The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1916-02-12

GOWN there, under all the RIDICULOUS
uniforms and petty diplomacy and
s~enseless countermarching and in
trigue, are to be found statesmen and
patriots. Don Rafael Naldevia was
one. His great ambition was to raise
Esperanto into peace and honest pros
perity and the respect of the serious
nations. SO he waited for my rifles in
Aguas Frias. But one would think
am trying to w.n Il recruit in you!
No; it was Francis Kearny | wanted.
And so | told him. speaking long owe
our execrable vermouth, breathing the
sitting odor from garlic and tarpau.
Inns, which. as you know, is the els.
tinctive flavor of cafes in the lower
slant of our city.
81 spoke of the tyrant President Cruz
and the burdens that his greed and in
solent cruelty laid upon the people.
And at that Kearny's tears flowed.
And then | dried them with a picture
of the fat rewards that would be ours
when the oppressor should be over
thrown and the wise and generous Val
devia in his seat. Then Kearny leap
ed to his feet and wrung my hand with
the strength of a r~oustabout. He was
mine, he said. till the last minion OF
the hated despot was hurled from the
highest peaks of the Cordilleras into
the sea.
II paid the score and we went out.
Near the door Kearny's elbow over
turned an upright glass showcase.
smashing it into little bis. | paid the
storekeeper the price he asked.
"'Come to my hotel for the night l
said to Kearny. We sail tomorrow at
noon
He agreed, but on the sidewalk he
fell to cursing again in the dull, monot-
onous, glib way that he had done when
l pulled him out of the coal cellar.
"'Captain,' said he, before we go
any further its no more than fair to
tell you that I'm known from Baflin's
bay to TERRA del Fuego as bad Luck"
Kearny. And I'm 1t. Everything l get
into goes up in the air except a balloon.
Every bet | ever made | lost except
when | coppered it. Every boat l ever
sailed on sank except the submarines.
Everything | was ever interested III
went to pieces except Il patent bomb
shell that l invented. Everything !
ever tool hold of and tried to run /
ran into the ground except when J
tried to plow. And that's why they
call me Bad Luck Kearny. thought
Id tell you
bad luck, said l, or what goes by
the name. may now and then tanGie the
affairs of any man. But if it persist
beyond the estimate of what we may
call the averages there must be IA
cause for it.
""There is said Kearny emphatical-
ly, and when we walk another square
| will show it to you
surprised, | kept by his side until
we came to Canal street and out into
the middle of its great width.
"Kearny seized me by an arm and
pointed a tragic forefinger ut a rather
brilliant star that shone steadily about
thirty degrees above the horizon.
That's Saturn said he, the star
that presides owe bad luck and evil
and disappointment and nothing doing
and trouble. | was born under thai
star. Every move l make up bobs
Saturn and blocks it, He's the hoodoo
planet of the heavens. They say he's
10000 miles i'll diameter and no solder
of body than split pea soup, and he's
got as many disreputable and malig-
nant rings as a big city. Now. what
kind of a star is that TO be born un-
der?'
Il asked Kearny where he had OBJ
tanned all this astonishing knowledge.
"'From Azrath, the great astrologer.
of Cleveland, o. said he. That man
looked at a glass ball and told me my
name before I'd taken a chair. He
prophesied the date of my birth and
death before I'd said a word. And
then he cast my horoscope, and the
sidereal system socked me in the solar
pleXus. 1t was bad luck for Francis
Kearny from A to lizard and for his
friends that were implicated with him.
For that | gave up $40. This Azrath
was sorry, but he respected his profess
sion too much to read the heavens
wrong for any a 1t was night
llAiOs II hC lpOh hlC OuI III IL DdlCOuA
and gave me a free view of the sky.
And he showed me which Saturn was
and how to find it in different balco-
MES and longitudes.
but Saturn wasn't all. He was
only the man higher up. He furnishes
so much bad luck that they allow him
a gang of deputy sparklers to help
hand it out. They're circulating and
revolving and hanging around the main
supply all the time. each one throwing
the hoodoo on his particular district.
You see that ugly little red star
about eight inches above and to the
right of Saturn?' Kearny asked me.
We'll, that's her. That's Phoebe. She's
got me in charge. by the day of your
birth" says Azrath to me, your life is
subjected to the influence of Saturn.
BY the hour and minute of it You must
dwell under the sway and direct au-