Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-11-02
AN IGRA
A
By SADIE oLcoTT

happening every day under their noses?
Here. like a flower peeping from under
a heap of rubbish, is a romance ex-
tracted from the most unromantic thing
In the world, an emigrant ship. 1t
only remains for the story teller to put
1t in form. 1t is not a tale of young
lovers. In the conventional story ro-
nance ends with marriage. Nature
knows no such division. Conceive an
old fruit tree bearing shortly before it
is cut down a single bit of fruit into
which the. trees vitality has been con-
centrated and you have the kind of ro-
nance you are about to get.
Forty years ago Alex Petrol, a Rus
sian, came to America, purchased a
farm, married, raised a family and
prospered. His wife died, and one by
one his children left him to marry and
raise children of their own. For ten
years he worked his farm alone, and
then it occurred to him to relieve his
solitude by reyisiting his former home
in Russia. He did so, but failed to
find the diversion he had expected.
The place he had left as a village had
grown to be a city, and the friends of
his youth who had not gone elsewhere
were in the churchyard. D~isappoint-
ed, he turned his face again toward
his desolate home In America.
Martha Bichof, q widow living In
Moscow with her daughters, had a son
in America. Her daughters had beer
with her since their birth. but her one
son had left her when he was a boy.
and she pinned to spend the few years
that remained to her where she might
occasionally see him. At last she could
resist the temptation to &c to America
no longer and embarked in the steer
age of one of the mammoth vessels
sailing every few days from Genoa.
Now it happened. This is a short
sentence, an incomplete sentence, yet
how much there is in It'll What would
all the story tellers do If the two words
were blotted out from the worlds on
going? 1t happened that Alex Petrol
and Martha Bichof were passengers on
the anne ship. One day they sat side
by side and fell to talking. Petrol re-
joiced with the mother in her expecta-
tions at meeting her boy, and Mrs.
Bichof grieved with the old man when
he spoke of his return to his lonely
farm. They met frequently on the
voyage and on reaching port parted
with mutual regret.
In New York harbor, where they
landed, is Ellis island. a danger point
for emigrants more to be dreaded than
a submerged rock of the ocean,. Here
they must satisfy the officials that they
will not be a burden upon the United
States. Petrol had no trouble In do
ing so and took his departure. Mrs.
Bichof sent for her son who lived in
one of the environs of New York. He
came, and for a brief period the moth
er and her boy enjoyed their meeting
and the prospect Of at leasteliying on
the same continent. But the young
man failed to satisfy the authorities
that he could support his mother. He
had a large family of his own and was
at the time out of employment. His
mother, too old to support herself. had
no one else on whom to depend. The
decree went forth that Martha Bichof
must be deported to her native land.
Alex Petrol. in the turmoil of the
metropolis. was alone-as much or
more alone than he would be when he
returned TO his farm. In years he had
met but one person of his own genera
ton to give him n spark of sympa-
thy-the woman he had met on the
steamer. She had shown him a ape
bearing his sons address to ask how
she might find him. This address Pc
trof remembered.
One evening there was a rap at the
door of young Bichof, and upon its be-
ing opened there stood Petrol.
SIS Martha here?" he asked. He re-
membered only the widows first name.
"No, and she will not be here. She
is to be deported."
Petrol went into the house, and his
host told him that there was no hope
of his mother remaining, since there
was no one to support her.
Yes, there is one" said the old mar
after a long pause.
"Who?'
Il. If your mother will marry me
and go to live with me on my farm
she need not go back to Russia"
In half an hour the two men were
On a boat speeding for Ellis island.
They found the poor woman bemoan-
ing her fate. Her eyes lighted as she
saw her companion of the voyage.
And here the effort of the story tell
er to put this humble romance in story
form breaks down. Never was offer of
marriage made in a form more widely
diverse from the conventional proposal
laid down in printed romances. The
son took his mother aside and told her
of Petrof's proposition. While mother
and sou conferred the would be groom
stood making pretense of looking at a
family of Russians who were eating sau-
sages. In a few minutes .Bichof return
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