| Show isia how myla came into the VW or a russian r here is a story told by an esteemed fel low citizen to a new york star reporter when I 1 sat down to breakfast in cos I 1 noti cedat the other side of the table a ducor looking gaunt faced old man who did not seem at ease in his suit of new york clothes after a time I 1 made a friend ly approach to nun by offering him a small courtesy at the table accompanied by a few words ho did not understand english but I 1 found that he spoke french in a curious way we struck up an acquaintance and before our coffee pots were empty we were on confidential terms which seemed to give him great pleasure he was a stranger in new york to which place he bad just come and did not know any body in the city ikic hebrew so friendly that after breakfast be invited me to a room which he had taken the previous day he there told ma that be was a kalmuck in the russian service and that during a leave ot absence he had come to new york which ho had been anxious to see I 1 noticed a pair of turkish trousers hanging on and beside them a curved short t sword of peculiar form and destitute odthe reg or handle y As ij looked at it he it down vodraw out the scimitar and n find a thumb ring by which it can be used iid as ha directed found the ring spoken of grasped the weapon and began to handle it while doing so I 1 bent it and noticed that instead of springing back when the press ura was taken off it returned gradually to its proper dormit for mIt had evidently been forged from I 1 an untold number of f steel rings welded together like old damascus blades when about it helmold a curious tale raim jano day L forty when I 1 was in the caucasus off a cloud of cavalry lunder schamyl suddenly came upon ustin a pass A with a gal loped toward me and I 1 raised my sword to I 1 guard my head but he cut it intrain in twain with a single stroke as he would have cut a car at that moment his brain was pierced by ano of our kalmuck bullets and I 1 sprang from to get his next morning schamyl sent our camp to ask general for the body of his brother who bad boen killed in tho previous days and he asked also tor the scimitar miter which however could not be found that is it it bad been an heirloom in the family of schamyl the mohammedan prophet was said to be seven hundred or eight hundred years old and had probably been made in the caucasus out of damascus steell |
