Miami Record-Herald. (Miami, Okla.), Vol. 18, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, March 18, 1910 Page: 3 of 8
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A
Bot a Telegraph Instrument 'Over Vhlch He Sometimes Presided to
Clicking
SYNOPSIS
Frederick Hardy a fashionable Boston
society man lost his wealth was jilted
by a Kiri pnd sent by a friend to take
charae of an American Trading Company
store in Russia On Ids Journey through
Japan he inet Stapleton Nevilip sup-
posedly ai Englishman They agreed to
ro toRetlu r to Russia Becuuse of sus-
picious circumstances they aero several
times molested by the Japan 'so Hardy
was arrested nml found upon his person
were papers showing maps of Jap forts
Hardy was proven guiltless On a train
he met Aisome fijmo daughter of a Jap
merehant In Neville’s shoes Jap found
? futures of forts proving him to he n
tussian spy Hardy departed for Rus-
sia on a steamer which was wrecked
shortly afterward He was rescued hy a
Russian steamer On reaching Vladi-
vostok he was well treated He started
for Siberia meeting Princess Romanovna
on the train Hardy boarded a vessel for
Amur Hardy showed the princess Ills
expertness as a rifle shot The steamer
was stranded The princess and her
maid were attacked by Chinese Hardy
saved their lives The prinross thanked
Hardy for his heroism Manchurians
fired upon the craft Hardy slew their
chief Burning arrows were hurled upon
the Pushkin’s decks An attempt was
made to board the vessel The attacking
Chinese were repulsed Romanoff sneered
Rt Hardy’s solicitude for the princess
Btanka a messenger sent for help was
nailed to a cross on the shore To put an
end to the awful torture Hardy himself
put Stnnka out of his misery taking his
own life In his hands Forest fires men-
aced the vessel Hardy volunteered to
go for help Refused permission ho
Jumped overboard nnd started to swim
udth the princess' distress message Ro-
manoff was angry at Iiardy for his bravo
efforts to rescue the princess He wooed
her in his own savago wav He said
Hardy had made love openlv to a Jap-
anese girl Help came and the princess
Was rescued
CHAPTER XXI
Knight-Errant
Hardy's journey down the swift
vague mysterious river that night
was an experience never to be for-
gotten Often as he clung to his little
raft his knees would scrape on the
soft sand and just as frequently he
would swing off Into deep water and
hang suspended above depths where
he might easily drown should he
take a cramp or lose his nerve Sev-
eral times he grounded on sand-bankq
and was obliged to drag off his wooden
buoy a matter of no little difficulty
as it was partly- water-logged and
very heavy Once he drifted close to
shore and found himself in a counter
current that actually was taking him
back toward the Pushkin and it was
only by swimming at right angles to
this and giving his raft frequent vig-
orous pushes that he managed at last
to get out into the downward sweep
of the stream
Four hours after leaving the boat
he was on the military road that
stretched dimly gray between the
stolid silent black of the Siberian
- forests and the star-sprinkled whis-
pering black of the river
He reached the military station — a
rambling building of square hewn
logs flanked by several small struc-
tures — about ten o'clock and break-
ing his bottle gave his dispatch to a
' White-haired and corpulent soldier
with a very red face whose frayed
and faded uniform proved him a petty
officer of some sort This man glanced
through the paper with" wandering
eyes then read it aloua to nonde
script group of old women two or
three soldiers and a farmer or two
who soon collected about him Then
he dashed into the house and set a
telegraph instrument over which ho
sometimes presided to clicking
Hardy chilled to the marrow now
that he had ceased walking and run-
ning and wearied to the point of col-
lapse sank on a rustic bench believ-
ing himself forgotten In the excite-
ment evidently occasioned by his
news In this he soon found himself
mistaken however for n toothless
old crone with a kindly face and a
red handkerchief tied over her head
came up to him and taking him by
the arm inquired:
"Zakouska?”
He swallowed three glasses of vod-
ka and ravenously devoured several
caviar sandwiches after which he
was supplied with warm dry clothing
and tucked away in bed
When he awoke it was mid-afternoon
and the old commandant had
delved into a Russian-French diction-
ary sufficiently to dig out the words
which he pronounced many times
with a smiling face: ‘‘Sauves mon-
sieur tons sauves!” thereby affording
the American the greatest joy and
relief nnd establishing his own reputa-
tion at the station as a wonderful
scholar
Hardy remained at the station one
week at the end of which time he
lesumed his journey to Stryetensk
on horseback escorted by a half dozen
Cossacks bound for Irkutsk on some
military mission or other
He learned very soon after his ar-
rival at Stryetensk that the relief
party had put in an appearance a
short time after his start down the
river on his perilous trip and that
the princess had been rescued this
time entirely without his aid
CHAPTER XXII
Hardy Receives Two Letters
The store at Stryetensk was a low
rambling building constructed in the
iihape of a capital B without the mid-
dle bar A high board fence connect-
ing the extremities of the two wings
inclosed one side of a square yard
which contained outbuildings and
sheds for horses a droshky or two
and several of the long bout-shaped
telegas that do duty in that country
as drays In the outhouse moreover
was kept a supply of plows and other
agricutural implements while the
Btore itself was stocked with an im-
mense and motley assortment of gen-
eral merchandise suited to the retail
demaud of the region and for 'whole-
sale shipments to the towns along
the Sliilka river on which stream
Stryetensk is located
Hardy found the city Itself deary
In the extreme consisting merely of a
collection of raw squalid houses lo-
cated on dusty or muddy streets It
was as new and rough as the newest
frontier town in America and hope-
lessly unattractive despite the fact
that it was surrounded hy noble hills
and that the beautiful Shtlka flowed
between It and the extensive railroad
Bhops that are maintained at this
point
During his first day in the town he
put 'up at thq Darnlvostock hotel but
found the lqdging so abominable the
fare so execrable and the service so
Insolent that he was glad to engage
an old peasant woman of all work and
begin housekeeping in some unoccu-
pied rooms of the Trading Company's
store
Besides this old woman his only
companion waB a young Russian clerk
who spoke a little bad English which
he practiced on Hardy with such per-
sistence that he became a nuisance
entertaining him with such re-
marks as:
“Good morning Mr Hardy The
barn of my store is not so large as the
barn of my uncle Have you seen the
barn of my uncle?” or "Good evening
Mr Hardy Do you think the black
horse Is as good as the white horse?
Neither the ono nor the other Is so
good ns the horse of my aunt”
This Interesting person was pos-
sessed of the skin of a baby pink
cheeks very thick red lips blue eyes
and tin-foil hair His name was Vasili
Ogorodnlkoff He imagined himself
a great merchant and his manner to-
ward Hardy oscillated between super-
ciliousness and the other extreme of
sudden servility when reminded of his
position' He was either presumptu-
ous or groveling It was impossible
to treat him as an equal
And here from the very start
Hardy got his first taste of hard work
and came to realize what a blessing
it Is how it ennobles a man’s sur-
roundings however strange prosaic
or uninviting and what a royal pana-
cea It is for blues homesickness love-
sickness or any species of festering
discontent In addition to the daily
business of the store It war necessary
for him to take stock familiarize him-
self with the details of the trade get
what idea he could of the Recounts
study the commercial possibilities of
the region Ho saw immediately that
if he did not wish to continue at the
mercy of Vasili he must learn the
Russian language as soon as possible
this indeed must be his first object
He must swallow Russian in'gfeat
gulps and must digest it Io there-
fore looked about for a teacher The
only available person he could find
was a Russian Jew who despite Ills
youth wore a great bale of bushy red
whiskers falling to the fourth button
of his shabby waistcoat
Mordecai liaruch knew English very
well as he had spent several years in
New York in the factory of a rela-
tive engaged there in tho manufacture
of caps He undertook to teach Hardy
Russian aud he lound the latter a
most assiduous pupil devoting as
many as four hours a day to tho sub-
ject Hardy had not been long In Stry-
etensk before he received a letter
from Mrs Johnny Folkstone the Bos-
ton society leader calling him a
naughty boy for running away to the
ends of the earth and deserting all his
friends and assuring him that society
would not have been able to do with
out him money or no money had he
seen lit to remain
Another letter received not long
after his arrival In Stryetensk gave
him more pleasure
It was written on the daintiest and
lightest of Japanese paper in very
small and exquisitely-formed script
As Hardy picked this letter up from
his writing table there was something
about it that suggested femininity
even before he opened it
"A woman eh?” he muttered "and
in Japan I wonder who are in Japan
this summer? Perhaps the Castle-
tons” He held the envelope closer to his
eyes to examine the script to see if
he could guess at the writer's identity
when the problem was solved A faint
and elusive perfume arose to his nos-
trils so faint as to be almost Imper-
ceptible yet imperishable as the
memory of a kiss and the image of
Aisome took shape again in his mind
—Aisome as she had stood that night
on the wharf at Hakodate bidding
him good-by dainty as a moon-flower
exquisite as a Queen of Fairy-land
Yokohama August 16 1903
You will perhaps bo surprised at hear-
ing from me but you will not accuse me
of forwardness I am sure when you
learn my reason for addressing you in
this manner Some time ago the estim-
able Mr Sano did mo the honor of desir-
ing to marry me Soon after your de-
parture for Hakodate he again offered
me his hand and when I made It plain
to him that I should never consent he
became very angry and aocused me— how
shall I express myself?— of having become
Infatuated with the American meaning
you In hla jealous rage he revealed the
fact that he had given secret orders to
the captain of tho Shikoku Maru to have
you disposed of “You will never' he ex-
claimed gnashing his teeth like a wolf
“behold your beloved American again"
You can Imagine that this confession did
not advance Mr Sano to any great ex-
tent in my esteem Though I did not be-
tray myBelf to him I wag nearly frantic
concerning you I went to the higher au-
thorities told them frankly of Sano's pro-
posal to me and of his plot against your
life I disclaimed any interest in you
further than the fact that you were inno-
cent and that you were a well-known
American and that It would not be wise
at this time to excite American hostility
or to Involve Japan in complications with
that country Sano being summoned
denied the plot denied that he had ever
sought my hand or that he had any feel-
ing for me except admiration for iny tal-
ents The authorities were rather airtnsed
over the affair and seemed to think that
I bore 8ano some private grudge which
I was trying to pay ofT I was reduced to
despair hardly knowing what cours to
pursue next when the news arrived that
the Shikoku Maru had been wrecked and
that you were taken off and carried to
Vladivostok by a Russian merchant
steamer I take It for granted that you
are safely In Stryetensk ere this and are
deeply immersed in your new duties
Sano by the way is so bitter against me
now and so Intent on my ruin that I
have applied for servlcs in Manchuria a
task for which I am fitted by my thor-
ough knowledge of the Chinese language
So you see into what trouble you have
got me by calling me your “Queen of
Fairyland" and your “Little Lilac Blos-
som” Are not women silly?
I am firmly convinced that this suscep-
tibility to flattery renders them unfitted
for all serious work In the world
But I could not rest without letting you
know thut I did not deceive you and that
I am not the treacherous creature voi
must have thought me if you gained any
Inkling of the designs upon you I sup-
pose you have entirely forgotten your
Japanese friends ere this and that you
have become an enthusiastic admirer of
the beauty of the Russian ladies Still
If you should ever think of me again I
should lmte to have any unpleasant im-
pression associated with the memory of
one whom you once thought of as a
“Lilac Blossom” and a “Queen of Fairy-
land” Am I not silly?
Your friend
AISOME MOSURO
He gained from the letter that Aiso-
me was a most feminine woman de-
spite her calling but the idea never
occurred to him that she was In love
with him
CHAPTER XXIII
The hated Jew
One morning ns Hardy was busy
at his desk in the rear of the principal
room of the store Vasili came and
stood beside him smiling supercili-
ously "Are there many Jews In Anitrica?"
lie asked
Hardy believing that this was sim-
ply another attempt on the part of his
clerk to take an English lesson re-
plied sharply:
"I don’t know Don't talk to me
now please I’m busy”
But Vasili contrary to his custom
when he was coolly received per-
sisted: “The Jews are very numerous in
Russia They are much hated by the
Christians They crucified our
Saviour and they sacrifice young chil-
dren to their heathen rites”
This was rather an extended effort
for Vasili and though it had a de-
cided Ollcndorffan ring there was
something in his manner that indi-
cated a deeper purpose than the mere
desire to profit by his superior's Eng-
lish “Nonsense!” exclaimed Hardy with
Irritation “I have no patience with
any such folly That is all an Idle
superstition unworthy to be enter-
tained by a man of your Intelli-
gence” “Nonsense Is It?" sneered Vasili
"My father hates the Jews and my
uncle hates them worse than my fa-
ther Do the Americans love the
Jews?"
"No they do not love them neither
do they hate them Some of our best
citizens are Jews There is no such
thing as religious persecution in
America Any man is respected in
that country who earns his living hon-
estly” Vasili went about his work hut re-
turned later with the remark:
"The people of this town want the
Jews to go They do not understand
why you are seen so much with the
Jew Mordecai It might be dangerous
for you if there should be trouble
Some say that you are an American
Jew”
Hardy dropped his pen and looked
up with interest A slight flush a red
spot crept into his cheek
"You may tell my esteemed and
somewhat meddlesome neighbors for
me” he drawled “that I am neither a
Jew nor a Choctaw Indian and that
when I need their advice in my priv-
ate affairs I shall call them in”
"I am a Russian” persisted Vasili
“do you love Jews better than Rus-
sians?” “My dear Vasili when you persist
in making a nuisance of yourself as
at present I am quite sure that I like
the Jews better than the Russians or
at least than some Russians If you
have anything to do will you kindly
go about it? I never felt better able
to endure your absence than at this
very instant”
Vasili moved away smiling but it
was an evil smile
Hardy returned to his accounts and
tried to dismiss his clerk's remarks
from his mind He succeeded for the
time being as the work before him
was eugrossing but later in the day
the Russian’s observations persistent-
ly recurred to him and caused him
considerable annoyance He fancied
that the retail trade had been falling
off somewhat and wondered if this
were a result of the Russian lessons
with the Jew The next morning he
took a long walk with Mordecai cross-
ing the ferry that is ingeniously run
by the force of the river’s current
and Btruck out into the hills Hitherto
he had been deeply absorbed in the
I Am a Russian” Persisted Vasili “Do You Love Jews Better Than
Russians?"
Russian lessons and ever there had
been constantly in his mind the
thought that this was her language
and that If he should ever meet her
again he would be able to talk with
her In her own tongue
Now however he- was distracted by
the scowling faces of the early vil-
lagers whom he met on the streets
The raft-like ferry was crowded and
he noticed that the passengers drew
away from himself and Mordecai as
though fearing some contagion These
people muttered repeating the words
"The Jew! The Jew!’’ with a loathing
and fear such as Hardy had never
heard put into human speech before
As uttered by them the word Itself
become an epithet of hate and super-
stitious horror the most opprobrious
insult that could be hurled at a fellow
creature
Hardy glanced at Mordecai His
companion stood silent looking down
nervously clasping one hand in the
other the collar of his long cloak
turned up about his ears Once he
looked lip a fleeting glance and there
was a baleful light half hate half fear
in his reddish-brown eyes
On the country road which they
took after leaving the ferry they
passed several telegas or long
wagons coming into town and Iiardy
observed that the drivers of these
also eyed him and his companion
with looks of loathing nnd again he
heard above the rattle of the wheels
that ancient cry of hate "The Jew!
The Jew!”
They sat down beneath a tree on
tho side of a hill commanding a view
of the town and the winding Shillca
up whose rapid current a sfeamer was
now shouldering its way leaving be-
hind a trailing plume of black smoke
of incredible size They conversed in
Russian for awhile Mordecai skill-
fully leading the dialogue without any
reference to tho unpleasant incidents
of the morning When however
Hardy arose at last to return to the
shore the Jew said:
"You have made great progress my
dear pupil You will now be able to
get along by yourself or by the help
of a Russian teacher who does not
know any English”
“I do not Jesire to make a change”
repJ’ed Hardy “I am more than sat-
isfied with my present teacher”
“Nevertheless” insisted Baruch
“the time has come when it will be
no longer safe for yon to go on with
me ' I have wanted to speak of this
for several days but it has been so
pleasant to me to have the society of
a human being here in this country of
wolves an jogs that I have not been
able to bring myself to the point Be-
sides I need the money that you pay
me I greatly fear that another Jew-
ish persecution Is about to break out
I have seen the storm brewing for
some time If it were not for my
old mother for whose sake I came
back to this accursed country 1 would
quietly leave At any rate there is
no need of your becoming Involved n
our trouble perhaps losing your life
The people do not understand your as-
sociating with me It is even whis-
pered that you are of Jewish descent”
Hardy laughed
"My dear fellow” he said “it is no-
body’s business whom I employ for a
Russian teacher I shall pursue the
course that seems best to me and I
shall not allow these people to Inter-
fere with my private affairs If nec-
essary we will warn (he authorities
that trouble is brewing” ‘
Baruch sprang to his feet and
looked over toward Stryetensk his
eyes blazing with hate
"Oh the authorities!" he cried “do
you know that the- persecutions of the
Jews in Russia are connived at by the
authorities and tolerated even by the
czar himself? Could not the authori-
ties if they wished uproot and dispel
the superstitions that make tho Jews
hated and feared? The people of
Russia are mere animals ignorant and
ferocious and they do what they are
told But there will be a day of reck-
oning for Unholy Russia The God
who opened the Red sea for Israel
who led them through the wilderness
with a pillar of cloud by day an of
fire by night who talked with Moses
In the burning bush who was with
his people of old in Nineveh the God
who has made Rothschild a king of
kings who inspired the brains of
Solomon and Heine tho souls of
Mendelssohn nnd Meyerbeer and the
heart of Montefiore — he will make
this rabble pay for the blood of his
chosen race All the miseries of the
Pale and the Ghetto all the degrada-
tion and suffering the starvation the
blows the massacre and pillage are
they not written down in the books of
Recording Angel? The old law of an
eye fer an eye a tooth for a tooth
was written for you 0 Unholy Russia
and when your day of judgment comes
your ruin will be more terrible than
that of Babylon! Draw out the Bcore
heap high the mountains of wrong
hut be sure that the mills of God
grind very fine not matter how slowly
they turn!’’
As Mordecai said these wordR
something of the power of an ancient
seer crept into his bearing his red
eyes flashed fire his shabby cloak
seemed the robe of a prophet and his
thin hooked nose and Semitic fea-
tures took on the dignity of the an-
cient and glorious race whose insignia
they were
Hardy arose “We will walk bark
together Mordecai” he said quietly
On his return to the store he found
awaiting him a letter from Moscow
It was addressed In Russian but the
epistle itself was written in French
and bore at Its head a princely creRt
He trembled and his face paled as he
turned back and glanced eagerly at
the signature “Elizabetha Ro
manovna”
"Mordecai” said he “come early
this evening I am going to uy to
write a letter In Ruseian and I ihall
want you to straighten it out for me'"
TO BE CONTINUED!
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Falkenbury, M. C. Miami Record-Herald. (Miami, Okla.), Vol. 18, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, March 18, 1910, newspaper, March 18, 1910; Miami, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1748413/m1/3/: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.