The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1906-01-23
? Our Daily Story.
The First Kiss of Maxim Cork.

alton grew decidedly unpleasant. I
arrived in Moscow, where l had
neither home nor friends, without
a kopeck.
After selling all parts of my
wardrobe that could possibly be
spared without the least interfer-
ence, went to the shipyards.
At this time, the beginning Of
November, the neighborhood was
deserted not soul to be Aeen,
not a dog, or even a cat.
l tramped about in all directions
looking for remnants of food. In
deed, in spots 1 dug up the wet
ground with my feet hoping against
hope to find perhaps some canned
goods or little barrel of salt fish.
Did you ever reflect how much
easier it is to satisfy the soul than
the body?
Evening came. 1t began to rain.
The north wind was blowing.
Abominable wind; it whistled
through the empty boxes and shan
ties and knocked at the closed
shutters of the deserted sailors
taverns.
Unspeakable desolation, unfath-
omable shadows all around, every
thing and everybody dead or dying.
alone retaining a glimmer of life,
l was IS then.
1 tramped and tramped over the
cold, wet ground, singing an an
them to hunger with my chattering
teeth.
Suddenly, as I bent over a box
to make sure that nothing eatable
escaped me, | saw a female figure,
much the worse for rain and mud.
The woman, who turned her back
upon me, was digging with her bare
hands at the side of the goods
case.
When she stood up regarding me
with big gray eyes, anxious eyes, |
saw a comely lass of my own age,
with a face full of sweetness and
poetry, but disfgured by three big
black marks, one under each eye,
another in the center of the fore
head.
"Only an artist could do it so
symmetrically," l said to myself
with the brutal humor of the tramp
used to suffer ~ his own kind and
others.
AS the girl studied my face and
ragged appearance, the look of
alarm gradually faded from her
eyes. Next she wiped the dirt from
her hands, adjusted her calico
headcloth, and said:
so you are hungry, too? Well,
go on digging. l believe that box
there is full of good things. Some
drayman must have dropped it.
Hurry up, boy, maybe there is sau-
sage in it,"
Dusk found us stlu at work, with
the cold, the damp and the flood of
heavens tears increasing. Louder
and louder the raindrops drummed
on the boards of the goods case.
Somewhere in the distance a watch
mans rattle was going.
Lets break off the lock we
might as well go to Jail for one
thing as for the other" she said.
broke the lock with a stone
and my friend crawled in. Sudden
ly she cried: Hi, here it is"
what, the sausage?"
me bread rolled to the ground
and after 1t my comrade.
Seeing that | was munching be-
fore she had a show herself, she
cried, impatiently: LET me have
bit, too, greedy" And then: 1--WE
can't stay here and live. What
shall we do?" She looked inquir-
ingly in all directions. Nothing but
darkness and wet.
81 saw an upturned boat on the
shore. | think | can find it again.
Shall We try that?"
Instead of answer my companion
took me by the arm. | had hold
of the bread, breaking off chunks
as our mouths got empty.
whats your name?" l asked at
last, ashamed of working my jaws
without interruption.
"Natascha, replied the girl,
with a mouth full of bread.
The rain beat necessarily upon
the boat that sheltered us, the wa
ter trickling in through numerous