The Falls City tribune., 1911-02-17
By ELEANOR L. BRITTON
Copyright. 1871. by American Press
Association.

-. sts..'s-s = i.sNs =. 49, stt.ef - 5"".' =
S%pitzburger was n great traveller
He had visited every country on the
globe. and | verify believe that if
aviation had come up in bis day he
would have sailed up beyond the
clouds TO find others. When | made
his acquaintance he had settled down
In n place he called by n jawbreaking
name signifying dwelling" that he
had picked up among the Eskimos
or some other benighted people. 1t
was in the country situated on the top
of a hill and looked more like a Chi
nese pagoda than any other structure.
S%pltzburger was a widower. with
one child, a daughter. She was TWEEN
ty years old and for half her life had
travelled during half of each year-the
summer season-with her father. He
redity and travel had made her as
odd as he. Rather she was unique.
She was of medium height, 1.-THE, wiry
indeed, a feminine athlete of the
featherweight type. Her hair was black
and straight as an Indians. her eyes
large black ones, with lashes of the
Spanish type. | wondered If her moth
er had not been some dusky semicivi-
LIED creature her father had picked up
on the underside of the world. But
he told me his wife had been an Amer
lean creole.
The inside of the house in which
these two lived was as curious as the
outside. The furniture and ornamen-
tai articles had apparently been gath
cred from all points of the globe, rang
ing from the south sea islands to
grinding from the Holy Land similar
to those used in Bible times, a wheel
from India to spin flax on. and the
bathtub had been the sarcophagus of
an Egyptian mummy.
The reason for my making the Spitz-
burgers acquaintance vas this: | was
taking Il postgraduate course at the
time. studying the customs of differ
ent races of men. the aust and eff
fects which shape them and their re
lationship. Desiring some informa-
tion us TO the people of Tibet, a land
forbidden to foreigners and therefore
little known. / was recommended to
S~pitZburger as one who had penetrat-
ed to the interior of that country. |
went to see him, and my visit led to
my studying with him.
How long l remained there doesn't
matter. but it was sufficient for my
enthrallment by that little savage"
as | called his daughter. Irene. Not
that there was any outward intima
ton on my part that | was coming un-
der a spell, and, as for the girl, | had
no idea that ! was any more to her
than anotl err man. Indeed, | some
times fancied that she might have left
her heart in New Zealand, Kamchatka
or some other barbarous land. Wheth-
err ~SpitZburger suspected the drift of
my ~inelinations | don't know but one
day he took occasion to mention with
appreciation the marriage customs in
Lapland, where one who marries a
girl without her parents consent is
adjudged guilty of n crime next below
murder and is punished accordingly.
| thought that he looked at me very
hard, but "A guilty conscience needs
NJ accuser," and | may have attached
more meaning to his words than they
covered.
The only thing to indicate that Irene
and | were drifting together as lovers
was that we took long walks together.
l made an excuse for this that In her
company | could both exercise and
study. This was true. | could get
from her certain information Of the
domestic habits of the people she had
visited that l could not get from her
father. One day while we were on
one of these walks l said to her:
"Your father tells me that in Lap
land to marry a girl without her par
ents' consent is punished as a crime.
Please tell me how a man in that coun-
try does his c%ourting."
HE doesn't do any counting"
'Then how does he p%roceedY"
HE goes to her parents and asks
for her. If he is refused there is no
hope for him. II they approve of his
suit they tell the girl of it. She may
or may not have seen the lover, but
the process is the same in either case.
Her parents give a feast at which
they. the girl. her sutton and mutual
friends are present. The two princi-
pals are placed opposite each other at
table. where they can observe and
talk with each other all they like"
well. then what? | suppose the
girl has something to say in the mat
ter, else this looking over her sutton
would be useless"
Eyes, she has a good deal to say
about it. but she doesn't yet make it
known. She indicates her decision
later. After the feast all go to an open
space suitable for running a race. A
course is marked off-a quarter of a
mile usually-aud the girl is given Il
handicap of a third of the distance.