Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-18

/ Then they fear Are you rich?" she
added abruptly.
| Then you don't know who amp"
asked Vandraken, eagerly, for it was
always a delight to him to be liked
apart from his money.
But how should l know? l think
| you are a stranger to Paris"
"Why?"
"Of all these people, no one knows
| you. How do you call yourself? l
think | name you the Angel of Sin.
/ You are pink and fluffy-all but the
back of your eyes"
81 am Standish Vandraken," an
nounced the young man. But he was
disappointed in his expectation of Gre
ating an impression She had evidently
never heard of him. "The multi-mil-
lionaire," he added.
ooh! you are millionaire! That is
naice!" Her eyes sparkled.
81 have a thousand million francs"
Monsieur is joking"
Morally! am an American
"a thousand million francs. Why,
you can buy all the love in the world
she dazzled him with her eyes again
you can buy me-Veeda Venestra
me !''-she put her hand to her
breast-"who have the secret of the
Aztec"-she interrupted herself has
/ tily-"I mean, who know very many
ways to pleasure. But | tell you this:
/ with all your millions, you would not
sit at my table but that your eyes
| were not afraid of nine"
Said the man from South America to
his companion: "The Cobra has mated.
! 1 think I am disappointed. should
have liked to see man outstared by
that woman. as you described it."
"And of all the men who have TAX
en- the vacant chair the youth was
the least likely-judging by appear
ances-to retain it. But perhaps he is
the man she was waiting for all these
months--the man the Jew syndicate
aimed at. Anyway you must own
there was thrill in that dramatic
pause when we held our breaths and
watched the battle of the eyes
The two men had finished their din
ner, and the waiter brought the heap
ed-up cigar boxes and the little
/ liqueur-flagons pleasant moment
for the man from South America, a
moment which put the finishing touch
| to the sense of perfection he felt in
his surroundings. Perfection Of stage
setting: softened lights, enervating
music, Immediately dressed men,
subtly dressed women, each throb-
bling note in the sex sonata which
vibrated about him. And who SO re-
sponsive to all this soft glitter as a
man who had touched it and lost it,
and through the paths of the wilder
ness won his way back to it again?
He had feeling, too, that men like
himself, who had trodden the wilder
ness, were entitled to the garden of
perfection, for was it not the wealth
! they fought for in the wilderness
which made the garden possibility?
From every nugget Of gold they paved
out of the earth a big shaving came
to Paris The jewels and aigrettes
did not grow in her streets. Men like
himself had to ransack the earth for
them 1t would take the toll of thou
sands of men during the day to pro-
duce what was consumed here in the
might, in this one restaurant.
While the man from South America
selected his cigar, and pondered these
things, his companion was holding a
whispered conference with the waiter,
nodding towards the Cobra and the
| light haired youth who sat at her
table.
Eyes" said the man from South
America, continuing his thoughts
aloud, at is all very wonderful am
surprised the world does not add the
god of civilization to the deities it
worships l find pocket of dirty clay
and discoloured pebbles among the
tangled creepers on a mountain side;
wash the pebbles and give them to
the god of civilization, and, behold! he
gives me all this in exchange and he
made a gesture which included his
cigar his liqueur and his surround
ings. SIT is wonderful"
81 will tell you something more
wonderful That light haired youth
who sits with the Cobra has not even
found the dirty gold pebbles on the
mountain side. Civilization gives him
all this free That is young Van
! draken, the richest young man In
America-two hundred million dollars!
No!-let us make it as regal as pos
sible-a thousand million francs! No
wonder he conquered in the battle OF
the eyes! consider the Jew syndicate
theory completely proved"
"Circumstantial evidence" said the
man from South America, putting
lazily at his perfecto. "But all the
same; believe the Cobra found her
mate There was some quality in the
young man himself which was essen
tial to her, as well as the money
There are legends in Central America
of old temples where, thousands Of
years ago, strange religions, kind Of
Venus-worship. were practised. There
were high priestesses of these rites
who were adopts in lost mysteries o.
sensuality What suggested it to my
mind was the emblem Of the snake
woman, which was its symbol. Was
the religion imported into Egypt from
America, or into America from Egypt
1t is very interesting problem. The
traces are very faint. 1t came as thu
climax to civilization, that is certain
and went down in the cataclysm which
overwhelmed that civilization"
"Ah!" said his companion as he Ii
his cigar "yOu have answered Won