The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-02-11
The Old
Familiar Faces
By WILL LEXINGTON COMFORT
Copyright, by Bobbs-Merriu Coz

Peele was a Wandering Engiishman
with certain virtues and great deal
to say. Keeler, who sat beside him on
the balcony of a fonda overlooking the
plaza of Bogota, was a Chicago special
writer, just now engaged in covering
the features of Colombian revolution
for the Express Syndicate The two
were talking about Graver, a free
lance, who sat in his room back of the
balcony, goading unto desperation an
unoiled and tropical-rusted typewriter.
The hopes and men uories of Graver
also moved in a Chicago setting,
though it appears that he bunked and
rode and shared labor with Keeler for
other and unknowable reasons.
1T isn't in human fiber to endure
any such amount of work" Keeler
whispered. "Gravey's been at it for
16 hours day for 16 times 16 days"
Its a DESCRIPTION" said Peele. 1T
shauws money-greed an is baund t. be
shoddy, y knauw"
That's where you're wrong, Peele,"
Keeler remarked. Il know Gravey's
stuff. It's good and clean and gritty.
You can turn it in without editing. He
was liked back in Chicago; so was
his stuff. l don't pretend to under
stand his energy since we came here,
because he liked to lounge back in
Chicago as well as any of US"
"Myby e married a girl just before
e came"
Nn hn' iaI 70
four years. That didn't make the diff
| ference. He was always square at
| home. you know"
'''E's freelawnce, I'm tauld," Peele
said languidly, unlimited spyce n all
that. Tell me nauw, 'ow much does
! e myke?"
Altogether too much-an amount.
wholly unnewspaperlike. Fifty or sixty
| dollars a day, likely. And he don't
write easily-labors, groans, sweats
blood before he gets it coming"
A fit Of coughing in Gravers room
silenced the typewriter. Afterward
there was the squeak of drawn cork,
the suggestion of gurgle, followed by
harsh expulsion of breath, as from
one nauseated.
! And that's all new, too," Keeler re-
sumed, half-a1grily. "Stimulant! It's
SO easy, so devilish easy, to get used
to working that way. l believe I'll go
and rope him down, strangle him and
make him see the right way!"
Il wouldn't, y knauw," Peele said
thoughtfully. "Myby 'e's got his rea-
| sons. -. What l have seen! What
l have seen! Wyte till we been back
n forth ere for five years as ave.
E. I ave 'ad playmates; ave 'ad
companions :; all, all are gone,
the old familiar fyces!'"
And thereupen Peele went. down
deep into his inner consciousness and
brought forth tale, repellant, bar
baric tale of Colombia, that would
have been bad enough in a metropoli-
tan clubroom, but had no place what
soever in the midst of q land that
swarmed with sinister menaces and
swift and dreadful modes of death.
| The bells had rung midnight, but Bo-
|
pos column of $4,000 men had lain
partly in, but mostly out, of the town.
like a snake with it's head in a foul
| jug. White-coated, bare-footed figures
slid to and fro across the plaza, COM
| plicating the shadows and cOrrupting
the patches of light. On the following
dawn, Gen. Luapo was to move his
column of government defenders out
into the Cordilleras to meet and stop
the rebel, Torron, who was marching
his army in to take the capital.
Il haven't been here quite year
yet, much less five." said Keeler,
breaking the silence which followed
the tale. but l have seen enough, God
| knows! l have been shot at and apollo
| gized to because l was missed. / have
seen children cowhided into soldiers; !;
l have seen fifteen hundred dead on
| one field; have seen the teeth of the
] cead knocked out with musket-butts
for the gold they contained! 1 do not
know about the rest OF South America,
but do know that compared to Colon
bia, darkest Africa is as bright as the
Southern Cross and Siberia as chaste
| as the Milky Way. .. And I was
| told when / left the Office in Chicago
| to bring out the opera bouffe.
| thought would lie in a hammock and
watch pea-shooter revOlutiOns-hell." ="
Graver's pale face was thrust out of
| the doorway.
Say, fellows" he said bashfully,
what is that smell that comes up ever
| the balcony-jasmine or magnolia?
want to use it, and never could tell
the difference between tulip and a
| turnip."
Jasmine or magnolia" Keeler re.
peated. They'll be bloOmin' over your
long-geared grave il you don't quit
pushing this work-matter into fanati-
cism. You smell garlic and dobie Gig
arettes and have worked yourself into
a maudlin state of flowers
Graver drew back with a smile. He
was exceedingly tall, apparently about
| thirty years aid. Pallor overpowered
the tan upon his face and his brown
eyes were misty, halfdesperate with
| illness and fatigue. Peele sought his
mosquito netting seon afterward. and
Keeler remained upon the balcony to
finish cigar. The coughing be-