The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-01-21
Mektub
By CUNNINGHAM Graham

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
treckled 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 indiferently we'll most
European languages up to point, and
perfectly as far as blasphemy was con.
cerned, and his quick ear enabled him
as II 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
ful. 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
hall 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 a 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 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 a 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
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 If they
were impotent to move him in the let
ter OF his law. Still though he sat
with nothing seemingly reflected on
the retina Of his Opaque and porcelain.
colored eyes, his interior vision was
as keen or keener than that OF other
men. He never seemed a man apart,
or cut OF from his fellows. but had
his place In life, just as throughout
the east the poorest and most miser-
able appear to have, not barred out
from mankind by mere externals as
are their brethren in the north. shut
In the ice Of charity, as bees are shut
behind a plate Of glass so that the
rich may watch their movements in
the hive.
His blindness did not seem to trou.
BILE him. anil II he thought of 1t at all.
he looked on 1t as part and parcel OF
the scheme Of nature, against which
1t Is impious to contend. Doctors had
peered into his eyes with lenses, quar-.
relied with one another on their dag
noses OF his case, and still the Rubio
sat contented, questioning nothing,
and enduring everything. sun, rain,
wind. flies and dust, a. patiently 40 If
he were rock. Nothing was farther
from his thoughts than that he ever
once again could see. Plainly, 1t had
been written in the books Of fate he
should be blind, and SO when Euro
pean doctors talked to him Of opera.
lions and the like he smiled, not
wishing to offend. and never doubling
OF their learning. for had not one OF
/ them cured a relation Of his own OF
Intermittent fever by the use Of some
white magic powder, when native doc.
tors after having burned him with q
red-hot iron, and made him take texts
Of the Koran STEPPED in water. had
ignominously failed?
All that they said did not appeal to
him. for all Of them were serious men,
who talked the matter over gravely,
and looked on him as something curl.
Gus on which to exercise their skill.
All might have gone on in the same
old way. and to this day the Rubio
still sat on his stone without q wish
to see the horses that he held, the
sunlight falling white upon the tow.
ers, or the red glare upon the Spanish
coast at eventide. had not a German
scientist appeared.
From the first day on which the
Rubio held the doctors horse a fel.
lowship sprang up between them, not
easy to explain. The doctor peered
out on the world through neutral tint.
ed glasses. for his own eyes were
weak. Whether their weakness drew
him to the blind. or II he liked to
hear the Rubio's tales about the Euro.
peans he had known, to all of whom
he gave the worst of characters. the
doctor never said. Soon Taugier knew
him for character, and as he STUN.