The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-01-03

h.
had come to the rescue by diSpatching
a large armed force from her military
station at Merv across the Persian
frontier to the seat of the disturbance.
TO many hundreds of Englishmen
who read their papers on that morning
this announcement conveyed but little.
That there is such q country as Persia
we all know, that English interests pre-
dominate in the south and Russian in
terests in the north we have all super
ficially understood from childhood, but
in this knowledge, coupled with the
fact that Persia. is comfortably far
away, we are apt to rest content. 1t is
only to the eyes that see through long
distance glasses, the minds that regard
the present as nothing more or less
than an inevitable link joining the fu-
ture to the past, that this distant, de
batable land stands out in its true po-
litical significance.
TO the average reader of news the
statement Of RusSia's move seemed
scarcely more important than had the
| first report of the border risingS in
January, but to the men who had
watched the growth of the disturbance
it came charged with portentous mean
ing. Through the entire ranks Of the
opposition, from Fraide himself down
ward, it caused a thrill of expectation
that peculiar prophetic sensation that
every politician has experienced at
some moment of his career.
In no member of his party did this
feeling strike deeper root than in Loder.
Imbued with a lifelong interest in the
eastern question, specially equipped by
personal knowledge to hold and pro-
claim an opinion upon Persian affairs,
he read the signs and portents with in
! stinctive insight. Seated at Chilcotes
/ table. surrounded by Chilcote's letters
and papers, he forgot the breakfast
that was slowly growing cold, forgot
the interests and dangers, personal or
! pleasurable, of the night before. while
his mental eyes persistently cOnjured
up the map of Persia, travelling with
steady deliberation from Merv to Me
shed, from Meshed to Herat, from Her
at to the empire of Indial For it was
not the fact that the Hazaras had risen
against the shah that occupied the
thinking mind, nor was it the fact that
Russian and not Persian troops were
destined to subdue them, but the deep
ly important consideration that an
armed Russian force had crossed the
frontier and was encamped within
twenty miles of Meshed-MeShed, up
on which covetous Russian eyes have
rested ever since the days of Peter the
Great
SO Loder's thoughts ran as he read
and reread the news from the varying
political standpoints, and so they con-
tinued to run when, some hours later,
an urgent telephone message from the
St Georges Gazette asked him 10 call
at Lakeley's Office.
The message was interesting as we'll
as imperative, and he made an instant
response. The thought of Lakeley's
keen eyes and shrewd enthusiasms al
ways possessed strong attractions for
his own slower temperament, but even
had this impetus been lacking, the
knowledge that at the st. Georges of
fees, if anywhere, the true feelings of
the party were invariably voiced would
have drawn him without hesitation.
1t was scarcely u o'clock when he
turned the corner of the tall building,
but already the keen spirit that Lakeley
everywhere diffused was making itself
felt Loder smiled to himself as his
eyes fell on the days placards with
their uncompromising headings and
passed onward from the string of gay
ly painted carts drawn up to receive
their first consignment of the paper to
the troop of eager newsboys passing in
and out of the big swing doors with
their piled up bundles of the early edi-
ton, and with a renewed thrill of
anticipation and energy he passed
through the doorway and ran upstairs.
Passing unchallenged through the long
corridor that led to Lakeley's office, he
caught a fresh impression Of action
and vitality from the click of the tape
machines In the subeditor's office, and
a glimpse through the open door of the
subeditors themselves, each occupied
with his particular task; then without
time for further observation he found
himself at Lakeley's door Without
WaIiIuS u hHOCh, dS hC Adi AClI NOLn'
PEELED to do on the one or two previous
occasions that business had brought
him there, he Immediately turned the
handle and entered the room.
Editors officers differ but little in
general effect Lakeley's surrounding
were rather more elaborate than Is
usual, as became the dignity Of the
oldest Tory evening paper, but the at
mosphere was unmistakable. AS Lodel
entered he glanced up from the desf
at which he was sitting, but instantly
returned to his task of looking through
and making a pile of early evening edi
, lions that were spread around him