Evening star., 1922-01-29

AlmSeI JOufneyeO SOutH over .uie l." !"
hliles that stretched to Zanzibar. ~. )
+ On the morning he arrived he had
called upon Harris, his consul to ;in-
auire about the hotel, and that even
ing Harris had returned his" call and
Introduced him at the club. ~
I: One Of the men there asked Hcming-
way what brought him to Africa. and
yhen he answered simpf! and truth
fully that he had come to shoot DIE
game it was as though he had said
something clever. and every ons
smiled. On the way back to the
hotel. as they felt their way through
Che narrow Sits in the wall that
served as streets. he asked, the con-
sui why every one had smiled
The consul laughed eyasively.
!: Its local joke" he explained. "A
lot of men come here for reasons best
Kept to themselves, and they all say
what you said. that they've come TO
shoot big game. It's grown to be a.
polite way of telling man 1t is none
Of his business"
But / didn't mean it that way"
protested Hemingway. Il really have
been after big game for the last eight
months" - ..~". --.
In the tohe one uses to quiet
! child the consul answered soothingly.
OF course" he assented: "of course
YOU have" But to keep Hemingway
from involving himself. deeper he
hinted tactfully, Maybe they noticed
you came ashore with only one
steamer trunk and no gun cases.
q iy1o
laughed Hemingway. MY heavy lug
gage
The consul had reached his house.
please don't explain to me-" he
begged. Its quite Unnecessary. Down
here we're so darned glad to see any
white man that we don't ask anything
of him except that he won't hurry
away. We judge them as they behave
themselves here. We don't care what
they are at home or why they left it.
L To find that he, a respectable,
sport loving Hemingway of Massa-
chusetts. should be mistaken for
gun-runner,, slave-dealer. or escaping
cashier greatly delighted him.
All right" he exclaimed. I'll
promise not to bore you with my past.
and agree to be judged by Zanzibar
standards. l only hope ! can live UP
to them. for I see / am going to like
the place very much"
Hemingway kept his promise. OF
his past he made a point never to
speak. OF the fact that a college was
named after, his grandfather and that
on his fathers railroad he could
discreetly silent.
The men of Zanzibar asked no
questions. That Hemingway could
play q stiff game Of tennis. sitter
game of poker. and on the piano songs
from home was to them sufficient
Recommendation. In week he had
become one of the most popular MEM
bers of Zanzibar society. Hemingway
found himself reaching out to grasp
the warmth of the place as flower
turns to the sun. For thirty years
he had believed that completely to
satisfy his soul all he needed was the
gray stone walls and the gray
shingled cabins under the gray skies
OF new LtldI =" hd< AA ANSN' -
, he most loved was the pine forests
= and the fields OF goaenrod on the
rock<bound coast Of the North Shore.
.;But now. in the glaring sunlight OF
the equator, he reveled in the reck-
less generosity Of nature, in the glo-
rious confusion of colors, in the
:, ,"blooming blue" of the Indian ocean.
in the Arabian nights spent upon the
housetops under the purple sky. and
beneath silver stars SO near that he
could touch them with his hand.
He found it like, being perpetually
in comic opera and playing a part
in one. For only the scenic artist
would dare to pain houses in such
yellow pink and cobalt blue; only
'producer" would have conceived cos
tunes so mad and so magnificent. In
stinctively he cast the people of zan-
zibar in the conventional roles of musi-
cal comedy.
His choruses were already in wait
ing. There was the sultan's body
guard in gold-laced turbans, the mer
chants of the bazaars in red fezzes
and gowns of flowing silk, the Malay
sailors in blue. the black native po-
lice in scarlet, the ladies of the ha-
rems closely veiled and cloaked, the
market women in single garment
of orange, or scarlet, or purple, Or of
all three. and the happy, hilarious
Zanzabari boys in the color God gave
them.
His comic opera lacked only hero
inc and the love interest.
When he met Mrs. Adair he found
both. Polly Adair, as every one who
dared to do so preferred to call her.
was, like himself, an American, and.
though absurily young, widow; In
the states she would have been called
an extremely pretty girl. In a COM
munity where the few dozen white
women had wilted and faded in the
fierce sun Of the equator, and where
the rest of the women were Jet black
except their teeth, which were dyed
an alluring purple, Polly Adair was
as beautiful as a June morning. At
least, so Hemingway thought
LIE met her. three days after his
IL arrival. at the residence of the
British agent and consul general.
where Lady Firth was giving tea to
the six nurses from the English hos
pital and to all the other respectable
members Of Zansibar society.
MY husbands typist." said her
Iadyship as she helped Hemingway to
tea, "is a copatriot Of yours. She's
such a. nice gell; not a bit like an