Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 225, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1920 — Page 2

CHAPTER —ll—- — th* flri knelt and drew her purple veil about her, losing herself within a poison that was scented like cinnamon and musty wine, an aged slave arose from the bower and came before the monzoul, although the monarch probably could not see him for a cloud of lilac butterflies. The slave bore a silver jar In his hands, and over his gaunt shoulder was a square of white satin. He spread the satin upon the stones before the palanquin, and then deftly set spinning upon upraised finger the jar of dull silver. Faster it spun, until Its very stillness blent with the monotony of the drug. Levlngton knew that he should go away from the gate if he wished to keep from dreaming but he was too curious to leave. The odor from the yellow bowl touched a sheaf of memories In him and this pain was more real than the grace of the brown-limbed maid. But the silver jar stood motionless «n the poised gray Anger. The juggler •withdrew his arm, and the jar remained suspended near the monzout Silence was heavy, and the spicy perfume overspread the white man at the gate. Con tried to retain the solid world, to remember that this drug had been sold In Dory street, that it had killed his own father, and he breathed hard, with the old anger sharpened in his heart He swore to settle this matter, either privately or for his government But the moment he let go that thought he could not avoid seeing the juggler as he plucked the magic jar down to his bosom, and began to pour purple wine upon the square of satin. But the white cloth remained spotless and dry. At this conclusion, the gaunt performer dipped into the bowl and pressed the soul-dark upon his own sunken eyes.

Swtft, strong hands had found Levlngton. They came out of the world he had been unable to hold. The rudeness of the hands was satisfying to him. It aided greatly in throwing off the effects of koresh. They placed him upon his roof again and left a guard at the head of the atelm Con cursed himself for having wasted his only chance to seek a way tn liberty. He trod about the high inclosure, unmindful of the sun, picking his way mentally between doubt and evidence. It was depressing to remember that long-ago hour of his departure from the March house. He longed to find March now and talk things out with him Their best possibility was to find friends, somehow, by whatever policy. They would need to co-operate in such a plan, to play It exactly together. Chee Ming had no heart, but he possessed a brain. The monzoul himself had not a clean thread of nerve anywhere, by which he might consider an appeal. And so Levlngton sought and sought. Before noon a stranger appeared at the top of the stairway, with a curt bow and greeting for the prisoner. He was perhaps a slave, and yet a person of privilege—a wizened man with narrow shoulders, Chinese, his face a desert yellow and furrowed, gheeks like fruit that has never fallen. He was noticeably clean, his tunic giving off the faint smell of recent laundering. The veins in his old hands stood out, blue cords, as he again signified Levington’s superiority over all living men. This slow salaam was merely the Tan Knanian command to follow. A double scar was crossed upon the servant's neck suggesting the strokes of two swords on a single errand. Now the ancient Ups formed the English word: “Come.” There was nothing to lose, so Levwas willing. It might be an oppdrtunity. though he rather feared it was connected with his delinquency in the matter of race-blending. They proceeded through the inner corridors, pgst the ever-burning lamps of alabaster; but did not turn In beneath the ri tokened arch of the throne room. Instead, they went on to the end of the passage. The old Chinese paused. Through a closed door Con heard the vqjce of Andrew March. He opened the door and entered. A vlctrola stood beside a long misslon table, on which were books and a yeljow lamp. An American college pennant wnw pinned above a brown mission coUch. There were sofa pillows and a shelf of books. A kodak and a ridingcrop hung from a dagger stuck In the welt. A morris chair was set before one of the windows. March sat upon tb» arm of the chair, fingering the lace curtain. Con stood still. Near March was a young girt who seemed subtly afraid of something—of Bevington himself. She wore a silken blouse, open at the throat, and a skirt of the smartly defined mode of Americab avenues, following the Une of her slander body. Her timidity was neverbrightened with pleasure. The fare was sun-tanned, the eyes held a diamond light Here was the lovely gdMen-hmwn hair that had flown free wa the gray doak of the rider, the high In court fashion. She twAtns- at him again. was March who spoke first, and

Yellow Men Sleep

By Jeremy Lane

the young man saw-that be had tears in his eyes. His voice was unreliable just now: “I have found my little girl." Levlngton bowed, struggling with an Inner tidal wave. Andrew March seized the girl’s hands, and she turned to him frankly. He was saying: “But our little mother —Elthna —” He kissed her hair, and she placed her hand upon his arm as if to ease his pain. She was frail beside the veteran of the sands. She /did not embrace him, and March seemed not to expect any demonstration of sentiment He regained selfcontrol and faced Con with an effort to smile. “This is Con Levlngton." be said to the girt To Con: “My daughter, Helen.” Her name leaped in Cen’s heart He bowed over her hand and found himself murmuring, “Princess." In the blur of his Inward excitement her voice was like sunlight as It falls rich and mellow across an oaken staircase. He was strongly affected by It. There was ah embarrassed moment during which Con glanced out at the window at the moving branches of the white oaks. Quickly he swung back, to add: “It is a great privilege to be summoned.”

Helen said simply: “I am not sure how to speak. I never saw a white man up to this hour.” She intended this to be a compliment. for she was smiling; yet he could not forget the fact that she was the royal creature who had' glanced across the throne-room yesterday. “Why have they been so extremely careful to keep us away?” he wondered aloud. “It is Asia,” she replied and, truly, he bad forgotten that. There was no mistaking the grandchild of the aged Stephen March. She was the embodiment of all that men hold dear. Her eyes made bold to tell all that in another would have been held secret. It was the old story of Asia. Perhaps her days in this desert fastness had been a monotony of innocence, but they had not made her smile a blank. Con could not estimate anything beyond the fact that when she swayed slightly beside her father, deeply searching for the right word, her young grace was matchless. “Do not be sorrowful,” she whispered to her father. March nodded. “Yes, that is right,” and his face brightened as he regarded her.

She crossed the room, lightly, a rapid tilting gait that somehow expressed the far Eastern feminine. Yet the clean whip of the West was there also, and through her personality these qualities were a. smooth, soft madness to Levlngton. He was aware that all the journeys of his life had either ended here or Just begun. All the alluring intimations that had troubled the lad Stephen March, when he had crossed America before the days of railroads, were ensouled in Helen, the same that had drawn him against the winds of the Pacific so long ago, the kingly unrest that had led him deep into Cathay, beyond the Tartar wall, to the sands of mystery and death. Perhaps in some dim way he had foresensed this daughter of his line, with her shining fatal dominion, a princess in the Gobi. “It Is most delightful—you—coming here,” she said to Con. “I think I’ve always headed this way,” he said, because he believed It. “I cannot imagine the courage that brought you,” said the princess. “Sha Mo is very—confusing.”

“Yes, it might have been simpler if I had known.” replied Levlngton. And March was smiling broadly now. She -tad finished rearranging the tawny lilies on the table and, with a courteous Oriental movement of the arm, she indicated a deep chair for her younger guest. Levlngton went to it, turned it from the window and offered it to her. He felt nearly royal himself as she accepted. Andrew March sat in the window-seat and Levlngton contented himself with the leather sofa that had been brought In pieces, like the mission furniture, from Grand Rapids, Michigan. The college pennant was over bls head. J “I have learned,” said Helen, “that white men are really white. How?” “We are a bit tanned,” admitted her father, “but for that matter, so are you. White people usually stay under cover when the sun shines.” “That is a part of tradition I had not known,” she said. *T shall tell Chee Ming.” “Why trouble?” asked Levlngton. “He knows." “But it is not written, and all the tradition of the world Is written here, since the days of the Tower of Folly. You know that Tan Kuan Is to be the school for the perfect age. Chee Ming says tradition is the treasure of life." “Rather an Oriental statement," sugregained Con. “I could mentiondne or two things to be written into his library.” a “You are laughing at me." said

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

“I understand,” said the princess, conciliated. “I did not suppose.” her father said, “that anyone considered Chee Ming as AHously as you do." “Do I speak the English?” she asked, ignoring the words of her father. “You do,” assured Levlngton, “beautifully.” - “Counting the warriors who live beyond the walls, tn the rock caves to the south, as well as the workers In the pits eastward, and those who deliver the vines of their fruit” —Helen paused to align her English, then proceeded —“west of the city, and the warriors who dwell within the wall!-, the caste of merchants, too, and the women of the palace who belong to the monzoul, there are many, many souls in the keeping of Chee Ming.” “Including your own?” asked Levlngton. The princess felt the trouble in Con’s heart, and did not know how to reply properly, so merely nodded. “I am the only white person, at court or elsewhere. They say that once an Englishman came. I did not see him. He died before he could be married and begin his family.” Con began to realize afresh how different her training had been, to speak calmly of these matters. In America, the subject of breeding Is with propriety discussed beforehand only in regard to cattle and pups, but concerning human beings never until afterward, when too late. Levlngton said drily: “You have no difficulty with the English speech.” Helen’s Intuitions were bridging the gaps of lonely years In her life. She was catching up with the world of her fathers, and this was a breathless business before strangers. She was meeting the unknown in Levlngton. The quality of him, the way he talked and moved, were matters new and stimulating. She openly studied his face, and beneath her calm of the Orient was a warm confusion. According to her studies, they had no princes In America.

Trusting to alter the direction of their conversation, the father observed: “All these things seem to have come from the United States.” “Yes, Sir Father, the music machine only a week since. I cannot comprehend it; it may be a devil, but what of that? Chee Ming learned In San Francisco to produce sweet singing from it” Con rose to meet this occasion, approached the “.music machine,” and chose a record. He glanced back at the princess, who was awaiting with

This Seemed to Give a New Pleasure to the Process.

pure interest the result of his activity. She had quite naturally crossed her ankles as a white woman should, but her eyebrows had a deceptive upward slant —the Mongol mark that chilled 'Con unreasonably. Her hands became idle. He set the record going, and into his own emotions came the hothouse sentimentg of the big American tenor, who sang strenuously. Con was glad for this further touch of home, and Helen was pleased; yet neither was moved by the singing. They were pitched more intensely than the music. And for the girl, there was a yellow web of tradition between the Western song and herself. She found this merely a wonder-toy, part of the ■American tradition that had been brought to her. three costly trunkfuls, across two continents and the largest ocean, over deserts and mountains, deep into the wilderness of Sha Mo, She thanked Levlngton for his courtesy and her small hands came to life again as she talked to “Sir Father.” Sunshine flickered through the leaves of the white oaks at the window, trees that had been transplanted at heaven-knew-what inhuman cost eighteen years before, when she was a babe at Eithna’s breast The oaks had been imported also to sustain North American tradition. Chee Ming, as vizir to the monarch, was a man of perfection in details. In at the window bounded a tiny figure, the pale-faced monkey. Helen made soft noises with her Ups, and leaned forward. Each of the three in the room received the monkey’s quick consideration. Then he dropped down to the rug. crossed ✓soberly to Levlngton, and glanced up -at hlm for, permission, which was riven. He leapt, and Con held him on

his shoulder. This seemed to give • Dew pleasure to toe princess. “Besur has amde a friend." said ahe. “He has otherwise nothing bat enemies—and myself.” “Does he keep you from being lonely?” asked Levington. “Not at all times. But that is not his fault” Besur glanced at her and started to say something, but forgot, and turned instead to comb Con’s hair with his small nails. “You have done well to grow up in such excellent health," said Andrew March. “I could not have avoided it” Helen replied. "Besides, the sick are put to death. They encumber the state.” “No doubt," mused her father. “Have you no doctors?” asked Con. “Oh, yes! Chee Ming.” Besur hid an acorn under Levington’s collar. “This is far better than pretending to speak English with Chee Ming,” continued the princess. “He is full of hesitation and rules. I do not like to be corrected when he Is wrong. I have tried to speak English with Besur. Then there are no corrections. I have, tried it also with Prince Yekutoi, but he will hever masteb it. He prefers to practice with his arrows. He is pure Mongol.” Con remembered that this was her first social moment in white company. Her father endeavored again to change the subject “Does Chee Ming make many journeys to the United States?” She shook her bead. “He has gone but three times within my memory. Also he has gone to Egypt and Rome two times, and one time to Paris. I have the map." '

Helen arose and passed to the bookshelf. Con had never guessed that plain American garments could express such subtle intimacies of the feminine. She did not lose her shynessj although it was never a shadow upon her charm. “I have read these and these,” she announced. He understood that the books were her real treasures,*a bond with her own world, white tradition. He examined them wonderlngly. There was a marked copy, original edition, of the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus; Edgar Allan Poe complete in two worn gray volumes (and by the appearance of certain pages, Levington Judged that “The Fall of the House of Usher” had been memorised by the aid of candled fingers early in life); also two novels by Will Comfort; Chicago Dally News almanacs for three years; a fat, ragged dictionary, and a fine-print anthology of Emerson, Carlyle and Aurelius. There were no candy marks in the anthology. “In Tokyo,” she was explaining, “Chee Ming made acquaintance with the writer Mr. Comfort, and was told new books to bring me. Chee Ming says that Mr. Comfort is the Root of Islam.” “I suppose,” said Con, “you would need to have Chee Ming’s mind to know what that means.” But March only said to Levington: “Imagine if we had missed the old devil on this last trip!” “Is Chee Ming an old devil?” Both men turned to look at the princess as she uttered the question. Levington found it wonderful to be so near those eyes. He could not fathom her. Perhaps she really did not know what was meant concerning her teacher and doctor; yet the light in her eyes was almost provocative. Possibly she was laughing at them. But to March she was only his misguided child.

“That is difficult to answer —to you,” said he. “Perhaps he is not a devil in the sense of cryptic hierarchy. To do him justice, I must say that he has shown some taste in your education. He has given you the highest mode of life in his kingdom. Also he has risked a great deal in trying to Bring America to you. It was thoughtful of him to converse with you in English, so you would not lose the mother tongue. His plan to blend the races of all mankind into a perfect empire is founded upon a deep spiritual law. But he does not understand that Idea properly. He does violence to the hearts of his people. If you were a little older, you would see at once what I mean. It does not matter that Tau Kuan did not participate In the building of Babel, If that be a true story. Tau Kuan is false now, and Chee Ming’s notion of blending Is cold and outrageous. He may be chaste and obedient to his gods, is terrible. He is not human. He may not see himself as a devil, and there is none to stop 'him, but —” March paused, and Helen reflected a moment, her eyes • shadowed. She glanced at Levington, but turned away hastily, as if he would divine something too personal. She carefully replied: “When Tau Kuan had woven every human element, and has become balanced, and a perfect race of men has arisen, they will go forth to the four quarters, carrying new life and pure tradition to all the world.” “Splendid!" said Levington, “but the United States of America is doing that now, has been making a success of that idea for a hundred years, with a hundred million people.” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

Tempora Mutantur.

First century A. D.: “And now abjdeth faith, hope, charity, these three; but tiie greatest of theee is charity.* Twentieth century A. D.: “And now abideth muscle, brains, money, these three; but the greatst of these is %*

A Word for the Dogs.

Jud Tunkins says the affection of a dog' for a man Is beautiful and it’s a shame the way many a person fools the dog.

Tailored Styles Make Report

Fat.L displays disclose the fdct that fashion still regards the severely plain tailored suit with nothing less than cool tolerance, but smiles on more complicated affairs that indulge In embroideries and other embellishments. These other embellishments Include fur, stitching and Intricacies of cut. Not many buttons are used and fiat braid is absent. Its place taken by pln-tucks and rows of stitching. Taking them as a whole, the new fall suits are tasteful and continue to be sensible as well as charming. Their coats are finger-tip length—with very few exceptions, their collars high and cozy, their lines easy. Rivals of suits, the one-piece dresses, are among those present in all the fall displays. Speaking generally again these are built on very simple lines and embroidery is their favorite

“In Silk Attire My Lady Goes”

FORTUNE and Fashion we know are fickle, but they are too wise to turn tiie cold shoulder on a very good thing, and so those new weaves In silk and fiber silk that made their first success In sports apparel have departed from the main traveled road in several directions. They are counted upon for handsome afternoon dresses, for formal suits and especially for new evening' gowns and coats. Their high luster and their suppleness, together with tiie great variety of weaves and beautiful colorings, make them unusually effective in evening dress. Two new creations as pictured abovasbow their adaptability to formal dress. A handsome afternoon gown at the left shows a crossbar pattern In two colors made by a plain and crepe weave, in a one-piece garment with a wide, crushed girdle of plain baronet satin. The design is dlsHnctiy new with a drop skirt of the same material as the overdress and a panel « plain satin. tike the girdle, set in at each side. It opens at tits left side where a double row

decoration. The waist lino varies to them from normal to very long—a cause for rejoicing on the part of plump women, and sashes of ribbon and silk gain prominence with these quiet backgrounds. One outstanding feature of the styles appears in the prominence of brown and other shades that hold their own with navy blue. Both a one-piece frock apd a fall suit shown to the picture, begin the story of street clothes for the coming season In a straightforward and authentic fashion. They are reassuring, since they are conservative, presenting no Innovations that women will not approve at first sight. That is we do not have to be educated up—or down —to any extremes In length or width of skirts or to eccentric designing in coats.

of small satin-covered buttons do thelt make-believe part while the real work is done by snap fasteners. The opening discloses a narrow panel of plain satin and edges are piped with-satin. Tbe long, straight sleeves have deep cuffs that flare a little and a single row of buttons proclaims this novelty. The crossbar pattern is less pronounced In the frock itself than in the photograph, the colors Illusive and beautiful, making a changeable effect In the A brocaded and crossbar pattern, in lighter colors (American' beauty and natier blue in this particular coat) is employed in tiie handsome evening coat at the right of the picture. The big collar and side panels are of plain blue satin, and the same color appears in the lining. Evening coats furnish a promising field for these colorful and lustrous silk weaves and it bar only begun to be exploited. ri' M