The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, December 17, 1919, Image 17
VO*-uME XXXV. LAURENS, SOUTH CAROLINA, WEDNESDAY, 2 1 19-9.
17 11. 11.I~i2
AU2
HOME,T 2UGH
JOHN 5OGA
(oon tinued from Last Week.)
CHAPTER V.
M'sungo led the march home; the
donkey came next, with his nose glued
to M'sungo's back and with Andrea
in the saddle. Clinging to his tall with
both hands, more as a drag-anchor
than as deterrent, came Bathtub, and
behind him the long rank and file.
Andrea was sti4l sniffing a little, but
her tear-stained face, like a child's,
was already cloudless.
"I think -Marguerite is too funny,"
she said. "He's got his eyes tight shut
and he's steering himself by his nose
in your shirt. Will you please tell
Batlitub to lot go his tail?"
"Bathtub knows his business," re
plied M'sungo, but, as it happened,
even as he spoke, Bathtub cast off one
hand to receive a lighted white cheroot,
a communal bit of property that had
come up the line of personal attend
ants, six puffs to a "boy." He never
got a puff, for on feeling less weight
behind, Marguerite opened his eyes,
looked straight back on both sis of
his lean body at once, flattened his
ears and broke from the path at a
dead run.
The high cantle of the stock saddle
yaved Andrea from staying just where
sho started from. She was a horse
woman, born and bred, consequently
even while her amazement was at its
height, she wrapped the reins on her
arms, drove her toes into the bucket
stirrups and straightened her young
back into the long, Strong and sawing
pull of calm desperation, for Mar
guerite was headed straight for the
leafy, low-hanging branches of a vast
mafuta tree.
Yells of delight resounded from
every black man in sight with excep
tion of poor Bathtub, who had re
gained his double hand-hold only after
baving been Jerked from his feet, and
now dangled along like the proverbial
village tin can on the trail of a ter
rified dog.
Above the din came to Andrea's very
busy brain a shout that stood out like
a sudden scream in a long nightmare,
"Marry him or jump off I" Before she
could grasp the deadly import of those
words .she was hanging like a half
closed Jacknife over a limb of the
tree watching Marguerite browse as
though nothing had happened, his tall
still tightly grasped by a now grinning
Bathtub.
Ten minutes later the procession
was under way again in the order
aforementioned with the variation
that the reins of the bridle were knot
ted to the back of M'sungo's belt. An
drea, too dazed to protest, pondered
over this indignity, but when she final
iy found her voice she decided to use
it for another purpose.
"I think it was horrid of the blacks
to yell the way they did," she re
markeod with suspicious meekness.
"Don't you?"
M'suntgo seenmed relieved. "I certain.
1y do," ho answered promptly. "But
yon'll have to accustom yourself to the
fact that obolo is the basic considera
tion between the black man and all
women in the world.''
"What (10 you mean?" asked An
drea, myutified. "What's obolo?"
*In this country," explained M'sun
go, "obolo Is the market price for
women. The best nitive authorities,
however, contend that obolo is not a
vurchaso price hut the remuneration
to the father for the board, trainlng
and general keep of his daughter up
to the time of her marriage, and they
base their argument on the fact that
while women are property they are
not chattel, title being nontransfer
able,"
"Can damaged goods be ex.
chtanged?" inquired Andrea icily.
"Certt'nly," ho answdred, absorbed
ina his topic. "IExchmanged where
there's another daughter available;
twhere there isn't, money is refunded
by order of the courts. liut what I
was driving at is that In spite of the
'contention mentionedl above, wherever
a woman is concerned a black can
never get it out of his head that she
can be replaced at the regular market
price. Now you've got the kern~e1 of
bis whole attitude toward womnen."
I__SoIt It ad baan you they wouldn't
A
PCE
MEW
YOR ar
rAINEDGLABS
2DUe3.-BTC
ERRLL COMPA1Y
have lugheil a yeillea."'
"In this case, yes," he said. "The3
nmost certainly would, because the3
had no direct responsibility. 1ut
where responsibility attaches the rulf
for rien Is a life for a life, and it's a
rule that has no exceptions. Anyon(
can brain a woman if he feels like i1
and get away with the identical obolc
her husband paid for Iyr."
"You seem to be a great admirer of
the native social system," said Andrev
quietly.
"I am," answered M'sungo. "Foi
natives, of course."
"Are you sure you're not a bit taint
ed with it for yourself?"
"Sure," le answered promptly
"That's part of the secret of my grir
on every country I've shot over. I'n
aloof. I've never turned my back or
the White Man's God. Circular A i
not for me."
"What's Circular A?"
He hesitated. "Circular A," lie said
finally, "is the regulation that govern.
the relations between British oillelalh
under the colonial office and the wom.
en of the tribes they govern."
"I'm British." said Andrea, after a
pause. "and I blush for the necessity.'
"Yoti are prompt, like most of us,'
said AM'sungo, "to sit in Judgment be
fore any force of nature that you'vc
never felt. Poor devils of clean-bred
youngstersl Take one that I knew,
Three weeks' training under his prede
cessor, crazy to leave; a 'hundred
thousand natives under his sole rulej
one, perhaps two, bearded white faces
a year. The long, long days after th<
sportsman has been swallowed by the
pot-hunter, when game becomes jusl
meat! And then, the fatal hour al
dusk when a passing native glrl-anj
girl-looks to him like some woman al
home! He marries, not by canonicalI
perhaps, but by the common law of
the land, and the 'people at homq
shout 'crucify him,' but in the end it's
God alone that will judge his agony
and measu;e the price."
He stopped speaking and for a long
time they traveled in silene'. The suti
was sinking fast-so fast that i1
seemed to be dropping by Jerks, likc
the loose hand of a grandfather
clock.
"There is no twilight in the tropics,'
saidi M'siNngo, "by the deliberate Judg
ment of God who knows the capacity
of the chart of man and would not
have it burst."
"I can feel what you mean," an
uwered Andrea, "even though you
haven't really saId it in words. The
heart canm hold( Just so much beauty
and no more; andl oven now, mine is
aching I"
"Andrea Pellor," said M'stmgo, "you
have the faculty of' yo'ur sex. You
have plauned the bautterfly."
Shea felt a sudden revulsion a rage
at this man, this stranger, wvho talked
as she imuagined lie would *ght, with
out gloves. Hecr eyes narrowed. "Up
the way, whenu Marguerie bolted, juisl
what was it you shinted at mne?"'
lie pausedl in his strIde so0 suddlienly
that the dozing dionkey butted into himr
and almost knocked him ever. "Ehi
What?" he asked to gala time.
"Come on," persisted Andrea. "iusl
say It again-what you shouted."
"Well," lied M'sungo, "I may not
remember the exact words, but it was
to the effect that .you'd better head
him oft or jump off."
"Something like that," said Andrea
incIsively. "only shorter. You yelled,
'Marry him or Jump off I'"
"I believe you're right," said M'sun
go, and added, apologetically, "You
see, I didn't have much time to think,'
"Exactly 1" said Andrea. "Instinc
tively all yotu saw was a joke, like
every nigger in the line. You didn't
care what happened to me. I might
have been brained undler that tree
mnd you knew it end all you could
think of was that you Just had time tc
Iget in one more nasty bit of cleverness
bef('ore-before I (lIed I"
"Oh, no," pretested M'nungo. "Oc
easy, now. Why, Marguerite has done
that dozens of times. He knows ex
actly hew to sice off his rider. And
ibesides, he' always stops."
"But what if he hadn't-what if hE
had?" enntinnned Andrea hotly. "Oh.
'jo0 'knd* wliat I infeai. Wh'at if Ie
had killed me?"
"'But he wouldn't," insisted the man
weakly. "He wouldn't think of it."
Andrea pounded the horn of her sad.
die. "But-what-if-he-had?"
M'sungo suddenly whirled, thereby
winding the quiescent neck of Mar
guerite around his waist. He caught
Andrea by both arms and fixed he.
startled eyes with the blaze of his
own. "You will have it i" he said,
shaking her lightly, "your d- per
sonal element I Well, I'll give it to you.
If he'd hurt so much as a hair of your
head I'd have shot him and then my.
self and left word with you to bury ue
both in the sume grave."
She flushed and looked away. When
her eyes come back to his set face
there were three kinds of sparkling
wickedness in thein-ten(lerness, th
forked tongue of a serpent, and a two.
edged knife. She chose the knife.
"White Man," she said, "that wouh!
have been adorable at the price-sln
ply adorable !"
* * * *
The weeks that. followed were tb(
rem-iking of Andrea physleally. Eac
day ,;he %valked more anmi fcii. it less
Fro'n head to toes her body wa.s with
out blemish and In her eyei1, he
cheeks an.1 in the spring of her ligh
step. -heer health tlew its rejo'ci.
hiner. Day by day she followed
M'sungo farther afleld, took more of
an Interest in what he was doing be
cause she understood it better Ind
learned to wait tbefore she sat in judg
ment on his actions, oft en surprising.
always swift and assured. She evenl
hardened herself to tccompanyIrig hiun
in 1isi hunts for imleat for tle cami
pot and there wits nothing that lie dib
that gave her a deeper insight into hhi
composition than this sone butcher
ing.
He made no secret of his distaste
for the job and neveri an apology. Hav
Ing a disagreeable task on his hands
he faced it squarely ind going out t(
kill, laid his plans, held to them 'with
unswerving concetstration and killed
with a dispatch that was blood-cur
dling but admirable.
It' was during the return from one
of these expeditions that lie expound
ed his definition of justifiable plunder.
With his memory raw, as Is the whole
world's, from contact with the long
heralded Superman come to life to ex
pose in the flesh the brutalizing doc
trine of "thine is name if I can take
it," lie found himself on treacherous
ground ain( his words picked their
i way slowly as though bent on avoid
ing all misunderstanding.
"It is the truth," he said thought
fully, "that the spirit of man advances
only by plunder and the corolltry to
that is the fatet that the plundered
world is always the more fruitful, but
the imimrdonale sitn as far as peopie
are concerned is the failure to dtefine
rohery under arnis from prodluctive
pliunder, and you can almost say the
same thing of individual relationship."
Ile glanced at her and something of
his earnestness passed to her with the
look. "Go on," she said kindly.
"Can you believe me," he continued,
$"when I tell you that no one wias more
surprised than the Superman himself
when lie assumed flesh after his long
preparation and awoke to find himself
a Vandal-a Frankenstein? The theory
was perfect-all that was lacking
were the things of the spirit, the
breath of life without which any ani
miatedl creation becomes automatically
a monster.
"And yet the collective spirit of man
adlvances only by pilunder. You can
see it in noy owvn c('unitry, yestcerday,
In Africa today and it will conic in fte
other Amenlens tomorrow. TIhe great
e'st thing ever said tby Salisbiury, a
rock among mcen, was thatt ruins ai-o
not evidence of Occuption atnd flint
packed epigram brings us face to face
with daonger at the fork of thei road
of freedom,"
"Oh, White Man," said Andrea, her
brow puckered wvith internal effort,
"please apply it to individuails."
lie started to natil her to the tradi
tions of her sex butt something truly
pleading in the tone of her- voice inade
him turn boldly to thie personial, after
all, and howvever much we may Jeer at
it, the ultimate measure of sincerity.
"I will," he said. "If ever I'm bent on
plunidering the heart of a woman, I'll
travel the highroad of surrender in
the company of ravage utnd love. I'll
give and still give anid with each giv
lag will grow the heaped mountain of
my demands. Y'ou see it, don't you?
That's justifiable plunder."
Andrea's cheeks flushed, hier eyes
were dreamiy with new thoughts and
old emotIons.
While the supply of the vast larder
and the supervision of' thle fiber camp
formed the major part of M'sungo'n
untiring industry they were by no
mecans the total of his aff'airs. Watch
Ing him, Andrea soon leanied why lie
never lunched, Ie hadn't the time;
too many things pressed to his atten
tlion. ie was ai governor Onl nio meanll
scale andI (luring the midday irest hour
he wvould_ pass from group~ t - goupJ
Continued from 4th nage, this section.
A Letter to Santa Claun.
Dear Santa Claus:
-T am in the first grade and am neve
years old. I want you to 'bring me
pretty curly haired, big doll and
"Billy Whiskers" book, and a slat
to write on.
And some nuts and fruits, anl car
dy, fire-crackers and othe firework
You will find my stocking In it
Isual placo on the right side of th
fireplace by one more.
Wishing you a Merry Christia
Katherine lludgen!
S
SILI
and Lac
for ti
Ladies' Silk
prices are go
vise hosiery I
hosiery want
by spending
L)
Ladies' pur
brown, grey an<
Ladies' pure t
brown, grey an<
Ladies' silk
grey and white,
Ladies' lac
white, the pair !
HOL
pA w
in crepeanlie
box, 75c, $1.00, $1
Boxed embroic
floral corners; pric<
Children's box
- Ladies' Lisle H1
-white, brown, 50<
-i pair. Ladies' woo)
S75c and $1.00 the i
A
Dead Air and Disease.
Dr. Leonard Hill, whose experiments
a a few years ago, proved to the world
a that it is not impure air but still, hu
a mid, dead air that induces disease, de
c livered recently a lecture on Infant
mortality before the Royal Society of
Arts. In this lie rnid that babies
died from being tuo much clothed as
well as from being Improperly fed.
3 They should not be kept too warm or
e too quiet, but shotld tie allow ed at
times to be quite niked aind should
be played with just to give thn ex
ercise.
PECIA
H OSI
lies' Handk,
ie Holiday
Hosiery is very sce
ing up every day. So
uyers to get busy an
s at once. You can
a dollar now for silk I
WDIES' SILK HOSIE
'e thread all silk fashon
I white, the pair $3.00.
hread silk hose with Lisle
I white, the pair $2.50.
hose with seam up the ba
price the pair $1.50 and $
e and drop-stitched hosi
1.50.
[DAY HANDKERCI
Ladies' pure linei
handkerchiefs, fine
each.
Ladies' fancy Cr
kerchiefs in all c<
and 50c each.
Ladies' plain whi
handkerchiefs, pric
75c each.
Ladies' white lay
plain white and co
and 25c each.
Ladies' boxed ho
put up in fancy Christmas pack~
50, $2.00 and $2.50.
lered white hand kerchiefs with
3, by the box, 25c, 50c and 75e.
ed handkerchiefs, price 15c, 25<
osiery, black, Boys' and
and 75c the .I
hosiery, 50c, iery, black,
air. fl35c, 50c and
GOOD PLACE TO TR A
Horses Versus Elephants,
Tests made to determino the re8pec
tive pulling power of horses, men and
elephants showed that two horses
weighing 1,600 pounds each, together,
pulled 3,750 pounds, or 550 pounds
more than their combined weight. One
elephant weighing 12,000 pounds pulled
8,750 pounds, or 8,250 pounds less than
its weight. Fifty men, aggregating
7.500 pounds, pulled 8,750 pounds, or
,is:ns much nq the single clophant,
but, like the horse, thry pulhi more
than their own weight. One huindred
Men pulled 12,000 poutids.
L l
E RY
erchiefs
rrade
trce, and the
we would ad
i supply their
save a dollar
osiery.
RY
ed hose, black,
garter top, black,
ck, black, brown,
2.00.
ry in black and
IIEFS
i white hemstitched
quality, 50 and 75c
epe-de-Chine hand
>lors, price 25c, 35c
te hand embroidered
e 25c, 35c, 50c and
'n handkerchiefs in
lors, price 10c, 15c.
liday handkerchiefs
ages. Price, by the'
fancy embroidered
and 50c a box.
Girls' Ribbed los
brown and white,
75c the pair.
~DE