The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-07-11
The Scin7ifQr "A Short Story
By Victor Choinokr

In the city Of kiuSSin in Japan there
is whole quarter whose inhabitants
made q living by their deNterity and
acrohatic skill.
The jugslers of Kiussin travel all
over the world and are we'll received
in the music halls everywhere, for
they accomplish marvels OF gymnastic
tricks
Takaissivo and his wife Minamoto
both came from kiuSsin. They travel
ed from one country 10 the other and
received an enormous salary every
where, Their most sensational feat
was this:
Dressed in plain tights. Minamoto
placed herself in front OF board wall.
her arms across her chest, While TAX
aissivo faced her about twenty PAGES
away. Next to him stood basket
containing forty seven exceedingly
sharp and pointed daggers. each about
! ten inches long and encaSed in wooden
| scabbards.
| Minamoto greeted the audience
With a smile-and you must admit that
| nobody knows how to smile more
gracefully than a young Japanese wo-
| man-then she spread out her arms
| and stood with her back against the
board wall.
Takaissivo took a dagger in each
hand and sharpening them one against
the other he exhibited them to the au-
dlence. Then he threw them against
his wife. The daggers tore through
the air and embedded themselves deep
into the wood close to MinamotC' S
| body. One followed the other with
| lightning swiftness and like a swarm
of bees the daggers flew towards the
human target following the outlines
of her body and striking close against
her flesh.
| When the forty-siX daggerS had been
thrown. came the last. a heavy scimi-
! tar as long as an arm. with a curved
edge. encased in a scabbard Of snake
| skin.
"Ha, ha, This is the way to throw
| it."
| The long sCimitar sped through the
air and buried itself in the wood with
unerring precision right against Nina
notes breast. as slose as possible to
| the heart.
| Smilingly, Minamoto then crossed
her arms over her chest and stepped
away from the boards, on which the
shuddering audience saw her form out
lined by the daggers.
| This was Takaissivo's specially and
you may imagine that he made piles
of money everywhere, but nowhere
more than in San Francisco.
| The people of the Far West, used to
| daily sensations, went wild at this dan
gerous exhibition of marvellous skill,
and Takaissivo made many thousands
of dollars.
| Money may be a blessing in two
ways; it is a curse in only one. When
it is scarce it stimulates you to work
and sobrlety. Taken in exceedingly
large doses it promotes charity and
prompts you to good deeds; in medium
doses it tends to make you greedy and
misery.
| Takaissivo grew reckless in spend
ing his money. But what could he
spend money on? Liquor would of rob,
bed him of his skill of eye and hand
and for the same reason he dared not
try the delights of the opium pipe. Be
sides, we Japanese are habitually So
Der even when rich
| But the Geishas of San Francisco
are very pretty and to these Takaissi
vo gave champagne, oysters, and OPT
UNI as much as they wanted. After the
I o,.T0 hn hi ir1t -,
San Francisco's tea houses. There he
| listened with an air of Indifference to
the stupid music, admired the dancers
and threw away one fifty dollar bill
after the other He never came home
until daylight.