Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-10-11

/ came towards Midnight, anu pGTlSu6Q
in our sweat like flies in marmalade
We pulled down our nets and prayed
for a breeze. The sky had all the
hard beauty and repose Of the divine
and implacable as it is presented in
the features of the Jain Tirthankaras
The moon was up and the darkness
dwindled into gray spaces between the
stars. The milky way spanned the two
horizons and was fed by great tribu-
taries of molten lead. To the parboil-
ed fancy which the half-asleep in
Eden engenders they became web of
white mosquitoes with stings like
sparks, falling upon our curtains, re-
Inducements of the Divine wrath, a
ladder of torture leading down from
an inverted bell.
At o'clock the sun came licking
over the horizon again to- recharge the
atmosphere that had lost nothing of
it's retained heat during the night. A
message came early in the morning
that the general had not left Ali Char
bi. We could not start that day, and
it was very improbable that we should
get away the next.
Miracle of the Padre.
The great argument for Providence
is that there is always a term to I'M
provoked evils when the menacing
hand is removed, and we remember
that it is Gods will that we should
be chastened but not utterly destroyed.
At 10 o'clock breeze sprang up and
our interest in things revived. Three
Sikhs slid down the burning side
of the ship on the rope tenders
and hung there with their heads just
out of the water for hours, still as
floating in the stream.
l went ashore with the S. and T.
man and the regimental officer. The
doctor and the padre were busy bury
ing or restoring the victims of the
night. Two more graves were being
dug in the British cemetery across the
Euphrates. I heard man in a gun
boat hard by believing like a heifer.
He was unconscious and they were
wrapping him in ice. We would have
given days of our life, Jumps of pay
for one long bubbly iced drink The
padre told me that three times during
the night he had entirely evaporated,
but that towards dawn the humid
atoms had collected themselves by
some miracle of attraction. Thus he
had survived to minister to minds and
bodies in greater peril Of dissolution.
Any movement of the air is restora-
tive. Now that tiny breeze had
sprung up, it was not too hot to dis
pute the identity of the biblical tree
The S. and T. man said that it was
the trunk to which our paddle steamer
was moored and such was the general
opinion. But this tree was a "Siris,"
with yellow bean-pods, and [ learned,
too, that a gnarled and thorny bush
down stream was a kind of prickly
plum, with telegraph pole in it.
This, | argued, bore some kind of
fruit, far from seductive, it is true,
but it might have deteriorated. Evil
IDENTIFY Eden is not what it was. We
inquired of the people, but found To-
cal tradition confused or Indifferent.
''Rib-ROad."
We explored the streets up 70 Rib
road. Eve'swalk leads into Charing
Cross, and Serpent s-alley, Of course,
into TemptatiOn-square a small inset
I in the houses by the quay, where half
a dozen benches are protected from
the sun by mating on reed supports
Temptation for the Arab takes the
! IF yNiv
cites, canned salmon and the like,
which repeat the unhealthy process Of
sOphisticatiOn that was so disastrous
to our first parents. The little market
was almost deserted Barely shad-
oW cut the white earth. The folk in
the cafe sprawled listlessly. There
comes a season when it is too sultry
even for the Arab to squat, when one
adhesive member abjuring the other
he sits on high with his feet dangling
alphabetically apart in the air.
Some OF the houses on the river
front bear the mark Of shot and shell.
They were held by the Turks when we
took the place, in December, 1914.
There were snipers at every window,
e1AAS4 OO4 J1OOp6 wei = CApOSCu " q
heavy fusilade as they advanced un-
der cover Of the palms on the other
side Of the river
We cleared Mezeera village on Dec.
Il, and carried the enemy's lines
all along the left bank They made
for their boats upstream and decamp-
ed. The 104th found two abandoned
mahailas where the Turkish fleet had
been, and crossed by these
In the meanwhile the sappers were
building a flying bridge three miles
lower down, by which the 10th was
able to cross. These two regiments
now held Qurnah in their hands The
Turks, mostly Anatolians, a good stub
born breed, had to fight it out or sur
render. They were between the devil
and the deep seattle Arab and the
British-for their battalions on the
left bank had steamed off with all their