Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1878 — Honor Among Thieves. [ARTICLE]

Honor Among Thieves.

Beilew, in his account of the mission which he accompanied into Afghanistan, tells a most remarkable story, which may be quoted as illustrating not only the determination which the race is capable of, but of a sense of honor—such was the word the relator used; and, although it is only honor among thieves, there was mixed w T ith it a desire for the honor of the family to which the hero of the story belonged which would be creditable anywhere. The person who tells the tale was called Khan Gul, and he was one of the actors in it. The whole of his family had, at a former period, became a band of robbers, which occupation they practiced, seemingly on the sly, and their neighbors were kept in the dark about their doings. They had determined on robbing a house at some distance, and, going there during the night, they made a hole through the mud Avail. Khan Gul’s brother, like Oliver TAvist, Avas passed in, and he began to hand out whatever Avas within his reach. The people in the house chanced to waken up, upon which the brother tried to make his escape, but, while in the act of returning through the hole in the wall, those on the inside caught him by the feet. Now began a tug like the “ tug of Avar; ” fiercely they pulled to get him out of the hole, but it was useless; those within had one or two holding on to each leg, and the burglar was held as if in a vise. The fear that they would be recognized and detected became at last the dominant feeling, and, as they could not possibly pull him out, they determined on an extreme measure, and one 90 very extreme that it is hard to belieA'e it could have occurred to any others than these knife-using Afghans. The only plan left to prevent identity was to cut off the head, carrying it away, and leave the body, and the very striking part of this tale lies in the fact that it was done at the suggestion of the man himself, and, as he expressed it at the instant, so that the “ honor of the family might be preserved undefiled.” This was done. They fled Avitli the head only, leaAdng all the spoil which hud been throAvn out, and, as Khan Gul ended the story, he thanked God that the honor of his house had by these means been preserved. There is something heroic in such acts. Neither Agamemnon nor Achilles, as described by Homer, suggests a character capable of such self-devotion.— Cor. London Times.