The Holbrook news., 1912-08-09

uOIuIHS, HIS COCOduuI-O4iOu
 u skin shining like furnished
 metal, eyes aglow with readi-
 ness, hair done up behind like wom-
 ms. He was a young coolie, 1.-the
 md strong. Master ready?" Yes,
 lack" sir, no. John. Jack all same
 Yakka' (imp)." Yes, John" Sir,
 hank you. Msster very good mas
 3er."
 Out we go on the long white road be-
 tween sea and jungle, the flexible
 spine of my human steed bending with
 each giant stride, and a myriad silver ed specks of damp starting out on his
 iusky skin. The stately palms are still IS hothCuse vines, the sea is a sheet 0f glass, un-emblazoned, menace to he eye. I open out my big white um- orella, and my coolie at once adjusts lis swinging step to the changed. bal lnce of the little man cart. Others -ickshas, rtheir hoods up, are rolling on ahead; we come up in their rear. md other naked-footed runners pad ID behind us and join the human stream. Johns back is soon a score of running rills; but except sometimes 70 lift hand from his shafts to wipe lis dripping face with the fringe of his head cloth, he does not heed
 Suddenly the leader of the long pro cession pulls up to brush his strag- gling hair from his eyes, and we ara
 n danger of a series of collisions But the alert following swerves rapid y, and in a second we are a newly led :roop, and the delayed rickasha man. lnless he make special efforts, which may provoke rivalrous sprinting. must lang on to our rear.
 Through Crowded Streets.
 Now we come to the Pettah, and my
 oolie breaks away from the main body and darts into that strange human and animal medley which throngs the na- i've business quarter. 'MahataI Ma natal" (Masterl master:l he cries, as if to say, Give place therei" Ma natal Mahata!" answering voices cry, and some of the lower caste coolies, almost naked, scurry from before us, the baskets of freshly gathered hill-grown tea which they bal ance on their heads. But the bullock 1rivers are of a different tempera- ment Their guttural cries as they sit on the front of their tented carts and poke with naked foot and little stick and twist the tails of their giant horn ed, numbering beasts, almost drown my coolie's voice. "Hyak! HyakI" they rumble loudly; but the wayward bull locks scarcely respond, and from time -r hn iC n1n fn1x ed. Portly native merchants, tall Af- yhan money lenders and sellers of Oetelnut and other Indian spices thread their way through the crowd, and sometimes my vehicles shafts are seized by an insignificant Sinhal- ese policeman, and John is forcibly through a widening open ng Presently he is prancing un- iaunted again through the outskirts of -he locality and into the town. till, with his breast heaving like the sides of a blown animal, he sets me down 1t my office doorway.
 Indefatigable Johnl He could run 'or an hour beneath a zenith sun with put changing his stride. Sometimes turing the ascent of a hill I might tell lim not to hurry. Always he replies: Sir, yes. I liking quickly run.'' Every lay quick, soon die I would answer, Or it is said that the average Indian | 'icksha coolie either runs himself to | leath or retires in ten years. Sir, | 10; running quickly, making plenty | byemby buying one, two, three | ,ocoanut tree, marry one girl" "So?" | Yes sir" You thinking you strong. | LII same bullock?" I asked. Master, | 10; bullock no good, he lazy" But | ,nly bad white man making coolie run i oo fast" Yes sir. Plenty bad white nan. sir" And he would spT ing alert | y ahead and set me down at my des. inRtiop, and, salaaming, retire to ths