The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-01-24
Mektub
BY CUNNINGHAM Graham

of the principal hotel. His bright red
hair and bleared blue eyes, with his
freckled face, looking just like 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 message or with
horse from town out to the villas on
the hill. All those who knew him left
him free road, and If he met a 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 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 it 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
a 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 sa
with nothing seemingly reflected OF
the retina Of his opaque and porcelain
colored eyes, his interior vision wa
as keen or keener than that of othe
men. He never seemed a man apart
or cut of from his fellows, but ha
his place in life, just as Throughout
the east the poorest and most misel
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 I
the hive. .--,-,,~ -
His blindness did not seem to tro,
BILE him, and II he thought of 1t at al
he looked on 1t as part and parcel (
the scheme of nature, against whic
1t is impious to contend. Doctors ha
peered into his eyes with lenses, qua
!. relied with one another on their dia
| noses of his case, and still the HUB
sat contented, questioning nothin
, and enduring everything, sun, raj
: wind, flies and dust, as patiently as
} he were rock. Nothing was farth
I from his thoughts than that he ev
: once again could see. Plainly, 1t b,
: been written in the books of fate
4 should be blind, and so when Eur
: pean doctors talked to him OF oper
q lions and the like he smiled, n
l. wishing to offend, and never doubtil
s Of their learning, for had not one
g them cured relation Of his own
intermittent fever by the use of sol
0 white magic powder, when native d.
i tors after having burned him with
:. red-hot iron, and made him take te,
v of the Koran stepped in water, h
v ANONYMOUSLY failed?
Q All that they said did not appeal
t him, for all of them were serious m,
q who talked the matter over grave
:. and looked on him as something Gu
8 Gus on which to exercise their SIX
e All might have gone on in the sal
G. old way, and to this day the Rul
s. still sat on his stone without w
ia to see the horses that he held, |
a. sunlight falling white upon the t.
A. ers, or the red glare upon the Span
coast at eventide, had not Germ
a scientist appeared.
From the first day on which
Rubio held the doctors horse a
a. lowship sprang up between them,
- easy to explain. The doctor pee
- out on the world through neutral L
" ed glasses, for his own eyes W
. weak. Whether their weakness di
~ him to the blind, or II he liked
hear the Rubio's tales about the Ell
n peans he had known, to all of VIII
he gave the worst of characters,
IT. doctor never said. Soon Tangier XXI
IT. him for character. and ss he st
n bled on his horse about the town.
SO ing the Arabs of ophthalmia and &
orino focfS for the apnruoiiS hooIx