The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-06-17

late, we found ourselves Swallowed by
that smiling reprobate When it came
to the last day in Luxor Mr. Peasley
did the bold thing. He permitted
Mahmoud to escort him to the shop,
and then he said to the dealer: "Thfs
man is our guide, but he is not entitled
to. any commission because he did not
commended your shop in the first place
we would not have come here at all.
He is bluff. He is trying to ring in.
. want to buy few things here, with.
the understanding that he doesn't get
anything out of it. We have already
paid him two salaries for guiding US
and a. d. he e., isR guide at all-he's a
The dealer vowed and protested that
he had never paid commissions to any
one. Mahmoud, not at all rufhed by
the attack on his character, said that
his only ambition in life was to serve
the noble gentleman from the famous
country known as Iowa. So Mr.. Peas
ley bought his assortment of antiques,
ried the parcel back to the hotel, walk
ing respectfully behind the "noble
gentleman
% Well, / blew myself reported Mr..
Peasley. And I'll bet a thousand
doll dollars rs that Mahmoud gets his 10 per
cent. :
Whereupon Mahmoud smiled-the
pensive, patronizing smile Of civiliza-
ton five thousand years old looking
down on the aboriginal product of the
western prairies.
On the morning of our departure
from Luxor Mahmoud came around
for his letter of recommendation. I had
| worked for an hour to write something
evasive, which would satisfy him and
- L.
| came to the hotel [ gave him the
following:
] To Whom It May Concern:-The bearer. NAH
| moud, has been our dragoman for four days and
has attendedsus faithfully at all hours; also. he
/ has shown us as many temples as we wished TO
! - He looked at the paper blankly and
said, 81 do not read English. ; At
that Mr. Peas1ey frightened up. He
read the testimonial aloud to Mahmoud
and declared that is was incomplete and
unworthy of the subject matter. In
ten minutes he completed the. follow
| ing and the dragoman took it away
with him, highly pleased:
/ To- Whom 1t May Observation-Disclosures
bearer. Mahmoud. is dragoman Of rn 1S
simulated efforts to faithfully serve MS and pro-
! tect our interests have had an altogether mega
him possessed Of moral turpitude and superla-
| tive consciousness of his own worth. His knowl-
! edge Of Egyptian history IS enormously lncOnSe-
quential while his English vocabulary is amazing
in Its, variety of verbal catastrophes, We COM
/ mend him to travellers DESTROYS OF studying the
native characteristics of the most geological
stratum of society.
"He has made lot Of trouble for us
and now we've got even by running
4 him, |" said Mr. Peasley.
/. IT seemed joke at the time, but
later. on, when we thought it over, we
felt sorry for Mahmoud and wished we
had not taken such a mean advantage
of him. After all is said and done, a
man must make a living.
/ On our way back to Cairo from AS
souan we stopped over at Luxor. Nah
mould. by intuition or thru telepathy,
knew that we were coming and met us
at the station. He was overjoyed to
see us again.
ri showed your letter to gentle
! man from the kingdom of Ohio, )" said
4 he, g and it procured for me one of the
best jobs ever had.''