Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1919-12-26
Owens Protege
II
By WILL T. AMES

Miss Gwen Ciphers, daughter of an
Indianapolis paint and wall paper mer-
chant and one of the kind CT women
who name their first horns Archibald
If fine and Gwendoline if superfine,
met up with Ras Coora, son Of a
Caiffa rag picker, in Washington
square.
Gwen was the ninety-six thousand
and first girls college graduate TO
come from Indiana to New York to
soften the heart of the world with her
pen. Ras was the second young nan
to come from Caiffa, Syria, with the
definite purpose of acquiring, within
six months, capital enough to buy a
l~icorice plantation.
The first Caiffa youth to achieve this
ambition had been Tufa Goora, Ras's
cousin. He had returned, after a brief
absence, with a small hatfui of the
golden coin of the infidels. and had
purchased the most excellent planta-
ton of Hal Akab; also the second
hand flivver of the departing French
consul.
Eela K%arhagian. ~sloe-eyed daughter
of the Armenian doctor, seemed dis
posed to condescend to Tufa under
these circumstances. Ras, too, had
yearned hopelessly for Eela. He de
termined to put over a performance to
equal or excel his cousins. He knew
of , better plantation and a newer
Ford. The plantation he wanted was
so near to town they could run in to
the picture theater if
And Ras would have made his adj
v%enturing voyage to the other side of
the world ever had he known positive
ly what had merely occurred to him as
a probability-that Tufa's money had
been the fruit of a series of predatory
enterprises which made it by the rarest
of good luck that he ever returned 10
Caiffa. He had got out of New York
just two jumps ahead of the police.
Ras himself was entirely without
prejudice as to the manner in which
he might possess himself of some of
the pelf Of those v~illainously rich I'M.
believers in America. His one idea
was to get it and get back.
George Washington Ciphers wouldn't
have trusted Goora, pere, for a ten,
cent paint brush if the latter, per ma
g~ician's carpet, had suddenly walked.
In upon him.
Moreover, he would have kept the
1900 20 800 80 Id De- 1T 30
see hat he didn't steal the knob off
the front door as he went out. But.
Gwen CipherS didn't inherit either her
fathers suspicious temperament nor
his quick insight into human nature.
Gwen, though she didn't suspect it,
took somewhat after her mushy
mother.
SO when Ras, hat in hand. ap-
preached her as she sat OIL a bench in
the historic square planning wonderful
,book-Gwen did not shoe him away,
but looked at the paper he held out.
Ras had great, soulful eyes, like a
deer, and said, so pathetically, "Plis,
mees !"
The writing read: "Am strange
mans in CRATE country. Pies show
work. Am awful crate strong"
what on earth-where did you get
this?" Gwen exclaimed. Ras shook
his head. mo spik American"
swell you poor soul, you've got a
nice time ahead Of you, sure. But
who wrote this?" Ras shook his head
again.
Gwen, by speaking very loud indeed,
in single words, and making a series Of
experiments in the sign language. final
ly got out of Ras the two words, 'cook,
ship"
"Well, you come with me-" Gwen
suddenly exclaimed; and grabbing
Ras's coat sleeve with thumb and fore
finger she steered him over to the
West Eleventh street pension" where
she lived with Madame Blanc, a Swiss
coniuresS, who knew how to change
five cents worth of cat meat into a
most deIectahle ragout. She dragged
him To the basement door, demanded
to see Madame at once, and to that
lady said: Here's that house man
you wanted. You've simply got to take
him"
Madame WAS a business woman. Ras
was without English. He would be
worth no more than his board. Ras,
his deerlike eyes full of gratitude,
yearned to be shown work.
Nobody else ever learned the Ian
guage as fast as Ras Goora. These
people. I have often heard" explained
Gwen, "have a positive genius for
tongues" Nevertheless she took a
mighty pride in Ras's accomplishment,
for he was her pupil. A dozen times
a day he was at her door receiving
tips-tips on English, that is. In three
months he was talking like a phono-
graph record.
Naturally, Ras explained everything
to his b~enefactress. He was an altru-
list who lived for others. That's why
he was in America. Himself. he