Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-12-14

The sun was sinking over the shout
der of the mountain when ! at last ar
rived, exhausted. but still tugging at
my prize, upon the plateau of my cliff
apartment. / lay "a long while, my
heart pounding with exertion, before
I was equal to the task Of attacking
it's lock with stone and my sheath.
knife; and after that, it was some mo,
ments before the lock yielded and !
raised the heavy lid.
First there met my eyes scattered
collection of souvenir postcards,
much discolored and faded, but SUI
ficiently preserved to awaken. a clans
or of protest and longing. There were
tantilizing pictures Of the Cafe de
Paris, and Trafalgar Square, and the
bund at Hong-Kong. Here were the
details Of the life at which I had raj.
| lied, and now I knew I would have
sold my soul to be back again at the
center Of it. X
Young Mr.. Lawrence must hare
been a confirmed souvenir buyer. ]
could trace his Odyssey by trivial
things he had picked up, here and
there. Two curved aaggers with tur-
uuoise settings in the hilt had come
| from the bazaars of Damascus or Je-
rusalen. A copper incense burner
| with package of scented tapers had
been brought from Toxic or Naga5a-
XII. Equally useless things filled pack,
age after package, 4as i&.i
/ might burn perfumed sticks and
| look at souvenir cards and play with
curved daggers, / bitterly told myself,
but no mission-chest piously outftted
| at home ever carried to the remote
| heather a more useless assortment OF
| unnecessaries than this one brought
to me. -
There was not a shirt nor an article
of utility in sight. 1, seeking raiment
to cover. my nakedness,s found trink-
cts as useful as doll babies to q prize
fighter. At last, however, / came up
on two packages carefully wrapped in
sail cloth. So painstaking and Sc
| cure had been their packing that
when took off the first covering and
the second, found that the contents
had suffered no wetting.
The first bundle contained the VIC
lin which had. incensed the captain
and several packages of extra strings.
AS took it out, ! seemed to hear
again the plaintive, wordless song Of
tragedy that it had sung when last
I heard it's more than human voice.
/ laid it down reverently, for it seem.
ed a part Of the dead mans soul
something intimate. and wonderful
which had outclassed his mortality.
In the second package was some
thing wrapped in tissue paper ard
very soft to the touch. I opened It
and spread out on the sand a gor-
geously wrought mandarin kimono.
It's silk was OF the heaviest and
richest quality, and its design famed
with the ,unstinted opulence Of Chi
nese embroidery. On the flowing
sleeves and bordered panels were
storks of blue and silver flying AM among
.poppylike flowers Of crimson and pur
bic. There were also delicafely
worked streams and reeds and moons
all tangled up with ranting dragons
of gold, gazing fierce1y out from eyes
of inset jade gold thread, silver
thread, silk thread, cunningly com
bined to make dazzling pattern.
Some Celestial dignitary had once
ordered its embroidering, had perhaps
ridden upon his palanquin CARRIED iE
it's splendor with the pride of pea
cock in his narrow, slanting eyes.
The young derelict of the Wastrei
had. In all likelihood, bargained for
it and haggled over its cost in an Or
iental shop. He had finally bought It
for gift to a wife. or sweetheart, and
even with capable bargaining it must
have been purchase beyond his
means. It lay outspread before me- in
futile magnifcence.
, In the same package, however, !
found my first useful articles-a small
block of those miniature matches that
one may buy in the Chinatown sec
ton of San Francisco or New York,
which burn with an odious reek OF
sulphur. 1t was doubtless because
they partook of the quality OF curl.
osity that he had preserved them
There was also one of those slung-
shots such as may be bought along
water fronts where seamen foregath.
era small leather sack, loaded with
shot and suspended from a wis!
strap. 1t would have made service.
able weapon, in close encounter
where blow, seemingly from a bare
hand, might crumble section o:
skull,
From the moment Of its discovery
l wore 1t as bracelet above my right
hand, and once it saved my life.
At the extreme bottom of the pack
age, carefully preserved between two
sheets of thick cardboard, lay a page
torn from. a newspaper. It was on, that
heavy, CLOSED paper which some
journals use for their pictorial sec
tions and was covered with .miscel-
/. =. a ..