The Washington times., 1909-10-17

- young fellow, with a face so
tanned by wind and sun YOU
had the impression that his skin
would feel like leather If you could af-
feet the impeTtinence to test il by the
sense of touch. Not that you would ike
TO encourage this bit Of impudence after
look into his devil-may-care eyes. but
you might easily imagine something
much stronger than brown wrapping
paper and not quite so passive as burnt
clay His clothes at him loosely and
yet were EraCiously devoid of the baggi-
ness which charaCteriZes the appearance
OF extremely young men whose frames
are not fully set ana whose Joints are
stin parading through the last stages Of
college development. This fellow, you
could tell by looking at rim, had been
out of college from two to five years
you could also tell beyond doubt or con-
tradiction. that he had been in college
for his full allotted time and had not
escaped the usual number of " condi-
tons thar dismay but do not discour-
age the happy-go-lucky undergraduate
who makes two or three teams with
comparative ease, but who has a great
deal of difficulty with physics or what
ever else he actually is supposed to ar
QuiTe between the close OF the football
season and the opeLing Of baseball prac-
tice
This tall young man in the panama
hat and gray haHneIs was Truxton
King, embryo elobe-trotter and search
er after the treasures OF Romance
Somewhere mp near Central Park. ia
one of the fashionable cross streets. was
the home of his father and his father g
father before him. a home which Trux-
ton had not seen in two years or more.
II is worthy of passing notice, and that
is all, that his father was q manufac-
turer- more than that, he was sorle-
thing OF a power in the financial world.
His mother was not strictly a social
queen in the great metropolis. but she
was what We might safely caU one OF
the first ladies i'm waiting" Which is
quite good enough for the wife Of a
manufacturer. especially when one re-
cords that her husband was a manu-
facturer Of steel. IT is also matter Of
no little consequence that Truxton's
mother was more or less averse 20 the
steel business as a heritage for her son.
BE il understood. here and now. that
she intended TruXtOn for the diplomatic
service. as far removed from sordid
steel as the New York postOffce is from
the court Of st. James.
But neither Truxton's father. who
wanted him TO be a manufacturing
CToesus, or TruEtCn's mother. who ex-
peCted him TO become a social Solomon,
appears 20 have taken the young mans
private inclinati0ns into consideration.
TruXtOn preferred a life OF adventure
distinctly separated from steel and vel
vet. nor was he slow TO set his esteem
ed parents straight in this respect He
had made up his mind 70 travel, TO see
the world, to be a part OF the big round
globe on which we, S ordinary iudi-
viduals WITH no personality beyond the
next block, are content to sit and en-
courage the single ambition to go to
Europe at least once. so that We may
not be left out OF the general converse
ton.
Young Nj. King believed IN romance.
He had believed in Santa Claus and
the fairies, and he grew up with an
ever. Increasing bump Of imagination,
contiguous 10 which. strange to relate
there was a properly developed bump
OF industry and application. Hence. it
is not surprising that he was willing to
go far adeld in search OF the things
that seemed more or less worth while
TO a young gentleman who had suffered
the iil-fOrtunc 20 he born in the nine
teeuth century instead Of the seven
teeuth. Romance and adventure. polite
Iv amorouS but vigorously attractive,
came up 90 him from the seventeenth
century perhaps through the blood OF
some swash-buckIing ancestor, and he
WAS held enthralIed by the possibilities
that lay hidden in some far-on or even
nearby corner OF this hopeIessly unro-
mantle world o. the twentieth century
To De sure there was wan but war
isn't romance Besides he was too
young to tight against Spain; and. later
on he happened 10 be more interested
iu football than he was IN the Japs or
the Russians The only thing left for
him TO do was to set forth In quest OF
adventure adventure was not likely TO
apply 10 him en- Firth avenue or at the
factory or-stiU, there waH a. certain
kind OF adventure analogous to Broad
way after all he thought IL over and.
after trying IL fpr a. year or Two, de-
eided that Broadway and the Tender
iUin did not produce the sort # ro-
nance he could cherish for long as a
seIf-respectiuE hero. so ne DuJ certain
small temptations aside. chastened him
SELF as well as he could and set out
for less amiabie but more productive
byways in other sections Of the globe.
we come upon him at last-luc<jiy
for us we were not actually following
him-8fter two wears OF wonderful but
rather disillusiouing adventure in mid
Asia and all Africa. He had seen the
Congo and the EIphrates, the GaHges
and the Nile. rhe Aangtse-yiang and the
Yenisei. he had climbed mountains in
Abyssiuia. ln Siam, iu Thibet. and AZ
gnanisrau- lac had shot big game in
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.