The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-01-16
copyright, 1910, by sobbs- Merrill company.I

days. 1nankSs maQomO1Seue; an OlO soldier salutes your And the time bent. withered form grew tall. Fitzgerald cleared his throat, for just then something hard had formed there. Why, God bless her! She was the kind of girl who became the mother of soldiers.
 With her departure his present in terest here began to wane. He won dered who she might be and what part of his native land she adorned when not gEacing European capitals. Well, this was no time for incoming. He had arrived from London the day preced- ing and was leaving for Corfu on the morrow, and perforce he must crowd many things into this short grace of time
 Today his sightseeing ended in the hall of Turenne, before the souvenirs of the Due de Reichstadt. so called the king of Rome. Poor, little lead soldiers, tarnished and broken; what a pathetic historyl Abused, ignored. his childish aspirations trampled on, the name and glory of his father made sport of; worried as cruel children worry a puppy, tantalized, hoping against hope that this night or the next his father would dash In at the head of the Old Guard and take him back to Paris. A plaything for Metter- mich! Who can gaze upon these little toys without thrill of pity9
 H'Poor little codgerY' Fitzgerald mur- mured aloud.
 "Yes, yesT' agreed a voice iH good English, over his shoulder. "Who will ever realize the misery of that boy ?''-
 Fitzgerald at once recognized his jousting opponent of the previous hour. Further, this second appearance re freshed his memory. He knew now where he had met the man; he even recalled his name.
 Are you not Karl Breitme nn?'' he asked with directness.
 'sYes. And you are-let me think. Yes; have it. You are the American correspondent, Fitzgerald?"
 And we met in Macedonia during the Greek war"
 Right! And you and I, with a hand full of other scribblers slept that night under the same tent"
 By Georger'
 q did not recall you when we bumped awhile ago, but once I had gone by you your face becane singu- larly familiar
 "Funny. isn't itT' And Fitzgerald took hold of the extended hand. 1.-The sight of these toys always gets into my heart"
 Unto mine also. Who can say what might have been had they not crushed out the great spirit lying dormant in hls little soul P
 Fitzgerald smiled. 'fYou are am en- thusiast like myself"
 'sWho wouldn't be who has visited every battlefield, who has spent days wandering about Corsica, EIba, St. Helena? But youT'
 My word, l have done the same thingsr'
 They exchanged smiles and drifted into a long conversation and fought a dozen battles, compared this general and that and built idle fancies upon what the outcome would have been had Napoleon won at Waterloo. This might have gone on indefinitely had not the patient attendant finally dan dled his keys and yawned over his watch. It was o'clock. and they had been talking for a full hour. They ex- changed cards, and Fitzgerald. with his usual disregard of convention, i'm
 
 evening at the Meurfce.
 He selected a table by the window. dining at 7:30. Breitmann was prompt. In evening clothes there was some thing distinctive about the man. Fitz- gerald, who was himself wide trav- eler and a man of the world, instantly Saw and was agreeably surprised that he had asked a gentleman to dine. EffZOarald nq6 hc xunrI1H hnVa been just as much interested in Brett mann had he arrived in a cutaway sack. But chance acquaintances, as a rule. are rudimental experiments.
 They sat down. Breitmann was full of surprises, and as the evening wore on Fitzgerald remembered having seen Breitmann's name at the fJot of big newspaper stories. The man had travelled everywhere. spoke five languages, had been a war cor respondent. a sailor in the sOnth seas and heaven knew what else. He had ridden canlels and polo ponies in the Sudan, he had been shot in the Greco-Turkish war shortly after his having met Fitzgerald, he had played part in the recent Spanish-Amer1- can and had fought against the Eng fish in the Transvaal.
 And now I am resting" he con- clnded. "I am thirty-eight. Into twenty of those years have crowded century"
 ''You don't look it."
 "Ah, one does not need to dissipate to live quickly. The life have led has kept me in health and vtgor. Btu you? You are not a man who travels l without gaining material" CT have had a few adventures 2smething like yours, only not sG widely diversified. I wrote some sue cessfuI short stories about China once have had some good sport, too, here and there" You live well for a newspaper cor | respondent" suggested Breitmann. l noddfng at the bottle of twenty eight | year-old Burgundy.
 ooh, it's a habit we Americans | have" amiably. we rough if for A |