Bisbee daily review., 1916-02-17

ried westward. A high dignitary of an empire upon which the sun never sets hid his title under a plebeian nom de plume, and stalked stolidly away west ward to that whisper of despisec American money. From the land of fashion, from the land of toys, from the land Of art and music, from the land of cherry blossoms. from the land of the drowsing drug, from the land of the flashing jewels, from the lands of the burning sands and the lands of the midnight sun, there came the highest of power; and they all, light and swarth. and bearded and smooth, and large and small, and robed and trou- sered, centered toward the city of strong men, and, one by one, presented themselves, in turn, to grave and silent, kinky-haired old darky by the name of Ephraim.
 One motive alone had dragged them over sterile plains and snowy noun tains and bounding seas; the magic whisper of Money!
 lHTOuSu EpuidlIl lnce OdllC tO thO stocky, square-standing. square-faced chess player who was called Allison. They found him pleasant, agreeable. but hardly of their class. He was so forceful as to be necessarily more or less crude, and he had an unpleasant fashion of waving aside all the decent little pretenses about money. That wxs the fault of this whole rude coun- try, where luxury had been brought to the greatest refinement ever known in devoted to money, and the cultured gentlemen did their best to get all they could.
 To ivan Strolesky Allison was frank and friendly, for there was something in tse big Russian which was different from these others, so he hastened to have business out of the way.
 Here are your lines," he said, spreading down map which had been brought up to date by hand. "The ones I want are checked in blue. The others l do not care for"
 The grand duke looked them over with keen eye.
 q am rather disappointed" he con fessed in excellent English. '1 had understood that you wished to control our entire railway system"
 "I do," assented Allison; but don't wish to pay out money for them all. If I can acquire the lines I have marked, the others will be controlled quite easily from the fact that I shall have the only outlet"
 The grand duke. who had played po- ker in America and fan-tan in China and roulette in Monte Carlo, and all the other games throughout the world, smiled with his impressive big eyes, and put his hand up under his beard.
 "The matter then seems to resolve itself into question of price," he commented.
 No; protection" responded Allison. If l were buying these railroads o&- right, should expect my property in- terests to be guarded, even if 1 had to appeal to international equity; but am not"
 No" admitted the grand duke. They cannot be purchased"
 'The proposition resolves itself then into a matter of virtual commercial seizure" Allison pointed out.
 The grand duke. still with his hand in his beard, chuckled. as he regarded Allison amusedly.
 ''I shall not mind if you call it pi- racy," he observed. We, in Russia, must collect our revenues as we can, and we are as frank as Americans about it. Returning to your matter of protection. I shall admit that the only agreement upon which we can secure what you want, would not hold in international equity; and, in corse- duence. the only protection ] can give