Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-12-02

sailors.
All eyes were upon the double
chinned "boss" of the establishment
Even pair. of disputing, liquor
soaked individuals at the far end of
the bar hushed their argument for
the time being.
Szabo Roth's lips moved as his pig
eish eyes ran over the closely written
sheets. He could read the missive.
That much was certain.
"What does it say?" l asked as he
neared the bottom of the second sheet.
The rheumy eyes leaped to mine.
"Von minute" said Szabo, "dis is
a very important paper"
For another sheet let him con-
tinue then my impatience mastered my
silence.
"Hold on!" called. "What's it all
about?",.
Roth seemed not to have heard my
words. The thick lips went on NOV
ing; the red-rimmed eyes moved from
left to right; the fat hands shuff1et
the last sheet of the communication
behind the others.
"Well?" insisted, as the dive keep
er digested the last line.
"You are a man fon hospital ?"
came back Szabo, Yankee-fashion.
II am" l admitted.
"Good!" grunted the fat proprie-
tor. 81 shall keep desc papers und
write you out fine translation. Stop
in tomorrow"
"But what does the writing mean?"
/ insisted. "What's it all about?"
"Tell me first, what hospital is dis
man im?" stipulated Szabo.
Surgical Ward 13, Bellevue"
answered. foolishly giving in.
Szabo hesitated, then he turned to
the head of the first sheet of writing.
There was CLEAN of cunning in his
reddish-brown eyes as he commenced
TO read the missive aloud. Reading
rapidly in the Dalmatian dialect, Sza-
TO paused at the end Of every few hun
drei words to give me in English
what he claimed to be the sense of
the message.
As he neared the bottom of the
fist sheet there was stir at the far
end e the bar, and from the tail of
any eye | could see several darkroom
r'e%ioned men shouldering their way
unobtrusively toward the reader. That
these men understood the spoken Dal-
matian. | had no doubt, for as the
divekeeper went on with his reading
noticed that the little ring of men
hemming me in hung upon each syl-
liable as it fell from the lips Of the
fat proprietor.
But The mes9e ce, as put into Eng
lish, WAS Disappointing. 1t was
wandering, incoherent, appeal to the
hospital authorities, asking them to
treat the writer kindly. Over and
over again, John Doe thanked the at
tendant at the hospital, who in the
night time, "fXed his pillows, gave
him water to drink, and made light
for him."
Halfway through the missive, Sza-
bo paused to take sip from his
glass of fiat lager.
Then for the first time, he appeared
, to notice the knot of eager listeners
beside and behind me. Returning to
his reading, Szabo no longer pronounc-
ed his words aloud.
His lips moved, his piggish eyes
drank in for the second time the
written words, but not another syll-
able did he pronounce aloud until he
had again reached the end of the final
sheet.
"Id's a lod of foolishness," declared
Szabo as he looked at me, and then
flashed suspicious glance at the men
around me.
A burst of uneasy laughter came
from an unsteady foreigner near by
me. A dark, pockmarked giant be-
hind me pushed his way to the rail and
said something to the man behind the
bar.
Then and there determined that
the dive-keeper had been making
game of me-that he had been deceiv-
ing me as to the purport of the writ
ing.
"You said 1t was an important mes
sage" / protested, holding out my
hand for the papers.
Roth withheld the folded sheets, a
sneering laugh contorted his double
chinned face; but at word from the
big, pockmarked fellow he grew sober