The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-01-28
Mektub
By Cunningham Graham

All angler Knew Tue ftuDlO, tuo
fair-haired blind man, who sat upon
the mounting block outside the stables
of the principal hotel. His bright red
hair and bleared blue eyes, with his
freckled face, looking Just like a new
ly scalded pig. had given him the
name by which the Europeans knew
him, although no doubt he was Mo-
manned, something or another.
amongst his brethren in the faith.
He spoke indifferently well most
European languages up to point, and
perfectly as far as blasphemy was con-
cerned, and his quick ear enabled him
as If by magic to ascertain the ma
tionality of any European passerby.
II ever he had spoken to the man be-
fore, and to salute him in his mother
tongue.
All day he sat, amused and cheer
full, in the sun. AS people passed
along the road, their horses slithering
and sliding on the sharp pitch OF the
paved road. which dips straight down
from underneath the mounting block
Of the hotel, between the tapia walls,
over which Bougainvilleas peep, down
to the Soko Grande, Ell Rubio would
hail them, as II he had been a dark
lighthouse, set up to guide their
steps.
By one of the strong contradictions.
which nature seems to take delight in
just to confound us, when after few
thousand years of study we think we
know her ways, the Rubio had a love
Of horses which in him replaced the
usual love of music of the blind. Along
the steep and twisting path that leads
towards Spartel he used to ride full
! speed and shouting 'Balak" when he
was sent upon a message or with a
horse from town out to the villas on
| the hill All those who knew him left
him free road, and II he met herd
| Of cattle or of sheep the horse would
| pick his way through them, twisting
| and turning of his own accord, whilst
his blind rider left the reins upon his
neck and galloped furiously. In what
dark lane or evil-smelling hole he
| lived no European knew. Always we'll
dressed and clean, he lived apart both
from the Moors and from the Euro
peans, and in way from all human
ity, passing his time, as does a lizard.
In the sun and in the evening disap-
pearing to his den. The missions OF
various true faiths. Catholic, Presby-
terrain and Anglican, had tackled him
in vain. Whether 1t was that none OF
them had anything to offer which he
thought better than the cheerful op-
timism with which he was endowed
by nature to fight the darkness of the
world he lived in, is difficult to say,
Still, they had all been worsted; not
that the subject of their spiritual
Establishments could have been termed
strict Mohammedan, for he drank
any kind of spirits that was presented
to him by Christians, anxious perhaps
to make him break the spirit II they
were impotent to move him in the let
ter of his law. Still though he sat
with nothing seemingly reflected or
the retina Of his Opaque and porcelain
colored eyes, his interior vision was
as keen or keener than that OF othel
men. He never seemed a man apart
or cut of from his fellows. but hac
his place in life, just as throughout
the east the poorest and most miser
able appear to have. not barred GU
from mankind by mere externals a,
are their brethren in the north, shu
IN the ice Of charity. as bees are shu
behind a plate Of glass SO that tn
; rich may watch their movements II
the hive.
His blindness did not seem to trou
BILE him, ard If he thought OF 1t at all
) he looked on 1t as part and parcel o
the scheme Of nature, against whicl
) tt Is impious to contend. Doctors ha
!. peered into his eyes with lenses, quar-
: relied with one another on their diae
. noses Of his case, and still the Rubi
sat contented. questioning nothing
: and enduring everything, sun, rair
9 wind, flies and dust, as patiently as
he were rock. Nothing was farthe
q from his thoughts than that he eve
, once again could see. Plainly. it ha
Q been written in the books Of fate
should be blind. and 20 when Eur,
g pean doctors talked to him OF oper,
q lions and the like he smiled, M
a wishing to offend, and never doubtin
@ Of their learning, for had not one I
them cured a relation OF his own ,
Intermittent fever by the use of SON
r. white magic powder, when native do
q tors after having burned him with
red-hot iron, and made him take tex
i. of the Koran stepped in water. hs
W ANONYMOUSLY failed?
20 An that they said did not appeal
him. for all of them were serious me
70 who talked the matter over gravel
Il. and looked on him as something Gu
Il. GUS on which to exercise their ski
All might have gone on in the sar
old way, and to this day the Rub
still sat on his stone without wi
an to see the horses that he held, I
~ sunlight falling white upon the to
q. ers, or the red glare upon the Spani
:. coast at eventide, had not Germ
h, scientist appeared.
90 From the first day on which
"a Rubio held the doctors horse q
lowship sprang up between them, I
easy to explain. The doctor peer
~, out on the world through neutral Il
a. ed glasses, for his own eyes W,
weak Whether their weakness dr.
"a him to the blind, or II he liked
hear the Rubio's tales about the Eu
20 peans he had known, to all OF VIII
-. - he gave the worst of characters,
"a doctor never said. Soon Tangier KIN