The Minneapolis journal. [volume], September 17, 1904, Colored Supplement, Page 3, Image 24

About The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939

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THE WATOH AND THE SCIMITAR.
J^PF^Z MYSTERIES
By MAX PEMBERTON.
Copyright, 1904.
The city of Algiers, the beautiful El
pjzair, as the guidebook maker calls
it. has long ceased to charm the true
son of the east, blase with the nomadic
fulness of the ultimate Levant, or
charged with those imaginary oriental
splendors which are nowhere writ so
large as in the catalogs and adver
tisements of the later day upholsterer.
This iat not the fault of the new Icosium,
as any student of the Moorish town
knows well nor is it to be laid to the
account of the French usurpation, and
that strange juncture of Frank and Fat
ma, which has brought the boulevard to
the city of the Corsairs and banished
Mohammed to the shadow of the Kas-that
bah. Rather, it is the outcome of cou
pons and of co-operative enthusiasm,
which sends the roamer to many lands,
of which he learns the* names, and
amongst many people with whose cus
toms he claims familiarity.
To know Algiers, something more
than a three days' pension in the Hotel
de la Regence is necessary tho that is
the temporal limit for many who return
to Kensington or Mayfair" to protest
that "it is so French, you know." I
can recollect well the monitions and ad
vl*e which I receive?" Vwo vears gone
when I ventured a voyifge to Burmah
in the matter of tho ruby interestand
determined to see Cairo, Tunis, and the
rity of mosques on my return westward.
Many told me that I would do better to
reach Jaffa and Jerusalem others ad
vised the seven churches of Asia manv
spoke well of Rhodes all agreed,
whether they had been there or whethor
thev had not, that Algiers was eaten up
with Chauvinism, and scarce worthy a
passing call. Barisbroke at the club,
who is always vigorous in persuading
other people not to do things, summoned
it up in one of his characteristicallv
inane lokes. "It's had its Doy," said
he, and buried himself rn his paper as
tho the proi'ect ended then and there
upon his own ipse dixit. This marked
nnd decided consensuss of opinion could
have had but one resultit sent me to
the town of Hercules at the first oppor
tunitv.
If the truth is to be told, the visit
was in some part one of pleasure, but in
the more part a question of sequins. I
had done well in the remoter east, and
had sent some fine parcels of rubies, sap
phires, and rearl to Bond street but a
side-wind of curiosity casting me up
upon the shores of Tunis, I had bought
there, in the house of a very remarkable
Jew, a bauble whose rival in strange
workmanship and splendor of effect I
have not yet met with. It was, to de
scribe it simply, the model of a Moorish
scimitar perhaps four inches long, the
sheath exquisitely formed of superb
brilliants, the blade itself or nlatinum,
and in the haft not only a strange med
ley of stones, but a little watch with a
thin sheet of a very fine pearl for a
face, and a superb diamond as the
cup of the hands. Altho the iewels in
this w^ere worth perhaps 500, the work
manship was so fine, and the whole bau
ble ha such an original look, that I
paid 800 for it cheerfully, and thought
myself lucky to get it at that. "What
is more to the point, however, is the
fact that the hazard which gave me
the possession of the scimitar sent me
also to Algiers to hunt there for like
curiositiesand the end brought mo
a large knowledge of the Moorish town,
and nearly cost me my life.
I had intended to stay in the town
for three days, but on tho very eve
ning of my coming to tho Hotel d'Or
leans the Boulevard de la Repub
lique, I meta French lieutenant of ar
tilleiy, a man by name Eugene Chas
saigne an exceedingly pleasant fellow,
and one who had some Arabic, but
small appreciation of anything beyond
the "today" of life. He laughed at
my notion of buying anything in the
upper city, and urged me not to waste
time plodding in dirty bazaars and
amongst still dirtier dealers. For him
self his one idea was to be dans le
mouvement but he brought me to
know, on the second day of my visit,
a singularly docile Moor, Sidi ben Ah
med by name, and told me that if I
still persisted in my intention, the fel
low would serve well for courier, valet,
or in any office I chose to place him.
And in this he spoke no more than the
tiuth, as I was very soon to provq.
I have always thought, when recall
ing this sheepliko Moor to my recol
lection, that the prophet had done him
a very poor turn in locating his so
for away from the blessings of com
pany-promotion and rickety-building
societies. His face would have been
his fortune at any public meeting and
as for thoroness, his love of detail was
amazing. Before I had been in his
hands tor twenty-four hours he knew
me being able to tell you precisely
how much linen I carried, the number
of gold pieces in my purse, my taste
in Ssh and fruits, my obiect in com
ing to his country. And this was vex
atious for all the vendors of Benares
ware fashioned in Birmingham, all the
sellers of gaudy burnouses, the huck
sters of the tawdriest carpets and the
most flimsy scimitars, held concert on
the steps of the hotel every time I
showed my face within twenty paces
of the door. Sidi alone was immobile,
stolid. "Nom d'un chienthey are
blageurs all," said he and I agreed
within him.
If these things troubled my man, the
jewel I had purchased in Tunis trou
bled him still more. How he learned
that I had it heaven alone could tell
but he did not fail to come to me at
deieuner each morning and to repeat
with unfailing regularity the moni
tion, If Allah wills, the jewel is
stolen." I used to tolerate this at
first but in the end he exasperated
me and upon the seventh morning I
showed him the model and said em
piratically, "Sidi, you will please to
observe that Allah does not will the
loss of the "jewellet us change the
subject." He gave me no answer, but
on the next morning I had from him
the customary greetingand the laugh
was all upon his side, for the scimitar
was gone.
I say that the laugh was with Sidi,
but in very truth I do not believe that
this worthy fellow ever laughed in his
life. He possessed a stolid immobility
of countenance that would have re
mained in repose even at the sound of
the last trumpet. The intelligence
whieh I conveyed to him, I doubt not
with pathetic anger, and much bad lan
guage, moved him no more than the soft
south wind moved the statute of the
first governor general out by the mosque
there. He examined my ravished bag
with a provoking silence uttered a
few pessimistic sentences in Arabic:
and then fell back upon the Koran and
the platitudes of his prophet. If he
had been an Englishman, I should have
suspected him without hesitation but
he bore such a character^ he had been
so long a servant of the hotel, he was
by hia very stolidity so much above
doubt, that this course was impossible
and being unable to accuse him, I bade
him take- me to the nearest bureaii of
police, that I might satisfy my
conscience with the necessary farce.
This he did without a protest, but I
Baw that he looked upon me with a pity
ing gaze, as one looks upon a child that
is talking nonsense.
Altho I flatter myself that I con
cealed my annoyance under a placid ex
terior, this loss affected me more than
I oared to tell. For one thing, the jewel
was very valuable (I was certain that I
could have obtained a thousand pounds
for it in Bond street): I was convinced,
moreover, that I should hardly discover
its fellow if I searched Europe thru.
During my stay at the Hotel d'Orleans
I had kept it locked in a well-contrived
ns
Saturday Evening,1
leather pouch in my traveling trunk
and as this pouch had been opened with
my own keys it was evident that the
thief had access to my bedroom, during
the nighta conclusion which led rao
to think again of this stolid Moor, and
to declare that the case, against him
was singularly convincing, So strong,
fact, were my suspicions, that I made it
my first care to go to the maitre of the
hotel and to demand satisfaction from
him with all the justifiable indignation
which fitted the case. "When he heard
my tale, his face would have given
Rembrandt a study.
"Howl" said he. "Monsieur is
robbed, and chezmoi?"
I repeated that I was, and told him
if he did not recover the bauble
in twenty-four hours, consequences
would follow which would be dis
astrous to his establishment. Then I
asked him frankly about the Moor Sidi
but he protested with tears in his eyes
that he would as soon accuse his own
mother. He did not deny that some one
in his house might know something
about it and presently he had mar
shaled the whole of his servants in the
central court, addressing them with the
fierce accusation of a luge 'instruction.
It is superfluous to add that we made
no headway, and that all his desola
tion" left me as far from the jewels
I had lost as I was at the beginning
of it.
From the hotel to the bureau of the
police was an easy transition, but a very
hopeless one. A number of extremely
polite, and elaborately braided, officials
heard me with interest and pity and
having covered some folios of paper
with notes declared that nothing could
be done. For themselves, their theory
was that the Moor Sidi had been talk
ing about my treasure, and that some
other domestic in the Hotel de la Re
gence had opened my door while I slept
and got possession of the ornament with
little risk. But that anyone should re
cover the property was in their idea a
preposterous4 assumption.
"It is on its way to Paris,'' said one
of tbem as he closed
a snap, 'l
hisend notebook.
with
and there's an of it W
shall, without doubt, watch the servants
of the hotel closely for some time, but
that should not encourage you. It is
possible that the man Mohammed, the
porter of the place, may know some
thing of the affair. "We shall have his
house searched today, but, my friend,
ne vous montez pas la tete, we are not
in Paris, and the upper town is worse
than a beehive. I am afraid that your
hope of seeing the thing again is
small.''
I was afraid so, too but being ac
customed to strange losses and to strange
recoveries, I determined to venture
something in the hazard, and to remain
in Algiers for a few weeks, at any rate.
The most difficult part of my work
that matter Sidi alone could help me.
Every day we went with measured and
expectant tread thru that labyrinth of
fantastic and half-dark streets, where
repulsive hags grin at the wickets be
low, and dark eyes coquette at the grat
ings above every day we delved in
booths and bazaars, we haggled with
the iewel sellers, we bartered with the
goldworkers, but to no purpose. I had
come to think at last that the loss was
not worth further trouble, and had made
up my mind to return to London, when
I recollected with some selfreproach
that I had as yet neglected one of the
veiy simplest means to grapple with the
occasionthat I had, fact, offered
no reward for the recovery of the iew
eled scimitar, and to this, omission owed,
I did not doubt, the utter absence of
clue or conviction.
When I was yet angry with myself
at this absurd oversight I had a sec
ond thought which was even more use
ful, and one to which I owed much be
fore I had done with the matter. I re
membered that the Fieneh police had
set down my loss to the loud talk of
Sidi amongst the others at the hotel.
Why, then, I asked7 should not this man
also scatter the tidings that I would
give so many hundreds of francs for
the recovery of the scimitar? No soon
er had I got the idea than I acted
upon it.
"Sidi," said I when he came to me
on the next morning, I have heard
much of your cleverness, but you have
not yet found my property: now I will
give a thousand francs to the man who
brings it here within a week."
To my utter surprise he bowed his
head with his old gravity and answered,
"If Allah wills, the jewel is found."
This was amazing, no doubt, and in
its way a triumph of impudence. If he
could find it with that ease, then he
must have known by whom it was
stolen. I turned upon him at once with
the accusation, but he stood with the
gravity of granite and responded to all
my threats with the simple greeting, as
of a father to a son
"And upon you be peace."
To have argued with such a rogue
would have ben as useful as a demon
stration in theology before a mollah to
have accused him boldly of the theft
would have been absurd, even had I
not possessed such a wealth of testi
mony in his favor. I sent him about
his business, therefore, and went in
search of my friend Chassaigne, who
had been away since I lost the trinket,
but was then at the arsenal again.
The lieutenant took the news with edi
fying calmness, but assured me that I
had at last taken the only course which
was at all likely to result success.
"Our friend, the Moor," said he, "is
the of his kind in Al-
giersmosfohonorablee
Jsi*_-zipasafti* *z.vtijs** S^rAM SSflr35 'tfiHS
where all ar rogues. I do not
elieve a moment that he stole the
iewels, altho his father, his uncle, or
his own brother may have done so.
Your reward may tempt him to return
them if the police set up a hue and cry
but if he suggests that you go up in
the old town to receive them, tell him
you will do nothing of the sort.
There are far too many dark eyes and
sharp knives there for an Englishman's
taste, and a Moor still has claims in.
Paradise for every Frank he sticks. If
you took the other course, and sought
your money from this hotelkeeper, he
would bring a hundred to swear that
you did not lose the stones in the hotel,
and you would be where you are. It's
annoying to adopt a laissez aller policy,
but I fear you can do nothing else."
I thought that he was right, but my
habitual obstinancy was all upon me,
and I found myself as much determined
to reeover the jewels I had lost as if
they had been worth ten thousand
}lce
ounds I was quite sure that the po
would do nothing, and save that
they informed me in a cumbrous docu
ment that they had searched the house
of Mohammed the porter, and of five
others, my surmise proved a true one.
It was left to Sidi, and for Sidi I
waited on the morning of the ninth day
with an expectancy which was unwar
rantably large. He came to me at his
usual hour, 8 o'clocks and when he had
salaamed, he said:
If Allah is willing,, the iewel is
foundbut the money is not enough."
"Not enough!" said I, choking al
most with anger, "th money is not
necessary xarce [enough! Why, you brazen-faced black
guard, what do you meanf"
He replied with an appeal to the
beard of the prophet, and an evident
word of contempt for my commercial
understanding. The irony of the whole
situation was so great, and his immp
bility so stupendous, that I quickly for
bore my anger and said:
"Very well, Sidi, we will make it
fifteen hundred francs." And with
that he went off again, and I saw him
no more until the next da-a, when he re
peated the inoha Allah anu the intima
tion that the price was too low. On
this occasion my anger overcame me.
I seized him by the throat, and shaking
him roughly, said:
"You consummate rascal, I believe
you have the iewels all the time if you
aon 't bring them in an hour, I will take
you to the police myself."
My anger availed me no more than
my forbearance. It did but awaken
that inherent dignity before
which I cowed: and when I
had done with him, he left me
and came no more for three days. On
the third morning when he returned he
looked at me with reproach marked in
his deep black eyes and raising his
hands to heaven he protested once more
in the old words, and to the old con
clusion. I was then so wearied of the
very sound of his voice that I took him
by the shoulders and held him down
upon an ottoman until he would consent
to bargain with me, shekel by shekel,
for the return of my gems and in the
end he consented to make me the long
est speech that I had yet had from his
lips,
"By the beard of my father," said
he, I protest to milord that neither I
nor my people have the precious thing
he wots of but the dog of a thief,
upon whose head be desolation, is
known to me. For money he took the
jewel, for money he shall lay it again
at milord's feet yet not here, but in
the house of his people, where none
shall see and none shall know."
A long argument, and some fine bar
gaining, enabled me to get to the bot
tom or the whole story but only under
a solemn oath that the keeping of the
secret should be shared by no one.
"With much fine recital and many ap
peals to the holy marabouts to bear wit
ness, Sidi demonstrated that the thief
was no other than Mohammed the
porter, who had the stone hidden with
extraordinary cunning, and from whom
it was to be got only at my own per
sonal risk.
Under the shadow of the Kasbah it
lies," said he "under the shadow of
the Kasbah must you seek It with those
I shall send to you, and no others. Obey
them in all things be silent when they
are silent, speak when they speak, fly
and lose not haste when they bid you
fly."
This was all very vague, but a deeper
acquaintance with his purpose made it
the more clear. In answer to my ques
tion why he could not bring the iewel
to the hotel, he said that it would never
be surrendered except to a certain
force and with that force he would
supply me. He himself seemed to be un
der an oath to bear no hand to the em
prise and he was emphatic in laying
down the condition that I must go ab
solutely alone or, said he, "th hand of
Fatma shall not be passed nor that
which you seek come to you."
Now, the proper spirit in which to
have received this suggestion would
have been that of an uncompromising
negative. Chassaigne had cautioned
me particularly against going into the
old town, and here was I hearkening to
a (proposition to visit it not only by
night, but in the company of those who
possibly were honest, but more possibly
were cutthroats. I knew well enough
what he would say to the venture and
truly I was much disposed to refuse it
at the beginning, and go to Londqn as
I had at first intended. This I told
at
I did, my property, for hoped
get a thousand pounds,whichdI woul eertainlo
remain behind me. Nor did threats and
entreaties move him one iota from his
position, neither on that day nor op the
next two so that I saw in the end that
I had better decide guickly, or take ship
and fly a city of indolent Frenchmen
and rascally Moors.
It would prove tedious to recount to
you the various processes of reasoning
oy which, finally, I found myself of a
mind to court this hazard and agreed to
Sidi's terms. He on his part had
vouched for my safety and after all,
the man who ever wraps his life^m cot
ton wool, as it were, must see Tittle be
yond the stuffy box on his own habita
tion. Here was a chance to see the
Moors chez-eux, possibly to risk a
broken head with them in any case, a
chance which an adventurous man
might be thankful for, and which I
took.
Having once agreed to Sidi's terms,
he set upon the realization of the pro
ject with unusual ardor. The very next
evening was chosen for the undertaking,
the hour being close upon ten, and the
Moor himself accompanying me some
part of the way. He had advised me to
equip myself en Arabe for the business
and this I did with some little discom
fort, especially in the manipulation of
the long burnouse, and in the carriage
of appalling headgear which he would
not allow me to dispense with. I had
put these things on at a hotel but as it
is not unusual for a Frank to ape the
Moor when wishing to explore the up
per town at night, I escaped unpleasant
curiosity, and arrived at the steep
ascent of the Rue de la Lyre, feeling
thai I was like, at any rate, to get more
excitement out of the old city than
nine-tenths of the Englishmen who visit
her.
Almost at the top of the street the
Moors' friends met me. I could see lit
tle of their faces, for they covered them
as much as possible with their somber
hued cloaks, but they salaamed pro
foundly on greeting me and Sidi took
his leave when he had exchanged a few
words in Arabic with them. From
that time onward they did. not speak,
but went straight forward into the old
quarter, and soon we had entered a nar
row way where flights of stairs, fre
quently recurring, led one up towards
the Kasbah. Here the gables seemed to
be exchanging whispered confidences as
they craned forwards across the stone
paved ascent you could see the zenith
of the Bilver sky shot with starlight
thru the jutting angles of rickety roofs
and bulging eaves the hand of Fatma
protected, the hidden doors of the pole
shored but singularly picturesque
houses the sound of tomtoms and der
boukas came from the courts of the Ka
houji. The peace of the scene, deriv
ing something from the distant and se
ductive harmonies, got color from the
slanting flood of moonlight whieh
streamed upon the pavement, from the
swell of song floating upward from the
hidden courts. Here and there one
imagined that black eyes looked down
upon one from the gratings of the shad
owed windows above a Biskri, strong
of limb and bronzed, lurked now and
then in the dark angles of the quaint
labyrinth a few Moors passing down
to the lower city inclined their heads
gravely as we passed them. But for the
most part the children of the Prophet
had gone to their recreations or their
sleep the narrow path of stairs was un
tenanted, the silence and softness of an
African night held sway with all its po
tent beauty.
We must have mounted for ten min
utes or more before my guides stopped
at a large house in a particularly
uninviting looking cul-de-sac and
having spoken a few words with an old
crone at the wicket, we gained admit
ance to a large court, and found it
packed with a very curious company. It
was a picturesaue place, gloriously tiled,
and surrounded by a gallery supported
on slender columns of exquisite shape,
terminating in Moorish arches and fret
work balustrades. TheTe the women,
numbering some score, sat but I, know
ing the danger of betraying the faint
est interest in a Moor's household,
averted my eyes at once, and examined
more minutely the strange scene below.
Here was a dense throng surrounding
a dervish who danced until he foamed
a throng of bronzed and bearded Arabs
aipping coffee and smoking hubble-bub
ble pipes, with profound gravity a
'throng which seemed incapable of ex
pressing anyisort of emotion, either of
pleasure or of pain. At the further end
of the court, where manv luxuriant
palms and jars of gorgeous flowers gave
ornament to a raised dais, musicians
squatted upon their haunches, playing
upon divers strange instruments, gui
tars, flutes, and the gourd-like derbouka,
and sent ur a hideous and unbroken
wave of discordant harmony which
made the teeth chatter and seemed to
agitate one's very marrow. It was a
*&,
strange scene/full of life and color, and
abo& all of activity and to what it
owed its origin I have not learned to this
day. I know onlf that our coming with
such a lack of ceremony did not dis
concert either the host or his guests.
They paused a- moment to give us an
"Es-salaam alfkoum," to which we re
turned the expected "Oua alikoum es
salaam and with that we sat amongst
the company, but a very conspicuous
place, and took coffee with the gravity
of the others.
I must confess that the surprise of
finding myself in such a place was very
great. I had gone with the Moors to
recover a thousand pounds' worth of
property, but how the visit brought me
nearer to that, or to any purpose what
ever, I could not see. I knew that I
was the only European in the company,
and all tradition as well as common
sense told me of my danger. Yet I had
one of my own will, and the Moor Sidi
ad encouraged me to the risk, which
after all, I thought, was worth barter
ing for the sight of so strange an enter
tainment. Indeed, it is not in accord
with my fatalistic creed to conjure up
terrors of the mind in moments of com
parative tranquillity and when I real
ized that the question of wisdom, or
want of wisdom, was no longer under
discussion, I fell in with the spirit of
this singular festivityand. waited for
enlightenment.
The feast of performance was now go
ing briskly. A conjurer trod upon the
heels of the dervish, and performed a
few palpable feats which deceived no
one but himself and after that we had
the expected dancing girls, and the Ou
led-Nails. Nor were the latter the cen
tral piece, as it were, of our host's pro
gram for presently the Moors about me
ceased their babbling there was a rest
less chatter in the gallery above, the
old host whispered something to his at
tendant, and new musicians, who had
relieved the others, struck up a hideous
banging of tomtoms, flageolets, and
guitars. At that very moment, when I
had come to the conclusion that Sidi ben
Ahmed had made a fool of me, and that
my errand was to end idly, one of my
guides spoke for the first time, putting
his- mouth close to my ear, and using
very passable English. "Now," said
he,-"be ready but whether he meant
me to prepare for some saltatory dis
play, or for action, he did not conde
scend to say and before I could ask
him a great applause greeted the advent
of a dancing girl, who bounded into the
arena with a conventional run, and at
once began her amazing gyrations.
She was a beautiful girl, not more
than 18 years of age, I should think,
and probably a Circassian. She had
clear-cut features, a complexion bright
with the freshness of youth, a figure of
fine balance and maturity but the
most striking thing about her was her
hair. More abundant or glossier tresses
I have never seen. In color, a deep
golden-red, this magnificent silky gift
was bunched upon her head in a great
coil at the back, and fell thence almost
to her feet. It covered her when she
chose as the burnouses covered the
Moors who watched her and she used
it in her dancing with a chic and skill
unimaginable. In one moment coiling
it about her body so that she seemed
wrapped in a sheen of gold in the next
cast like an outspread fan behind her,. .a
she presented a picture ravishing be- i
von description, and one which drew
shouts of "Zorah, Zorah!" even from
the women in the galleries above. I
sat under the spell, enraptured like the
rest and as., the girl floated with a
dreamy lightness, or pirouetted with
amazing agility, or swept past me with
a motion that was the very essence of
tance,
race I was ready to declare that .the
was unrivaled by anything I had
seen in any of the capitals.
Now, the girl must have been danc
ing for a couple of minutes, and the au
dience was thoroly held by her urodig
ious cleverness, when I, engrossed as the
others, was suddenly interrupted in my
contemplation of her by the action of
the Moors, mv guides. To my utter
surprise they of a sudden stood up on
either side of me, and one of them cry
ing to me in English as before to be
ready, the other seemed to wait for the
girl Zorah, who, with streaming hair
and body thrown well back, was danc
ing down towards us.
A few of the company near to us
turned their hea_d and cried out at the
interruption: brtf the girl came on with
quick stens, and~whcn she was just upon
us^theMoor who waited seized her by
her hair,
andn
putting
gr^at coi1
upo "her head unrolled
with a strong grasp, and the missing
scimitar, to my unutterable surprise,
rolled out upon the pavement.
I am willing to|c@nfess that for one
moment the whole^ auction dazed me so
completely that I stood like a fool gap
ing at the jewel, and at the girl, who
had begun to cling to the Moor and to
scream. The thing was so unlooked
for, so strange, so incredible, that I
could do nothing but ask myself if it
were really my bauble that lay upon
the floor, or was I the victim of an in
comprehensible trick? Yet there was
the jewel, and there at mv elbow were
the two Moors, now all ready for the ac
tion aftermath. Scarce, in fact, had
one of them picked up mv property and
crammed it into my hand before the up
roar began, the whole roomfull of erst
while sedate-looking men springing to
their feet and turning upon us. For
an instant, the Moor who had snatched
the jewel from me kept them back
with an harangue in Arabic of which
I did not understand one word but
his best and only card failed him at the
first playing, and it remained to face
the danger and to fight it.
Of the extraordinary scene that fol
lowed, I remember but little. It
seemed to me that I was surrounded in
an instant by hungry, gleaming hawk
like eyes which'glowed with mischief,
that women screamed, that lamps WOTO
overturned that I saw knives flashing
on every side of me. Had Sidi's men
then failed him or displayed any
craven cunning, I take it that my body
might have been hurled from the Kas
bah within a minute of the recovery of
tho jewel but they showed quite an un
common fidelity and courage. Stand
ing on either side of me so that my body
was almost wedged between theirs, they
suddenly flashed long knives in the air,
and cut and parried with wondrous dex
terity. For myself, I had only my fists,
and these I used with a generous free
dom, thinking even in the danger that
a Moor's face is a substantial one to
hit and that a little boxing goes a long
way with him Yet I could not
help but realize that the minute
was a supreme one, and as
the crowd of demoniacal and shout
ing figures pressed nearer and nearer,
threatening to bear us down in the
melee, I heard my heart thumping, and
began to grow giddy.
As the press became more furious,
the two men who had done so well were
gradually carried away from me. I
found myself at the last in the lower
corner of the room, surrounded by four
burly fellows (the main body of the
company swarming round the Moors, my
guides) and of these but one had. a
knife his hand. With this, taking
the aggressive, he made a prodigious eut
at Ine, which slit pry, left arm from
the shoulder almost to the elbow but I
had no pain from the wound iu the ex
citement of the moment and I sent him
howling like a dervish with a heavy
blow iow down upon the chest. Of th
others, one I hit on the chin, whereupon
he cried like a woman but the remain
ing two sprang upon me with altogether
an unlooked-for activity and bore me
down with a heavy crash upon the pave
ment. I thought then that the end had
come for not only was I half stunned
with the blow, but the man who knelt
upon my cheat gripped my throat with
grim lerocitv and threatened to
squeeze the life out of me as I lay.
In that supreme moment I recollect that
the lights of the room danced before
my eyes in surprising shapes that I saw
a vision of dark-eyed but screaming
women in- +fc& gallery above that the
jewel in my vest cut mv skin under thrt
pressure of the Moot's knee and that I
fell to wondering if I would live one
minute or five. Then, as a new and
violent shouting reached me, even above
1
S[oor,
#w
THE' MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL.mw^^V#^f Septemb# "lf^^
the singing in my ears, the Moor sud
denly let go his hold, the light of the
scene gave way to utter impenetrable
darkness, and I fainted.
Next day I took dejeuner at the
Cafe Apollon with my arm in a sling,
and Chassaigne's talk to whet my ap
petite. He had occupied himself dur
ing the morning in cross-examining
Sidi, from Whom he had wormed the
whole Secret of the robbery.
"It is as clear as the sun," said he,
"the porter Mohammed was advised to
steal the jewel by the man I unfortu
nantely recommended to you. Moham
med, knowing that the police would
search his house and watch him, hid
the jewel in his wife's hair."
"His wife!" said I. "Was this
dancing girl married to a scamp like
that
"Certainly these Circassians don't
make great matches, if they make a
good many of them. Their husbands
are generally loafers about' the cafes
and this girl was no more fortunate
in that way than most of her sisters.
You se'e, the fun of the business is that
Sidi got two thousand francs from this
man for telling him how to steal your
jewels* and another two thousand from
you for steabng them back again.
That's why he did not go with
ou himself last night. Luckily,
went into Your hotel at 10
o'clock, and learning from the man
where you had gone, I followed you
with a dozen of my fellows."
"Yo'u came at a nappy time, my dear
fellow,.1'
said I "i another five min
utes I should have needed only an exe
cutor."
"That's true you were nearly dead
when I had the pleasure of kicking the
man who sat on your head. But it
was your own fault, you must admit.''
"Any way," said I, I got the
stones, and that's something."
He agreed to this, and when I
thanked: him for the great service he
had done me, we parted. That night
I left Algiers, carrying with me the
aciflc benediction of the admirable
Sidi, who,_ despite the fact that
I had kicked him down the steps of
the hotel in the morning, came with
me to the steamer, and patronized me
to the end of it. I can hear to this day
his last and final satutation:
"Blessed be Allah, the jewel
found!"
t,
halr
mak
th
tor
thie hi,she
hands in
is
GIRLS GROW BALD
Ratted Pompadours Destroyed
Forming In Scalp.
The girl who has indulged for the past
year or so in a bis, fluffy pompadour is
just now having her troubles.
Fashion has decreed that the hair shall
be parted in the middle and gently waved h
on either side, but when the girl tries to, aJJ
do this, she finds to her dismay a tend
ency to baldness, squarely on top of he*
head, just where she ought to have masses
of soft hair.
This state of affairs is due, to one of
two causesthe habiet of "ratting" th
hair, or of wearing an artificial pompa
dour under the hair. "Batting" the hair
backwards
Follicles
the pompadour higher
dour, or "rat," overheated the head, killed
the hair beneath it, and burnt out the
hair newly forming in the follicles of the
scalp.
The trouble is not beyond remedy, and
its victim should at once begin massage,
giving the affected spots vigorous treat
ments twice a day. Vaseline or lanolin, or
a good tonie, should also be rubbed into
the scalp.
False hair should be discarded, and if
any garniture is worn to hide the dearth
of natural hair, let it be something light,
like tulle bows or the daintiest of silfc
flowers.
FOLDEBS COLLECTED
European Travelers Seized by
Advertising Booklets.
The collecting of hotel folders seems to
have all the fascination which many an
other fad was wont to have before it be
came worn out Instead of gathering to
gether the postage stamps of various na
tions, or theater programs, or restaurant
menus, many a "collector" is now filling
his scrapbooks with pictures of the pleas
ure palaces of England and the conti
nent.
The booklets, which are sent out gra
tuitously by European hotels to any one
who writes for them, are sometimes as
elaborate as art magazines. Hotels in
Italy and Switzerland, for example, are"
likely to illustrate their folders with pic
tures of Italian lakes and bits of Alpine
mountain scenery. The lake pictures are
to attract those fond of the water, and
the pictures of the^peaks and gorges are
designed to tempt mountain climbers.
Certain hotels of France, Belgium, Hol
land, Germany, Austria and Hungary
have a way of weaving legends among
more staid geographical data. For ex
ample, a table of statistics concerning
railroad rates and time tables will follow
a story of some brave crusader and hia
sweetheart, who became a nun ere his re
turn. The ancient fable will be made
more real by pictures of a crumbling
tower where the lovers first met, 6*r a
ruined window where they bade each
other a last farewell.
Hotels Great Britain reflect much
of the life of city or country In their
folders. A house will furnish along with
pictures of its own corridors and apart
ments sketches of famous buildings in the"
neighborhood, or, perchance, the portrait
of a famous man who was born near the
corner.
Altho these booklets cost the hotels no
small sum each year to publish and send
out broadcast, yet the "bread cast on the
waters" is returned after many days to
a great enough degree to bring profit.
Even if the collector of hotel folders does
not go to all the hotels himself which are
represented in his collection, yet he shows
his prizes to others, who tell still others
about them, so that many a traveler who
might have landed aimlessly in soma far
away E-urcpean city instead goes straight
to a certain Inn, because "somehow he
remembered its name."
Fad fop
The Turkish bath is a new way to care
for ferns that has been found very suc
cessful. Put them in a bathroom, shut
the windows ang doors to exclude every
particle of air. Then fill the bathtub
with scalding water and allow the plants
to steam for three or four hours. The
room should be gradually cooled before
the plants are removed to a cooler at
mosphere.
A JUMP.
IU
Hid SISTER'S \LLERAnd you
eay your sister 1 skittish and nervous?
I suppose she would jump at a mouse?
WILLIEI don't know TJout her
Jumpin' at a mouse, but I have heard
her tell ma that she would Jump at a
proposalwhatever that is.
EX-GO V. TA YLOR WEDS
Politician and Well-Known Southern
Lecturer Finds His Third Bride in a
Popular Girl from the Old Dominion,
and They Will Reside in Bristol, Tenn.
Tennessee's former governor, Robert
L. Taylor, journalist and lecturer, and
noted thruout the south for hiB elo
quence, added another chapter to his
romantic career when he married, for
the third time, at the home of the bride
at Uhilhowie, Va., Miss Mamie St. John,
one o the prettiest and most talented
young women of Virginia and a social
favorite.
The bride is a distant relative of her
husband. Her father, Noah C. St. John,
is a lawyer of ability. She is 28 years
of age, and was graduated from' Vir
ginia institute, Bristol, Tenn., where she
demonstrated superior intellectual pow
ers and aptness in literary pursuits.
Mr. and Mrs. Taylor will reside in
Bristol, the former governor having re
cently sold his palatial residence in
Knoxville in order, as he expressed it,
to get back to the mountains and the
beautiful valley where he was born*
Mr. Taylor recently became president
of the Bristol Courier Publishing com
pany, and aside from his lecture tours
will take a hand in the editorial work.
HETTY GREEN HAS
New Claimant to the Title of the Rich
est Woman in the World Is Mrs.
Annie Walker of Philadelphia, Who
Has Inherited an Income of $8,000
a Day from Her Father.
Hetty Green has found a rival in the
heiress of the quinine king. Mrs. Anne
Weightman Walker, who inherited a
fortune of $60,000,000 on the death of
her father, William Weightman, which
occurred recently. Mrs. Walker is as
much a woman of business as Mrs.
Green, but she has not the same dislike
for spending money and altho she is not
extravagant, she is always comfortable.
For years Mrs. Walker has assisted
her father in his business in Philadel
phia and before he died she was made a
member of the firm. Since then she has
always gone to her office in an electric
carriage at 8 a.m. and until
she is occupied with the innumerableek5o'cloc1
matters which require the attention of
a woman of fortune. Mr. Weightman
worked as
his daughter works
artificial pompa-e
th
an
MMf fffXtOHM
Raisuli, the Moorish Bandit, Planned
tho Capture of the Two Americans to
Raise Money with Which to Buy the
Most Beautiful Girl in Morocco for
His Wife.
The true story of the capture of Per
dicaris has Qust been told, and is as
romantic as any tale of adventure. Rai
suli, the bandit, took the millionaire
prisoner so that, with the money lan
bom he might purchase a bride, the
daughter ot the shereef of Riff, in
northern Morocco. The fame of this
20-year-old beauty had spread thruout
the country and many suitors came to
her door, but they never got any far
ther, for none of them had the money
to pay the price$30,000which her
father asked for her hand.
Raisuli was a man of resources and
had his sweetheart been the daughter
of an ordinary chief he would have
raided the castle and carried her to his
mountain home. But the shereef of
Riff is more powerful in his country
than even the sultan, for he is a spirit
ual as well as temporal ruler and in
herits his power just as a king do^s,
WmMMlMMMHMlMWMWWMWWWWWWIMWWWI
I1
harh
as any oxf his clerks and
i^LL
harder,,
J[
6
for she has
draw on when a knotty point has to be
solved.
The details of the Weightman busi
ness require her to be versed on affairs
lh London, Venezuela, Paris or Persia,
and the person who looks after them
must have a vast fund of information
to draw from. But Mrs. Walker has
been carefully trained and in company
with hey father she has visited all of
the immense holdings of the estate
which lie all over the world.
She does not care for society and lives
a life of extreme simplicity. She
P&RDICARIS' CAPTOR BOUGHT A BRIDE
Mrs. Carrie Howland, a Former Ver
mont Woman, Is Assisting Her Hus
band in the Erection of the Huge
Columns in a Great New York Cathe
dral and Will Win Everlasting Fame.
A WOMAN AIDS IN CATHEDRAL MAKING
A woman is taking a prominent part
in the building of the great Episcopal
cathedral of St. John the Divine, in
New York, and her name will be immor
talized just as that of Sabina von Stem
bach, who aided her father in building
the wonderful cathedral of Strasburg, is
known to history. Mrs. Carrie A. How
land will be famous in the annals of
church-building as having assisted in
the erection of the grandest structure
of its kind in the western hemisphere,
for that is what the great New York
cathedral is planned to be.
Howland is the wife and part Mrs.
nor of the contractor for the erection of _._.... ..._
the enormous choir columns and for over an inspiring and ennobling task,
A Group of Aristocratic French Wom
en Have Organized an Exclusive
Club for Their Small Children,
Which Is Managed Exactly Like
an Organization for Fashionable
Grown Ups.
MRS. ANNIE WEIGHTMAN WALKHR.,
dresses plainly and wears little jewelry
except her plain gold wedding ring.
She finds her social pleasures in the
company of her nieoes and nephews, of
whom she is very fond, and who will
eventually share her fortune, for she is
childless widow.
Computed on a basis of 5 per cent,
Mrs. Walker has an income of $8,000 a
day, a large sum not only for one wom
an to spend, but for any one to look
after.
A SUMPTUOUS CLUB FOR PARIS BABIES
Several clubwomen, just home from a
visit in Paris, are aghast at the newest
feature in club life, an exclusive olub for
babies, which is the talk of all Paris. It
Is called the Casino des Enfants and is
situated In the fashionable Champs Ely
sees. The suggestion came from a sar
castic article in a well-known Paris news
paper, which planned such an arrange
ment for the amusement of the children,
while their mothers were at the races,
teas, receptions or clubs Instead of re
senting the idea, the mothers took it up
and the babies' club became a reality.
The club is not a creche or a day nur
sery, where the babies are taken care of
for a nominal sum, but it is a regular
club, with handsome rooms beautifully
furnished and decorated with palms -and
flowers, and the small members come
with their nurses to play in the spacious
halls. In one room is a merry-go-round
of bicycles, in another are swings, en
closed in bamboo railings, and seesaws.
Spinning tops is a favorite diversion and
the mites make wagers on which top
will spin the longest with all the non
ohalance of old clubmen.
In the main hall is a big artificial lake
filled with goldfish and the children de
light to catch them with nets on long
poles. The governess or nurse is close
at hand when the baby fisherman casts
in his net and when the fish is caught,
the governess quickly returns it to the)
lake, so that It may be caught again and
again.
There are other rooms, filled with the
There was ^nothing for Raisuli to do
if he wanted to marry the girl but find
the money, and this he did thru the
capture of the two Americans whose
friends purchased their freedom for
$50,000. It all happened iust as tho
bandit had planned, and, riding a milk
white mule with crimson tiappings, he
arrived at the castle of the shereef.
Two slaves ran by his side to enhance
his dignity as he went wooing. He did
not waste time in bargaining after the
fashion of the orientals, who do not
buy even their budes without hag
gling over the terms, but offered to pay
the required $30,000 at once of he could
receive his bride with equal prompt
ness.
With princely generosity he pur
chased an entire caravan load of em
broidered silks and furnishings and fit
ted out his castle so that it was be
yond the dreams of even an oriental
beauty accustomed to sumptuous fur
nishings, and in this beautiful cage he
has placed his bride. His bold attempt,
unequaled in romance, succeeded, and
Pericardis and his stepson, Cromwell
Varley, played no small part in the
story, for without their ransom the
belle of the Riff tribe would be still
in her father's home.
t"
a year she has been planning and study
ing her part of the work, for she is he*
husband's assistant in all stages of his
enterprise. She is a Vermont woman
and her early life was spent near the
quarries of building and monumental
stone, so that she was familiar with the
methods of handling great blocks ofl
granite from her childhood.
She is very methodical and has de
vised many new ways for lessening the
danger and strain of her work, and in,
an emergency she knows what tool and
implement to use as promptly and as ef
fectively as her husband. She is as fa
miliar with cables, ropes, pulleys, leveTa
and scaffolds as most women are with
thimbles and needles, and in her black
woolen skirt, her light shirtwaist, and
her black hat, she looks trimly work
manlike, while a parasol or umbrella on
sunny davs gives her a feminine touch.
Mrs. Howland is very proud of her
work, as she has a right to be, and she
feels that she has a dignified vocation*
for the building of a cathedral is surely
latest toys, one with dolls and dolls*
houses, a phonograph ocoupies another
comer and there are wheeled chairs in
which the babies can be drawn thru ths
club if they are "tired.
There is an initiation* fee and a mem
bership fee and the admission to the
club is guarded as carefully as in the
most exclusive organizations. The but
lers and maids wear uniforms and there is
a ohef to prepn.ro the luncheons and make
the lamonades and Ices ordered by the
children.
The tots have come to love their club
and take it as a matter of course. A
day without an hour at the club would
be a day misspent and the temporary
withdrawal of the privileges by mother or
nurse is a severe punishment.
THOUGHTFUL YOUTH.
"day, boy, this paper is a week oldH
"I know It, but you just got In and i
thought you would Ilka to get up-to,
datell'
fri
y*
*H