The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1912-08-13
Mektub
BY Cunnindham Graham

TAI; haired blind man, who sat upon
the mounting block outside the stables
Of The principal hotel. His bright red
hair and bleared blue eyes. with his
freckled face. looking Just like new
ly scaded pig. had given him the
rame .y which the Europeans knew
hir'. although no doubt he was Mo
hah,med. something or another,
an. ongst his brethren in the faith.
He spoke indifYerently we'll most
European languages up to a point, and
perfectly as far as blasphemy was con.
cerned, and his quick ear enabled him
as II by magic to ascertain the ma.
tionality OF any European passerby,
II ever he had spoken to the man be-
fore, and to salute him in his mother
tongue.
All day he sat, amused and cheer.
ful, In the sun. AS people passed
along the road, their horses slithering
aud sliding on the sharp pitch OF the
paved road, which dips straight down
from underneath the mounting block
of the hotel, between the tapia walls,
over which Bougainvilleas peep, down
to the Soko Grande, FL Rubio would
hail them, as II he had been dark
lighthouse, set up to guide their
steps
BY one Of the strong contradictions,
which nature seems to take delight in
just to confound us, when after few
thousand years of study we think we
know her ways, the Rubio had a love
Of horses which In him replaced the
usual love Of music of the blind. Along
RX-reep and twisting path that leads
{ towards Spartel he used to ride full
speed and shouting "Balak" wien he
Z was sent upon a message or With
horse from town out to the villas on
the hill All those who knew I'm left
him free road, and II he me- a herd
OF cattle or Of sheep the horse would
/, pick his way through them, twisting
and turning Of his own accord, whilst
his blind rider left the reins upon his
neck and galloped furiously In what
dark lane or evilsmelling hole he
lived no European knew. Always Well
dressed and clean, he lived apart both
from the Moors and from the Euro
peans, and in a way from all human.
ity, passing his time. as does a lizard,
In the sun and In the evening disap-
pearing to his den. The missions OF
various true faiths, Catholic. Presby-
terrain and Anglican, had tackled him
in vain. Whether 1t was that none OF
them had anything to offer which he
thought better than the cheerful OPP
timism with which he was endowed
by nature to fight the darkness OF the
world he lived in. is difficult to say.
= Still, they had all been worsted, not
that the subject of their spiritual
Establishments could have been termed
strict Mohammedan, for he drank
any kind of spirits that was presented
to him by Christians, anxious perhaps
to make him break the spirit II they
were impotent to move him In the let
ter of his law. Still though he sat
ztSvinb pthing seemingly reflected on
yer 81 of his Opaque and porcelain
his eyes, his interior vision was
-. or keener than that OF other
never seemed man apart.
pan,f from his fellows. but had
rplace In life. just as throughout
.e east the poorest and most miser-
bile appear to have, rot barred out
from mankind by mere externals as
e their brethren In the north, shut
:, le of charity, as bees are shut
"a Al plate of glass 80 that the
-tn may watch their movements in
the hive.
His blindness did not seem to trou-
q h.. ~ a at
looked on It as part and parcel or
p.heme of nature. against which
10 impious to contend. Doctors had
ed into his eyes with lenses, quar-
Nth one another on their dag
iast' his case. and still the Rubio
OF hlented, questioning nothing,
hisiduring everything, sun, rain,
ID, files and dust, as patiently as II
> ne were a rock. Nothing was farther
from his thoughts than that he ever
once again could see. Plainly, II had
been written in the books OF fate he
should be blind, and so when Euro
pean doctors talked to him OF opera
lions and the like he smiled, not
wishing to offend, and never doubling
of their learning, for had not one OF
them cured a relation of his own OF
intermittent fever by the use OF some
white magic powder, when native doc
tors after having burned him with q
red-hot iron, and made him take texts
of the Koran stepped In water, had
ANONYMOUSLY failed?
All that they said did not appeal to
him. for all of them were serious men,
who talked the matter over grayely
and looked on him as something curl
Gus on which to exercise their skill
All might have gone on in the same
old way, and to this day the RubiC
stii sat on his stone without wish
TO see the horses that he held, the
sunlight falling white upon the tow
ers, or the red glare upon the Spanish
coast at eventide, had not a German
81 gt