Decatur Daily Democrat, Volume 28, Number 142, Decatur, Adams County, 16 June 1930 — Page 3

ON STRIKE - ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE

Furthermore. tiowadji," ventured Najib, who had not spoken for fully half an hour, but had been poring over | a sheaf of ship- I items scribbled in Arabic, I tthermore. I am yearnful to ' W ho was the unhappy peri « h e wicked general threatened of a perhaps, it was that poor ' rai himself who was bethreat--1 by his padishah or by the—" •What on earth are you babbling u t Najib?" absent-mindedly L Logan Kirby, as he looked from a month-old New York per which had arrived by mulet that day and which the exbated American had been read- > with pathetic interest SO W, roused from his perusal by Jib's query, Logan f»w that the le Syrian had ceq ,ed wrestling th the shipment '.tms and was ■ring over his <y iployer's shoulhis beady -s fixed in keen r’ioslty on the printed page. ■I cnseeched you to tell me, i wadji." Najib, "who has t n threatening that poor genj Or, perchancely. who has en made to cower himself underHD ut that tierce general's reateninga See, it is there, wadjL” following the guidance of Najib's lbby, unwashed finger. Kirby the indicated headline: GKSUIAI. SrlllKß THRUTKNIH “Oh!” he answered, choking ch a grin. "I see. There isn't y general.' Najib. And he isn't reatened. It means—" Kirby's attempt at self-control nt to pieces. He guffawed jib eyed him sourly; then said icy reproof: •It is known to all. howadjl. that ill ben-Hassan, the sheikh, was le wisest of men And did not di-ben-Hassan make known, in s book, that Laughter is for omen and tor hyenas'? Furtherore—"

sorry 1 laughed nt >ou. returned Kilby. with due an idea, from the headline, see, 1 have read the story that under it. It's like this We II a gang of men aren’t satisfied the pay or the hours they are They asked for mure or for shorter hours; or for stop working They won t go to their jobs till they get the Huh and the hours they want, is known as 'going on strike.’ a number of concerns a:e Mivolved in it. it’s called a general This paper says a genstrike is threatened That ” ■ "1 appcrceive It, howadji!" ex■laimed Najib. "I am onward to ft, ■iri- I might have known the page cannot tie. Hut oh. heart berends itself when 1 of the sad fate of those poor who do the stroking! Os an ■ssundly. Allah hath deprived ■hem of wisdom!'* ■ "Not necessarily." argued Kirby, ■tendering at his henchman's out■ur: t of sympathy for union labor■rs so many thousand miles away. ■They may win. you know; or at ■east get a compromise. And ■heir unions will support them ■vhile they are cut of work. Os ■otirs'i they may lose And ■hen—" * ! I "But when they make refusal to Bo their work" urged Najib, "will ■tot the soldiers of the pasha cut ■hem to ribbons with the kourbash ■nd drive them back to their toil?” ■ “Hold on!" exhorted Kirby: ■ibeit despairing of opening the Blind of a man whose forebears ■or thousands of years had lived n a land where the corvee—forced abor—was a hallowed institution Ind where the money of employsrs could always enlist the aid of government soldiery to keep the fellaheen at their tasks. "Hold >n! That sort of thing Is dead tnd done with. Even In the East Chinese Gordon ttamped out the ast of it. in Egypt, years ago If i man doesn't want to work, he an’t be forced to. All his boss »n do Is to fire him and try to Ft some one tn his place. When B whole factory of men strike — especially if there are any big ontract orders to fill in a rush — the employers sometimes find it cheap, r to give them what they *"'nt than to call In untrained rtrlk»b> eake"S On the other hand, nmetlmes, the bets can bring the h 1 to terms. It all depends.’’ Seldom was Ki by so success'll in making Na.ib follow so long *>n oration. Ard he was pleased v th his own new-found powers of ' plaining Occidental customs t 1 ''r ental mind. Now began Kirby knew th< t«ngied Syrian character and it." Myriad queer slants, as well as it can be given to a white man to know It. Kirby's father had been • missionary, at Nablous. He him•clf had been born there, and had "Pent his boyhood at the mission. Tnat was why—after he had completed his engineering course at Columbia's school of mines and had served an 1 apprenticeship in Colorado anud Arizona —the Cabell Smelting Company of New York had sent him out to the land of Moab, as manager of its new-ac-quired little antimony mine. Tt >e mine—a mere prospect shaft •~wa» worked by about thirty fellaheen—native laborers— supervised by a native guard of twelve Turkish soldiers. • Small as was the P'ant, it was a rich property and it was piling up dividends for the Cabella Antlmorv i n the East, is used in a score -ays—from •wployinent in ... form «f kohl. >

for the darkening of women's eyes ‘ ? ehe >”"'a| by-products, alrariea m “ nU by Byrian ay',,hew^i‘ r . by * P * r, " nal as ■ ,u P" rin ' t '»'h'i.t of the mine, was this squat little Syrian, Najib, who had once spent two blissfully useless years with an All Nations Show, at Coney UUnd. and who there had picked up a language which he proudly believed to be English; and which lie spoke exclusively when talking with the manager Kirby'* new knowledge of the East hud enabled the mine to escape ruin a score of tmies where a managar less conversant with Oriental ways must have blundered into some fatal error in the handling cd his men o- in dealing with the local authorities. Remember, please, that in the East it is the seemingly Insignificant things which bring disaster to the feringhee. or foreigner For example, many an American or European has -.net unavenged death tiecause he did not realize that he was heaping vile affront upon his bedouin host by eating with his left hand. Many a foreign manager of labor has lost instant and complete control over his fellaheen by deigning to wash his own shirt in the nearby river or for brushing the dirt from his own clothes. Thereby he has proved himself a laborer. Instead of a master of men Yes. Kirby had been tnvalu dde to his employers bv virtue of i,i« inborn knowledge of Syria l ways Yet. now he was not enough of an Oriental to understand why his lecture on the strike system should thrill his listener He did not pause to realize that the idea of strikes was one which carries a true appeal to the Eastern imagination. It has all the elements of revenge, of ceerefnn. of trapping, of wily give-and-take and of simple and logical gambling uncertainty: whl h characterize ttie most popular of the Arabian .Nights yarns and which have made those tales remain as Syrian classics for more than ten centuries "It is of an assuredly a pleasing and noble plan." applauded Nnjib when Kirbv finished the divers ramifications of his discourse "If the stroking ones may not be lawfully attackled by the pashalik troops, indeed must the general—" Presently, in his absorption In his work, the American forgot the whole incident It was the beginning of a rush period at the mine —the busiest month In its history was lust setting ill. The Alexan-drotta-ltonnd shipment of the morrow was but the first of twelve big shipments scheduled for the next twenty-nine days

The restoration of peace and the shutting out of several Central European rivals had thrown an unprecedented sheaf of rush orders on the Cabell mire. It was a big chance ns Kirhv had explained at some length to Najib, during the pest few weeks. At his behest, the little superintendent had used every known I method to get extra work and extra speed out of the fellaheen: and. bv judlci >us baksheesh had even impressed to the toil several members of the '-aughty. Turkish guard and certain folk from the nearest hill village. As a result, the first shipment was ready tor the muleteers to carry coastwaid a full week ahead 1 of schedule time. The work was progressing finely 1 Kirby thrilled at the thought. And • he was just a little ashamed of his recent impatience at Najib, when he remembered how the superin--1 tendent was pushing the relays of consignments along After all. he mused. It was no reflection on Najibs intelligence that the poor little chip could not grasp the whole involved Occidental strike system in one hasty lecture: and that his simple mind clung to the delusion that there was some fierce general involved In it. But. soon after dusk, Kirby had reason to know that his words had not all fallen on barren soil At close of the working day. Najib , had brought the manager the I usual diurnal repor t from the i mine Now, after supper. Kirby. I glancing over the report again. ! found a gap or two In the details I This was no novelty, the Syrian mind not lending itself readily to the compilation of terse yet com nlete reports. And occasionally Kirbv was obliged to summon his henchman to correct or amend the Hjiv’q tally shfift. Wherefore, the list In his hand, the American strolled down from his own knoll-top tent toward ' Najib's quarters. As Najib was uperintendent. and thus techniallv an official, Kirby could make uch domiciliary visits without <>ss of prestige. Just outside the radius of t < fellaheen's firelight, Kirby paused For he heard Najib's shrill voice uplifted In speech. And amused> he halted and prepared to turn back. He had no wish to break in X a harangue, so interesting™ the speaker seemed to find thl ‘"Najib's voice was pitched far above the tones of normal Eastern conversation— louder and more excited even than that of a professional story-teller. Yet at a stray word of Najibs. Kirby checked involuntarl y o K wn y retreat; and paused again to « i honk There stood *vajio. m look back, rncic a r « rr i e - the center of the firellt circle. r d % a X h taring "is/ark-fuc.d and unwas orating In pure Arabic -or

DECATUR DAILY DEMOCRAT MONDAY, JUNE 16, 1930.

v ~ C?’ | f rA- AAr' '* VT-l. .XU) But the aspect of Kirby’s distorted face shocked the Syrian into a grunt of terror.

lather. In the colloquial vernacular which Is as close to pure Arabic as one can expect to hear, except an one the remoter Bedouins Thus it is!" he was declaiming "Even as I have sought to show you. oh. addle-witted offspring of mangy camels and one-eyed mules! In that far country, when men are dissatisfied with their wage, they take counsel together and they say, one unto the other: Lo. we shall labor no more unless our hire be greater and our toll hours less!' Then go they to their sheikh or whomever he be who hath hired them, and they say to him; 'Oh, favored of Allah, behold we must have such and such wage and such and such hours of labor!" Then doth their sheikh cast ashes up his beard and rend his garments. For doth he not know bls fate is upon him and that hl. breath is in his nor' Is? Yet w’ill they not listen to prayers, but at once they maM trike'. "Then doth their sheikh betake himself to the t'.cdia with his grievance: beseeching the pasha, with many rich gifts, that he will throw those strike-making !aboreis Into prison and scourge their kinsmen with the kourbash. But the pasha makest answer, with tears: 'Lo. 1 am helpless! What saith the law? It saith that a man may strike at will: and that his employer must pay what Is demanded!' " And Kirby waited to hear no more With a groan of disgust at the orator's imbecility, he went back, up the hill, to his own tent stretching himself out lazily In his long chair. Kirby exhumed from a shirt pocket his disrepu table brier pipe, and filled and lighted it. The big white Syrian stars glinted down on him from a black velvet sky. Along the nearer peaks and hollows of the Moab Mountains, the knots of prowling jackals kept up a running chorus of yapping—a discordant chant punctuated now and then by the far-away howl of a hunting wolf: or, by the choking "laugh" of a hyena in the valley below, who thus gave forth the news of some especially delicious bit of carrion discovered among the rocks. And Kirby was reminded of Najib's quoted dictum that "laughter is for women and tor hyenas” The Syrian had been his comrade in many a vicissitude. And he knew that Najib's fondness for him was as sincere as can be that of any Oriental for a foreigner, an affection based not wholly on self-interest Kirby enjoyed his evening powwows with the superintendent beside the campfire; and the little man’s amazing faculty for mangling the English tongue He rather missed Najib's presence tonight. But he was not to miss it for long. Just as he was about to knock out his pipe and go to bed, the native came pattering up the slope on excitedly rapid feet; and squatted as usual on the ground beside the American's lounging chair. In Najib's mannei there was a scarce-repressed jubilant thrill. His beady eyes shone wildly. ••Well?” queried Kirby In no especial excitement. "I've been here all evening, while you’ve stayed below there, trying to Increase those fellaheens’ stock of ignorance. What's the idea?" “Oh. I prythee you. do not let my awayness beget your goat, howadji!" pleaded Najib, ever sensitive to any hint of reproof from his master. "I am the bearer of grand tidings. If I had not of been where I have been this evening—and doing what I have done there would not be any tidings H "Go ahead." adjured Kirby.

humoring the wistful eagerness of the man. "'What’s the news you have for me?" To speak with a briefness, howadji," he proclaimed grandiloquently. “We have all stroked ourselfs!"' "For the love of Heaven" exclaimed Kirby in sudden loss of patience. "What are you driving at? What do you mean about "stroking yourselves’? Say It in Arabic. Then perhaps I can find what you mean." "It is not to be said in the Arabic, howadji,” returned Najib, wincing at this slur on his English. "For there Is not such a thing In the Arbaic ca to make strike. We make strike. This I say It we ‘stroke ourselvea' If it Is the wrong way for saying it—" "Strike?" repeated Kirby, perplexed. "What do you mean? Are you still thinking about what I told you today" If you are going—" "I have bethought of It, howadji. ever since," was the reply "And it Is because of my much- bethoughtlng tha, I found my splenderous plan. That is my tidings. I bethought It all out with tremense clearness and wiseness. Then I told those other-j. down yonder. At first they were of a stupidity. But at last I made them understand. And they rejoiced of it. So It is all settled most sweetly. You may not fear that they will not stand by It. As soon as that was made sure I came to you to tell—" “Najib!" groaned Kirby, his bead whirl. "Will you stop chewing hunks of indigestible language, nd tell me what you are Jabberng about? What was it you "bought over? And what is 'all settles ? Wha’ wi..—” “The strike, of an assuredly." explained Najib, as >f in pity of his chief’s denseness. "Tonight we make strike. All of us. That is one tiding. And you. top. make strike with us. That is the other tiding. Tomorrow we all sleep late. No work is to be made. And so it shall be on each dear and nice and happy day. until Cabell Effendi —he his sons an hundred and his wives true! —shall pay us the money we ask and make short our hours of toil. " hen—“ Kirby sought to speak. But his breath was gone. He only gobbled. Taking the wordless sound for a token of high approval, Najib hastened on. more glibly, with his program. “On the tomorrow's morning, howadji,” he said, "we enseech that you will write a sorrowsome letter to Cabell Effendi, in the Broad Street of New York; and say to him that all of us have made strike and that we shall work no more until we have from his hands a writing that our payment shall be two mejidle for every mejldle we have been capturing from his company. Also and likewise that we shall work but half time And that you howadji, are to receive even as we: save only that your wage is to be enswoflen to three Mmes over than what It is now. Furthermore, howadji. tell him. I prythee you. that we —” A veritable yell from Kirby broke in on the smug instructions. The American had recovered enough of his breath to expend a lungful of it in one profane bellow. In a flash he visualized the whole scene at the fellaheens' quarters— Najib's crazy explanation of the strike system and of the supposed Immunity f-om punishment that would follow sabotage and other violence; the fellaheens' duller brains gradually seizing on the idea until It had become as much a part of their muc laglnous mentality as the Koran itself; and Najib's friendly desire that Kirby might share in the golden benefits of the new sebem-.

Najib smiled up at him as might a dog that had Just performed some pretty new trick, or a child who has brought to its father a gift But the aspect of Kirby’s distorted face there In the dying firelight shocked the Syrian into a grunt of terror Scrambling to his feet, he sputtered quaverlngly “Tame yourself, howadji. I enseech you! Why are you not rejolceful? Will it not mean much money for you: and—" “Listen to me!” ordered Kirby, fighting hard for self-control and forcing himself to speak with unnatural slowness. "You've done more damage than If you had dynamited tho whole mine and then turned a river Into the shaft. This kind of news spreads. In a week there won't be a worker east of the Jordan who won't be a strike fan And these people here will work the dea a step farther. I know them They’ll decide that if one strike Is good, two strikes are better And they will strike every week — loafing between times." This prospect brought a grin of pure bliss to Najib's swarthy face. He looked in new admiration upon his far-sighted chief Then, taking new hold on his self-control. Kirby began again to talk As if addressing a defective child, which, as a matter of fact, he was doing, he expounded the hideous situation. He explained the disloyalty to the Cabells of such a move as Najib had planned He point'd out the pride he and Najib had aken in tho new business they had secured from the home office; and the fact that this new business had brought an Increase of pay to them both as well as to the fellaheen. He showed how great a triumph for the mine was this vast increase of business: and the stark necessity of impressing the new customs by the promptitude and uniform excellence of all shipments. He pointed out the utter collapse to this and to all the rest of the mine’s connections which a strike would entail. Najib listened to this with Interest, but with no great conviction. Even Kirby’s declaration that the ridiculous strike would be a failure, and that the government would assuredly punish any damage to the Cabell property, did not serve to impress him. Najib was a Syrian. An Idea, once firmrooted In his mind, was ioath to let itself be torn thence by mere words. Kirby waxed desperate. "You have wrecked this whole thing!” he stormed- “You got an idiotically wrong slant on wiiat I told you tybout strikes today: and you have ruined us all. Even if you should go down there to the quarters this minute and tell the men that you were mistaken and that the strike is off—you know they wouldn't believe you And you know they would go straight ahead with the thing That's's the Oriental of It. They'd refuse to go on working And ottr shipments wouldn't be delivered None of the ore for the ..ext ship ments would be n.!ned. 'T.e mer would Just hang about, peacefully waiting for the double pay and the half time that you've promised them." "But soon Cabell Effendi will reply to your letter." went on Najib. “And then the double paying—” "To my letter!” mocked the raging Kirby. Then be paused, a sudden Inspiration smiting him "Najib,” he continued after a minute of concentrated thought, "you have sense enough to know one thing: You have sent» “nough to know you people can't get that extra pay till I write to Mr Cabell and demand it for you There's not another one of you who can

write English. There's no one here but yourself who can speak or understand It cr make shift to spell out a few English words In print And Mr. Cabell doesn t know a word of Arabic—let alone the Arabic script. And your own two years at Coney Island must have shown you that no New Yorkers would know how to read an Arabic letter to him. Now. I swear to you. by every Christian and Moslem oath, that I shan't write such a letter! So how are you going to get word to him that you people are on strike and that you won't do another lick of work till you get double pay and half time? How are you going to do that?” Najib's solid face went blank Here at last was an argument 'hat struck home He had known Kirby for years, long enough to know that the American was most emphatically a man of his word If Kirby swore he would not act as the men’s intermediary with the company, then decisively Kirhv would keep his oath. And Najib realized the futility of getting anv one else to write such a letter In any language which the Cabell Smelting Company’s home office would decipher He peered up at Kirby with disconsolate astonishment Quick to take advantage of the change the manager hurried on: "Now. the men are on strike. That s understood. Well, what are you and they going to do about it? When the draft for the monthly pay roll comes to the bank, at Jerusalem, as usual. I shall refuse to Indorse it. I give you my oath on that, too lam not going to distribute the company’s cash among a bunch of strikers. Without my signature, the bank won't cash the draft. You know that. Well, how are you going to live, all of you. on nothing a month? When the present stock of provisions gives out I’m not going to order them renewed Ard the provision people in Jerusalem won t honor any one’s order for them but mine. This Is the only con ern In Syria today that pays within forty per cent of the wage- you chaps are getting. With no pay and no food you’re due to find your strike rather costly. For when the mine shuts down I'm going back to America. Then'll be nothing to keep me here. I'll be ruined in any case. You people will find yourself without money or provisions. And If you go elsewhere for wo r k It will be at pay that is only a little more than half what you are getting now Your lookout isn't cheery, my striking friend!" He made as though to go into his tent. After a brief pause of horror, Najib pattered hurriedly and beseechingly in his wake. "Howadji!" pleaded the Syrian shakily. "Howad;!! You would not, In the untamefulness of your nad. desertion us like that? Not •nt. anyhow? No me who have loved you as Daoud th" Emir loved Jonathan of old! You would not orsook me, to starve myself! Me! Ohe!” "Shut up that ungodly racket!” mappad Kirby, ei terlng Ills tent and lighting his lamp as the first piercing notes of the traditional mourner ehant exploded through the unhappy Najib's wide-flung jaws. "But. howadji!" pleaded Najib "Taman!" growled Kirby, summarily speaking the age-hallowed Arabic word to" the ending of all Interviews. "But 1 shall be beruinated. howadji!" tearfully insisted Najib Covertly the American watched his henchman while pretending to make ready for bed. If he had fully and permanently scared Najib Into a conviction that the strike would spell ruin fur the F; 'lan himself, then the little man's brain

■ might pouibly be Jarred Into one ’of its rare intervals of uncanny craftiness: and Najib might hit upon Rome way of persuading the fellaheen that the s'rike was off This wua Kirby's sole hope And he knew it. Unhaa the fellaheen could be mo convinced it meant the strike would continue until it should break the mine aa well as the mine's manager Kirby knew of no way to peixuadv the men. The same argument# which had crushed Najib would mean nothing to them Ail their brains could master at one time, without the aid of .Home upruu li.«j shock was that henceforth they were to get double pay and hn’f labor A culm futaLhm of hopelessness, bred p? i haps of ins long residence in the homeland of <atuiism. began to creep over Kirby In one hour his gold n ambiticns for the mine and for himself had been smaahed At best he saw no hope of getting the obsessed mine crew to work soon enough to save his present contracts He would be lucky If on non-receipt of th ir demanded increase. they nid not follow Najib’s muddled preachments to the point of salic t age The more he thought of H, the less possible dal !♦ seem to Kirby that Najib could undo the damage he had so blithely done O <!• ring the blubbering little fellow out of the tent and refusing to speak or listen further Kirby went to bed Oddly enough, he slept Only once In the night was he roused Perhaps two hours Im fo' e dawn he started up at sound of a humble scratching at the p n dooi flap of his tent. On the rh e hold cowered Najib "Furthermrre. ».c wadjL" came the Syrian’s woe-begone voice through the gloom, “could 1 burrow me a book I* I shall use it with much carefulm as?” Too drowsy to heed the absurdity of such a plea at such an hour. Kirby grumbled a surly assent, and dozed again aa he heard Najib I rumbling, in the dark, among the shelves of the packing-box bookcase in a far co.-’ er of :he tent Here were stored marly a hundred old volumes w Th had once been a part of the missionary library belonging to Kirby’s father at Nahlous Kirby awoke at grayest daylight Through force of habit he wcke at this hour; In .-| It* of the work less day which he knew confronted him It was his custom to get up and take his bath In the rain cistern at this time, and to finish dressing just as the nvn piled out for the mo ning’s work. Vet now the first sounds that smote his cars as he opened his eyes were the rhythmic creak of the mine windlass and the equally rhythmic, if l< :-s tnnefn.. chant of the men who wore working it “AH-rh sa-edd! — N* -bl sn-eed» Ohe’ Sa-»ed’ Pa-rod! Sa-eed!” In the distance . away h<» heard the ploddh hoofs of a string of pack n.i b s From th“ direction of the mine came the hoodlum racket which betokens, in Syria, th* efforts of a number of honest laborers to pc form their dai’y tasks in an efficient and ord*rlv way

Kirbv. In slerp amaze, looked at hie watch in .he dim dawn lialit. He saw it was still a full halt hour before the men were due to begin work And by the sound” ’be Judged that the day's labor was evidently well under way Yes. and today there was to have been no work done! Kirby jumped out of bod nnl strode dazedly to his tent door At the mine below him his fellaheen were as busy as so many dirtv and iraudv bees Even the lordiv lazy Turkish sol Iters were lending a hand nt windlass and crane Over the nick of the pass lending toward Jerusalem, the last animal of a mule train was vanishing Najjb. who had as usual OS' orted the departing shi’ nv'nt o“ ore to the i opening In the pass, was trotting back toward camp. At sight of Kirby In the tent door the lltt e superintendert . veered from his ectirse toward the mine and increased hl. pace to a i run as he bore down upon the | American. Najib's swart face was I aglow. But his eyes were those 'of a man who has neglected to sleep Ills check” still bore flecks of the dust he had '.brown on his head when Kirbv had explained the wreck of ills scheme and of his future. There, in nil likelihood, the dust smears would remain un- ’ til the next rain should wash them ! off. But. beyond these tokens of recent mental strife. Najib's visage shone like a full moon that Is i streaked bv dun dust clouds "Furthermore. howadjl!" he hail’d his chief as soon as h» was within earshot "the shlnm nt for Alexandretta Is on its wavwn’d — ■ ver than an hour earlier than it was d m to b stn-t itself And those poor hell selected fellaheen ore befalling themselfs rr’-and Have I done wel'. oh howidjl?" ■‘Najlbl” stammered Kilby atlll dazed "And here Is that most sweet ' book of great worthiness and wit. which I borrowed me of you In th” night, howad 1." pursued Nailb. taking from the oiled folds of his alileh a large old volume. liound In stout leather, nftei the manner 1 of religious or scientific bonks of n half-century ago On the b’own ba<l< a scratched gold lettering proclaimed the gruesome title: 'Martyrs of Ancient aqd Modern Error " Well did Kirby knew the tome. Hundreds of times, as a child, had he sat on the stone floor of his tathe-'- cell-Hke mission study at I Nabious, and had pored In shud-

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| dering fascination over its highly colored illustration*. The book wu 9 a compilation—chiefly It the form I of multk'hrome pictures with ac- | companying o f lext of a jj the grisly suenc-s of martyrdom which the publishers had been able to scrape together from surh < lassies aw "Fox’s Book of Martyrs 1 * and the like. Twice thia past vear he had surprised Najib scanning the gruesome pages in frank delight I t»etook the book to thrfr campfire, howadjl. and I smote upon my breast and I bewept me and I walled aloud and I would rmt make comfort Til) at last they all awoken and they came out of their huts and they reviled me for disturbing them as they slept themselfs so happily, Th< n I spake much to them And all the time I teared with my eves and moaned alondly.*' “But.*' put in Kirby, *| d •> I what this ’* “In a presently you «!l. | howadjl Yesterday I beg , ur goat Today 1 shall mike to frisk with peacefulness of l< rL I Those fellaheen annot read i h»«y ! are not of an education as I ii. ' And they know my wlsm- n reading For over than at’ 11. n times | have told Un m And they I clave picturej also they b< I ka. lust as men of an educatiot '>*- Here the printed word knee -ng full It could not be printed if It W’-ro not Allah's own truth ell, th*se folk believe a pictur* t be In a book So I showed m pictures And I read th- w which was beneath the plrtureSL They heard me read And ’hey saw the pictures with their wn i eyesight So what could th*\ io but believe ’ And they did Behold howadjl!" Opening the volume with re. spectful care. Najib thumbed ’he yellowing pages. Pregenth he paused at a picture which represented in glaring detail a stricken hat th fV Id strewn with dead and d' ing Orientals of vivid co’tumeu In the middle distanr* a regiment ' of pr’soners was being sfr*iigh’er«*d In singularly bloodthirsty fashion. The caption abov* the rut rend: ‘Destruction of Sennacherib's Assyrian Hosts, bv the People of Israel " “While yet they gazed joying'y on this noble picture,” remarked Najib ‘I read to them the words of the law about it I read aloudly, thus* This shall be the was of t punishing all folk who rn»ke ’ha tri’ <• hrrmfter this date.’ Then." cor tinued Najib I showed to them another pretty and ap'cntld picture S -e "Martyrdom of J-‘!m ' :p*rs HU Wife and Their Nine Children " ‘"And.” proclaimed Najib ‘of this sweet purlrait I read thus the law: ‘So shall the wifes and offsprungs of all strike-makers be put to death: and those wicked strikemakers themselfs along with th«-m.* By the time I had shown th< rn six or fifteen of such picturess and read them the law for each of them, those miserable fellaheen and guards were bew< eying theniselfs ha d- r and louder and sadder than 1 had seemed to Why. howadjl. It was with a dUfi<'ultness tha- I k< p’ them from running away an*! «nhtding themselfs in the mountains lest the soldiers of the pasha com* unon them at once and punish them for trying to make strike? But 1 said I would Intercede with you to make you merciful of heart toward them, to spare them and not to tell the law what they had so sinsnm*ly planned *o do. I sal 1 I would do this for mine own sake as w< II as for theirs, and that 1 know I could wake you to pity But I said It would perchancely soften your heart toward th m. if all should work hard°r to atone themselfs for the sin thev ha<’. beplotted Wherefore. howadjl they would consent to sleep no more; but they rr»n henccforthly and nt once to the min* They have been onto the job ever since Ard. howadjl. they are jobbing harder than ever I . have seen men hetoh themselfs. Am I forgiven, howadjl?” he fin* lsh*d timidly "Forgiven!” yelled Kirbv. when he could speak. "Why. you eternal little liar, you're a genius! My hat Is off to you! This ought to h* worth a fift\-mejldie bonus. And "Instead of the hnntis. howadjl," ventured Najib seared at his own Audacity, yet seeking to take full advantage of this moment of expanslveness, "could I have this pleasing book as n baksheesh gift?" "Tak* It!" vouchsaf'd Kirby. 'The th*ng gives mo bad dreams. Take It!” "May the hourls mr’ e soft vouf h*d in the Paradise f >f the Prophet!" jabbered Najib, in a frenzv of gratitude, as Le hugged the treasured gift to his breast. "And and howadfi there be more pictures I did not show. They w ill he of a nice convenience. If ever again It be needlome to make a now law for mine.” “But—” “Oh. happy and pretty decent hour!" chortled the little man. petting his beloved volume as if It were r loved child and executing a shuffling and Improvised step, dance of unalloyed rapture ""This book has boon donatlonod to me because I was brave enough to request for It while yet vour heart was warm at me. howadjl. It Is even as your sainted ferh.ghee proverb says: ‘Never put off til! tomorrow the—the -man who may be done, today!’” I © AfcClure WeuMpaper feyndteaf*.