Imperial Valley press., 1937-03-14

THE out-of-the-way places of the world are
filled with the men who can't come back
have seen them all over the earth and, due to
the fact that have attended many of them pro-
fessonally in their last Illness have learned
from their own lips the reasons for their exile =
the secrets that they were hiding from their
fellow men.
They have crossed my path in the most remote
localities. In the Khyber. Pass. that hostile
thoroughfare between Northern India and At
ghanistan, l met one serving under the British
flag. At Oran in Algiers, the headquarters of
the famous French Foreign Legion, I ran into
lawyer from home who had killed two men -
and disappeared. Others have met in Persia, in
Arabia in Somaliland and in Jerusalem. Two
years ago encountered at the Assuan Dam in
Egypt an old schoolmate in charge of a group of
laborers. The reward for his return to the States
had reached five figures. Hongkong, Shanghai
Port Said, Korea and the Mediterranean littoral
harbor these social outcasts, scattered about in
profusion; the islands that dot the dreamy Pa
cifc conceal many from inquisitive eyes. But, of
all countries, those of Latin America. owing to
their nearness to the States seem to offer the
quickest haven to the frightened offender. Each
of these republics has far more than its quota
of men who are endeavoring to hide themselves
and forget!
Many are trying to drown their remorse in
pose have sunk lower in the scale of civilization
than beasts. | knew ex-bank president from
this country defaulter, who by some means
had attached himself to a tribe of carib Indians.
Ignored by the of the clan. he carried water
for the and did their chores His feet
had not seen shoes for years and his matted
beard and disheveled hair reached the waist-line
of his ragged undershirt, which with his trou-
sers formed his only rament.
AT the sea wall of Central American port,
gazing eastward with inquiripg mien from dawn
to dusk, stands Napoleon" When be came there
or how, no one knows. Even his name has been
lost in the years that have passed since his ar
rival, for he is now over seventy. But faded
soldiers uniform. his precise mannerisms. hst
such as the famous military genius affected the
wisp of hair on his forehead, the fingers of one
hand concealed beneath the front of his coat
make him startling reproduction of the Little
Corporal and give him the name by which he Is
locally known He speaks to none but stiffiy
salutes all passers-by. Mild and inonensive, the
police let him sleep in the balmy tropic air of the
little park; the local tailors patch his tattered
uniform; the charitable hand him food or money
and each morning for more than twenty years
he has been the first customer of the local barber,
whose tonsorial attention he repays with a
gracious elevation of his hand to the brim of his
chapeau. Rumor has 1t that he was West Point
graduate who in fit of passion killed his fiancee
and escaped Fate has been kind to him, for time
has blotted from his mind all recollection of the
tragedy. Yet each sunrise sees him at his post
and each sunset finds him guard. wistfully.
sadly looking out TO sea.
In nearly every instance that recall a woman
has played leading role in the drama which