The daily Alaskan., 1905-10-07
THE MlDSHIPMAN
 AND THE GEISHA

called Stone, Tiger or Bear. This TO- minds us of the children's saying that girls are made of sugar and spice and all that's nice" while "boys are made of snakes and snaIls and puppy dogs tails" The geisha's name was Cherry, and it suited her exactly, though she was an OK heart. Through ] her dusky skin the red blood showed itself, her eyes were liquid, while the lashes frlnged them like the rushes on the verge of minute twin lakes.
 Bob Hyatt, q young American mid dy, went with a party of naval officers | to the tea house where Cherry danced and sang. accompanying herself on her samlson. The next day Hyatt went again to the same tea house, gazing at the gelsha out of a pair of blue eyes which spoke admiration far more plainly than he could have expressed 1t ln words. He had barely passed | twenty, and Cherry was several years behind that milestone of life. She had been trained for a gciSha just as girls In America are trained to work in fac | tories. The love songs she sang were meaningless to her. When the little god flew between her and the midShlp- man she did not recognize him for the l same Cupid with whose antics she had | entertained strangers. He was some thing new and beautiful to her She caught him in her hands and hugged him to her bosom with all the delight of a child clutching a duttering bird.
 None of the officers on the cruiser knew how Bob Hyatt made the ac- Oualntance of the geisha. They noticed l that when he was granted shore leave he invariably made some excuse to go i off by himself. Little attention was paid to this till one day number of | his shipmateS met him face to face walking with his little sweetheart on one of the side streets of Tokyo where he had hoped to avoid them. When at breakfast the next morning they all sat at the junior officers mess they at l tempted to rally him on his conquest, but be drowned them down, and they had the delicacy to let him alone.
 The cruiser remained in Japanese waters some time, going from point to point then sailed for Manila. The night before she weighed anchor the last time Bob came aboard with an air that showed a change in the fair weather of love in which he had been sailing. There was a faraway look in his eyes that now and again gave place to one of pain. He was so engroSSed that he forgot a lotus flower in his but tonhole, and when he did see it with a hand that tremblcd a little he took out a pocketbook and put it away as q souvenir. During the voyage to Ma nlla he was not himself His brother officers smiled and remarked that Fly l att had been quite badly hit for a sailor and that he would not likely get over 1t during the voyage to the Amer lean Islands. This, however, would not indicate a very serious damage, since the trip lasted but a few days.
 With time the young officer regained an interest in what was going on about him. though be would permit no refer ] ence to his intimacy with the geISha. Indeed whenever any one ventured on forbidden grounds a strange terror was noticed to pass over his young face. and for this reason his comrades unanimously resolved that there must be something painful connected with the affair. and they would not irritate the wound.
 One morning an American gunboat came into the bay, and when she sig naled that she was from Tokyo one of the young officers standing beside Fly att noticed dread pass over his face, as if he might receive some bad news. When an ensign from the gunbOat came aboard and went straight up to him he caught at a rail to steady him self, but when the officer gave him an ordinary message he recovered at once. All these indications were remembered afterward by Hyatt's companions.
 1 Finally the cruiser steamed out of | Manila harbor, and it was announced that she was to go back to Tokyo with government dispatches for the emper- or, after which she was to return to America. NIidshipman Hyatt caught his breath as though he was to face some trial, but bore up bravely under the scrutiny of others. Before the yes sel reached Tokyo several of his friends among the juniors made up their minds that he should not go ashore un- | less watched. Upon reaching port he was one of the first to ask for leave, and when he was rowed to the dock | Nvo of his best friends went in the same boat. Hyatt seemed to be too much absorbed to suspect that they would dog his footsteps, and they had little trouble In doing so unseen.
 When the two officers returned to the ship they carried with them in rick shaw Midshipman Hyatt to the dock and thence by boat to the cruiser
 There they reported that they had been attacked in the streets by some low grade Japanese and Hyatt had been wounded. Hyatt recovered, but he was a changed man. He was never again the careless sailor boy he had been before his first visit to Tokyo.
 The officers who followed him in To