Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-24

m.A ner of the universe. al
typewriter. ways attracts attention
and excftes curiosity People come up
and look the labels over. compare them
and point out the odd ones that appear
In almost every. human language. That
large class of tourists who consider no.
tel labels on their trunks an evidence
of culture admire 1T in enthusiastic
terms. and never before did the faithful.
accompanying, never out Of order ma
chine betray US.
1t has become a fixed habit Of busy
life to dictate a newspaper letter every
day. Whether affoat or ashore. afoot or
a-horseoack, whether in a luxurious hotel
or In a mountain cabin. rain or shine.
cold or hot sick or well. that death-do-
us-part scribe machine" is unlimbered
and called into action for an hour and a
quarter or an hour and half daily.
is written; nothing but a. catastrophe is
allowed to prevent. because. you see, II
we don't write ono letter today we have
to write two tomorrow, and that's a
good deal Of job. Therefore, the revo-
luton of the earth and all the heavenly
bodies are regulated by the daily letter
to The Star. and experience has enabled
us to do the stunt without much diff
Guilty. =
In the Pullman, cars at home tables
are fitted between the seats; on q steam
er we can always find a corner in the
dining saloon or some other semi-secluded
place. II there is no table In the bed
room Of a country hotel it is only neces-
sary to pull out drawer of the bureau,
turn 1t upside down, shove it part way
back again and the bottom will make an
excellent table. But the railway cars Of
Europe, Asia and Africa are SO arranged
that 1t Is necessary to carry q camp stool
along and set the typewriter upon that.
MI Newcome got out his machine, I
got out my notebook, and we wrote q
letter about the city Of
Official Trebizond and the RE
Susnio;nns treat Of the Ten Thou
~~SPASA~As' sand" Greeks under Ken
ophon, entirely unconscious of suspicion.
although we noticed that the trainmen
and the military officers on board were
constantly passing by tho door of our
compartment. stopping each time for a
moment or two to listen. We supposed
they were prompted by ordinary curiosity
until after we had finished the letter,
put the scribe machine away in its in
comparable leather case, and congrat-
ulated ourselves that the days work was
over. Then an officer in the uniform
Of a captain of the gems d'armie of Rus
STA came in and began to ask questions in
Russian.
AS l do not understand that language,
I referred him to Michel Naskidolf, our
dragoman, who answered his inquiries re-
specially; told him who we were, where
tried to satisfy his curiosity, but It was
evident that he considered it q very sus-
picious circumstance that people should
travel through the deserts of Central
Asia with typewriter and actually use
1t. upon g railway train.
The officer looked very serious as he
left us and went into another car. We
were not aware that the secret police
officer at KrasnovOdsk, who had been so
insolent the night before, had telegraphed
bad that three suspicious English tray
eiers. two men and a woman, with a
draeofnan, were on that train. And we
were blissfully ignorant, also, that the
aforesaid chief of the secret police had
been occupying the compartment adjoin-
ing ours all day and had been watching
US closely. Naskid0n notified us that
the captain who had questioned him had
reported to an officer in the uniform of
a colonel in the restaurant car, but we
thought nothing Of it.
Il i
About the middle of the afternoon,
while we were walking for exercise up
: and down the platform Of
Passports station the colonel &C.
Demanded. , eos.sa me p politely an,s and
ONCE. I pretended not to understand
him and continued my walk. He fol-
lowed me to the train and into our COM
partment, where he handed me a card
bearing the following inscription in Rus
sian characters:
Nicolas Vladimirrovitch Korobouakon,
Commander Of Gems d'armerfe,
Ashkabad District"
In return I handed him my card. He
apologized for intruding and asked to
see our passports and tho octriu lista,
or permit to travel upon the Central
Asia railroad, which had been obtained
for US by the American ambassador from
the ministry Of war in st. Petersburg.
After he and his assistant. the captain
who had questioned Naskidoff. had ex-
amined the papers closely, he remarked:
English
mo: American I replied with en-
phasis. Those passports were issued
by the government Of the United States
and not by the British government. as
you will see by reading them" and
pointed out the bird OF freedom with Its
outstretched wings and the name OF
United States. He seemed to be much
surprised and again said, English; No?
MOP" The captain nodded his head as II
to- say that we were English whether
we were aware Of it or not, and the two
discussed the question In very rapid
conversation:
NaskidoH could not understand all they
said. but 1t was evident that the colonel
was accusing the captain Of misrepresent-
ing us to be English when he should
have known by our passports that we
were Americans. but the captain evil
IDENTIFY did not know the difference be-
tween the two nations. nor the colonel
either, for that matter, because he had
pronounced the passports to be English
himself before I corrected him. called
his attention to the text Of the permit
which also described us as American citf-
zens and began with the statement that
it was issued by the ministry OF war at