Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-10-04
CHAPTER F1FrEEN-continued)

time. He has great ideas = too
great, | fear, to be practicable"
"Then you don't believe 90
"That he can destroy armies
and all thats" and Chevrial
laughed lightly. my dear NJ.
Webster, do youY"
"No," said Dan, slowly, IT
don't suppose | do. It's too much
to believe-without proof"
"Assuredly," agreed his com
p%anion; "no one would believe it
without proof-absolute proof"
Then he leaned closer. "To me
he made no such absurd claim, but
from the way he alked-from his
grandiose ideas, his strange
philosophy, his fabulous hopes for
humanity formed the opinion
that the man is mad-not wholly
mad, you understand, but touched,
In one corner of the brain, by a
wild hallucination. His daughter,
naturally, believes in him. She is
a most attractive girl. Polish
women are always attractive, at
least when they are young. There
is, in their faces, in their eyes, an
appearance of tragedy, of mys-
terry, which piques the magma
ton. And they are all great pa
triots-it is born in the blood-oh,
far greater patriots than the men.
l have travcled in Poland" he
added, seeing Dams glance; "my
business sometimes calls me
there"
"And is there really such OPP
preston as Miss Ward dcscribed?''
II do not know what she told
you--it was only at the end she
raised her voice; but she could
not exaggerate the s~uffcrings of
her people, They T. little better
than slaves. All careers are closed
to them, and over them constantly
is the shadow of Siberia"
"You mean they are banished
sometimes?"
"They are banished often--for
one year, two years, three years.
And they are compelled to walk
to and from the place Of Danish
ment. 1t takes a year sometimes.
l knew a man who returned home
one day to find a Cossack attack
ing his daughter. There was a
struggle, and the CossaclS shot the
man in the leg. The wound fcs-
tered and the leg was amputajed
then the man was sentenced to the
mines at Yakutsk. 1t was | know
not how many thousand miles-it
took him two years to walk there
on his wooden leg-walking:
walking every day"
Dan felt a strange weakness
running through his veins.
"But is there no way to put al
end to such things?" he asked.
Chevrial rolled himself another
cigaret.
Poland has no friends he an
swered. "She has been forgotten
The Poles themselves have come
to be regarded as fools, as charla.
tans, as irresponsible children
France was supposed to be the
friend Of Poland; Napoleon prom
Used to reconstitute her, and the
Poles fought by thousands in his
armies and won many victories fol-
him. Then came the campaign OF
Russia and ended all that. To.
day, Poland is remembered in
France only by a proverb, "Saoul
CONNIE I'M Polonais,' Drunk as Q
Pole It is so we think of them
when we think of them at all
which is NOT often. This disdain
this forgetfulness, has been care.
fully fostered by Germany and
Russia. No one thinks it worth
while to interfere. Besides, Pc.
lands lot is that of every con.
quered country. In Alsace-Lor.
raine it is just the same"
"Oh, surely not!'' Dan pro.
tested. Germany, at least, has
no &beria!"
mo, she has no Siberia" Chev.
rial agreed, Hbut neither has she
. sense of hnmor, and that is
worse! The very worst trait in 6
conqueror, M. Webster, believe
me, is an absence Of the sense OIL
humor! And Germany has the
strongest prisons in the world
Her system Of espiai is even more
minute and irritating than that d
Russia. AS in Poland, the people
Of Alsace and Lorraine may no,
speak their native tongue mol
study the history Of their father
land. Nothing escapes suspicion
It is reported that at q certain
cafe the accounts are kept ii
French the cafe is thereupon Wis
sAaN9AL- G2Nl 49, {.