Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-06-24

| From the discussion, which neither
OF them treated as confidential,
learned that there Is somewhere In
the Pacific ocean perfectly useless
island from which certain ethnologi-
cal data and exhibits might be OBJ
talned. 1t further appeared that the
British museum was deficient in these
particular curios, and that the glass
cases were yearning 70 be filled.
The youth had been employed in
Sudanese excavations and research.
Now that work had ended-and with
it the pay-the necessity for other
work and pay had not ended.
"The billet down there" suggested
the elder man, will be no end beast
ly, dare say. A tramp steamer sails
from Port Said in three days for Sim
gapure, Sandakan and the South Seas.
The pay will be one hundred and fifty
pounds for the job. The fare will
probably be stale biscuits-still, II
| you feel game to have a dash at it"
The speaker finished with shrug
which seemed to add: ITS never diff
fcult to find fool"
But the young man laughed with
whole.hearted enthusiasm that entire
| ly missed the under note Of contempt
in the manner Of his benefactor.
"Well, rather" he declared. "And
say, you know, It's jolly good of you,
| sir"
Later I made the acquaintance OF
| the Britain in the American bar
where, over Scotch and soda, we dis.
cussed the project to the end that
nominated and electd myself an as
sistant forager for the British muse
um, serving at my own expense.
| There was something likable about
my new and naive acquaintance, who
was so eager to shoulder his futile
way across third of the globes cir
cumference in search of crudely in
scribed rocks and ax-heads and de-
caying skulls.
My own experience in life had been
even more futile. l had learned to
speak five languages and had cont
| pletely failed of gaining foothold in
five useful professions-art, law, liter
ature, music, ard-contentment.
Possibly the appeasement Of my
Salathiel hunger. the curing Of the
curse, did not, after all, lie along the
routes Of Cunards and Pullmans.
Maybe l was still nibbing at travel
as the schoolgirl nibbles at choco-
lates. Perhaps his method of taking
the trail was the heroic medicine my
itching feet required.
At all events, sententiously quoted
to myself, ~ think it will kill me or
cure, and I think l will go and see."
When I informed young Mansfield
for that proved to be his. name
that l meant to be his traveling-com-
panion, his almost child-like face took
on an incredulous expression. He was
a great two hundred pound chap
whose physique should logically have
been the asset of pirate or pugil-
list; but the visage which surrounded
1t had rosy pinkness, and his blue
eyes were the guileless charity of es-
sential innocence.
With his physical power went
long-suffering good-nature: and as he
talked Of the widely scattered places
he had seen and the things which
should have made him wise in his
generation, 1t seemed to me that his
soul must have worn macintosh,
from which the showers of experience
had been shed off without leaving
/ Iox I,
eyes full of wistfulness because ma
ture has denied her affectionate tenn
jeraments the gentle lives of lap-dogs.
Mansfield struck me- the same way.
Why I, a man, by his simple stand
ards as rich as Croesus, should care
to ship with him on voyage promis.
ing stale biscuits, was quite beyond
his mental process. He confessed, In
all frankness, that he did 1t merely
for the money-the pitiful hundred
and fifty.
And where was the girl back in
England, probably as devoid of sur
plus and complications of character
as lane-side primrose. l pictured
her to myself as creature of pink
and shallow prettiness. The day to
which his ambition strained as the
ultimate goal was the day when he
could become curator in the British
museum and transplant her to decent
London lodgings.
He longed to picard and arrange
scarabs in plate glass case to class
ify Chombote pottery-and on bank
holidays to push go-cart in the park.
Perhaps there are other corroded
hulks shambling here and there
among the less frequented ports Of
the seven seas as uninviting In ap-
pearance and as villainously manned
I as was the Wastrel. but on this point
stand unconvinced.
A glance told us that her seawor-
thyness was questionable and that her
overburdening cargo pressed her
Pljmson mark close tn the water line