
ah at midnight. 1t was late in the af-
ternoon OF the next day when, after
touching at Bushire, an important
town about 200 miles down the Persian
coast, we headed for the small Arab
port of Linga, where we we're to leave
some cargo.
"As the sun sank toward the watery
horizon and dissolved in the purplish
vapors of the west, a Parsee merchant,
q so-called 'fire-worshipper, first re-
moving his odd-looking, shining oil
cloth hat, paced the deck, repeating de-
voutly his alteration of the orb that he
looked upon, not as an intrinsic deity,
but as the highest manifestation Of
God. A crowd of Musselmans kneeled
on their praying carpets, with their
faces turned toward Mecca, and, with
swaying bodies and changing intona-
ton of voice, invoked the Prophet,
careless of public gaze and laudably
courageous in the faith. One old man
in particular, white-bearded patri-
archial parsonage, prolonged his de-
votions till late in the evening, first
reading half aloud from an ancient
copy of the Koran, illuminated with
characters in colors and gold, then
praying, then amounting his loins with
oil. then lighting his fbubble-bubble.'