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Show SOME ODD STORIES. INTERESTING INCIDENTS RELATED BY ALFRED R. CALHOUN. tho resolution ot a Jewish Daughter. Cossacks Woo Sought to Expel tha Inhabitant In-habitant of a Village -A Story of Russian Persecution. ICopyTteht, 1SS, by American Press Association. Associa-tion. The stories of Jewish persecution in Russia have thrilled and shocked the civil iid world for the past two years, and tha loija existing amity between our government govern-ment and that of the Great White Czar is crrtahily no' felt h7 the American people as individual. An old friend wrote me a few months ago from Odassa, and from his letter I make the following extract, which forcibly illustrates the cruel barbarity of the southern south-ern Slav and the heroic devotion of a daughter of the despised race: a swell, supporting the w.ltuan, wbo uow looked to be dead. The young man made a desperate effort to reach shore, but the tide was going out, sod seeing that he could make no headway he wisely decided not to exhaust himself, but to use such exertion only as was necessary neces-sary to support himself and the woman, while he eagerly watched the beach for help. After a time that seemed interminable the cry was heard: "It's coining! The life boat's comiugl" Four eager men pushed the boat through the surf, leaped iu and then rowed with all speed to the rescue, the gallant swimmer swim-mer having drifted out so far in the mean time that his features could not be recognized. recog-nized. A gasp of relief and a shout of joy went up from the great crowd when they saw the man and woman lifted into the boat. The woman was hurried to the hotel, where she soon recovered, and Larry Feeny, the young hack driver, was sent for by the husband. After thanking the brave fellow the merchant, for such he was, slipped some money into Feeny's hand and turned away "Hould on, there, mistherl" shouted the young man. "Oh, that's all right," said the mer chant. "Mebbe it Is," said Feeny, as he dashed a number of silver coins into the fellow's face. "1 didn't save the woman expectin money. Hut the wondher to me is that you raised sich a divil of a hullabaloo whin ye value her life at only two dollars and a quarther!" A Devoted Son. I thlmt the father's name was Hall. I am very sure, however, that he belonged to the Sixty -eighth Indiana, and that his son, a handsome boy of sixteen or maybe less, was an orderly to Colonel King, 1 think. But at the time my attention was called to the father and son. Colonel King, of the Sixty-eighth, then commanding a brigade, had been killed by a Confederate sharpshooter. This was at Chickamauga, Ga., Sunday, Sept. 30, and the third day of that terrific nght. In the language of the Cherokee 'Indians, who occupied this region before they were exiled beyond the Mississippi, the word "Chickamauga" means "the riverof blood." I do not know why they gave it the name, but I do know that it is now entirely appropriate. ap-propriate. 1 had been sent by General Garfield with an order to Colonel King, but he was dead when 1 reached that part of the field, and the men from Indiana were falling back in good order to a line of breastworks rude works they were that had been thrown up along the hillside the night before. lolly's guns opened on the Hampton Le-gfuTi Le-gfuTi at that point, forcing the enemy to abandon the pursuit and to fall back be yond the tangle of dwarf oaks and cedars that had been cut down by bullets and cannon can-non shot as if mowed by a mighty scythe in the hands of a Titan. In this splintered jangle the shells of friend and foe were bursting, and among the splintered tangle lay hundreds of n-n.nndo,! mn in hliia unri otmv - ,4YOO ARK THK TOOL OK THK TYRANT." "luat week my duties culled me to the village of Si.mwut over ou the Dulester ftul in tlie province of Kherson, of which Odesm ia the capital. "H was my misfortune on reach iug Sm wat to And a brigade of those savnge horse-Bieu, horse-Bieu, the Cossacks, in the village. They hftd om to expel the hundred or more J.ritsh families at that place, and as the people were poor, and the steppes that ex tend on every hand from the Dniester ivere then parched, uninhabited and water less, death by the sword would have been a mercy compared to the death from thirst and starvation that inevitably awaited the wretched exiles. "Among the Jewish families at Sam wat was that of a comparatively prosper us man named I auk off. His son, a fine yonng fellow, had been butchered before the house by the Cossacks, who broke in the door and seized himself, his wife aud Lis daughter. "This daughter, Miriam, was a surpass- mgly beautiful girl the embodiment of icon's Hebecca in 'ivanhoe.' She had the black, soulful eyes; the straight, classic features and that complexion, made up of the peach and olive, which is never seen cutside the Jewish race and but seldom iu it. "The Cossack officers were quick to recognize rec-ognize Miriam IsakofTs wondrous beauty, and the colonel in command resolved to save her from the fate of her parents to consign her to one that, to a woman of her abacacter, was far more horrible. "Although the work of Jewish persecution persecu-tion is congenial to the Gossacks, they act under orders, and the colonel knew he could not separate the Jewish girl from ber unhappy parents without her own consent. con-sent. "He had her summoned before htm, and he told her that he wished to save her from the fate of the Jews of Samwat. They wfil all die or be slain,' he said, 'and as you are young and beautiful I offer you the choice of dying with your father and mother or living with me.1 "'And who are youf she asked, with flashing eyes. " The commandant of the troops sent here to kill or disperse the Jews,' he replied. re-plied. "'You are the tool of the tyrant his slaves call the Great White Csarl You are the murderer of thejnnocent, the despoiler ef the poor and thecruei foe of God'schosen people! You offer me a choice of life and infamy on the one hand or death and duty on the other. Know, O creature of the tryiajit, that 1 am a virtuous, a faithful daughter of Israel God's curse will yet fall on this land with the flash of sword and the roar of guns, when the sleeping nations that worship the Christ of my tace awjike to their duty. But as for me, I aril) arse and gs to my father's house.' Alj Kite a queen she swept from his pres-tifcj- . 'That night there were shrieks and cries end fiiiot and lance thrust in the village of amwt, and tbe next morning I saw irlsianj XsaHoff lying dead between her Suddenly 1 saw rising up from the Intervening Inter-vening space a cloud of smoke that Maa black as ink, compared with the silvery powder smoke of the shells the woods were on Are! The Indiana men had just dropped behind be-hind the logs and rocks that ran about the slope in an irregular line, when, te the surprise sur-prise of everyone, the young orderly leaped to his feet, shouted "My father!" aud dashed away in the direction of the h" Through my glass I could see spectral figures rising and falling and reaching out their hands appealingly against the awful background of smoke and flame. I watched tha boy till he reached one cf the figures. It was that of a bearded man in blue. He lifted it up, turned to our line with his burden and staggered forward. Nerved by the example of the daring lad, a dozen men leaped over the breastworks, reckless of life in their impulse to help. But before a step could be taken a shell roared through the furnace. It fell, as it seemed tome, not five feet from the orderly and his father. A spurt of flame, a roar, a dense mass of silvery smoke which rose up like a curtain, and when it was lifted the two were gone. Irish Hospitality. .It was when Parnell was coming into prominence and every hamlet in Ireland was a center of excitement on the land question that I was sent by one of the leading American papers to report the actual state of affairs in the southern part ot the constantly beautiful but chronical ly perturbed island. la order to get an impartial insight into the actual state of affairs, I decided not to present the letters of introduction which had been forwarded to me, but to make the acquaintance of Tory and Liberal in a professional way and judge of the situation without baring my views colored by the prejudices of possible friends. I soon found that it was impossible to disguise my nationality. My" dress was not unusual, and I flattered myself that "inucqecea pacents; out even in aeatn there was' as expression of triumph on her beau tlul Cace." A Oreat Reward. La.st June at As bury Park, N. J., and at ije hour when most of the bathers had left tie Wjater, tbe people, walking along the shore, were thrilled by a cry of alarm, and every one who heard it knew that some one had gone down in the undertow or was being carried out to sea. Tbe crowd surged toward the point from which a perfect chprus of shouts and eries was now coming, and they saw a stout, well dressed man wringing his hands and heard him cry: nMy wifel My wifel Save my poor wife!" Usually there was a lifeboat at this rjoint, but as the bathing was about over u5r the day the boat had been beached ' and the crew had gone home. Out beyond the surf, and rising and falling fall-ing on the swell, the white face of a woman wom-an could be seen, and now and then she threw up an arm appealingly tor help. Suddenly a sturdy young man with a resolute Trlsh face burst through the demoralized de-moralized crowd, and as be ran he kicked off h boots, threw off hia coat and vest and loosened his shirt at the throat. "Courage, and I'll save youl" he shouted. WifiiD five seconds he was over the line ct4bst and urging himself with powerful tf&okes In the direction of the woman. He was within about ten feet of her when.- to the horror of tha lookers on, the woman disappeared from sight. She had become exhausted. Then from the crowd, in varying accents and voices, came the cries: "He's sunkl" "He's ilrownded tool" "He's dived!" "He's dove!" "He's duTl" A half minute of awful suspense and the brave wimmrreappeaid on the crest of my speech was like that of jmy other fairly well educated man whosemother tongue was English, but I soon discovered that there was a certain something about my dress or address, which I could not make out nor my Irish acquaintances describe, that led them to call me an American from the start. And when once these warm hearted southern Celts discovered that I was a citizen of the great republic across the ocean they took me to their homes and hearts. I soon saw that I could not do any good corresponding from Cork. As the list of my acquaintances increased, so did the invitations to drive, to break fast, to luncheon and to dinner. if there had been a deliberate plan and I know there was not to reduce me to what one of our own statesmen had called "a condition of innocuous desuetude," it could not have succeeded more admirably. The night before I was to tear myself away, in the hope of finding a less hospitable hospita-ble field, a gentleman who had been treating treat-ing me since the day of our meeting as if 1 had been his long lost twin brother, gave me a little parting dinner, to which he had invited a half dozen congenial spirits. Of course I had to respond to the toast of "The Great Republic Beyond the Say," but as I had been getting off at least two speeches a day on that subject since my arrival, 1 Ignored the text and launched into a eulogy of the beautiful women, the brave men and the overpowering hospital ity of Ireland's southern metropolis. My speech was interrupted by the ready witted hot, who called out from the head of the table: "Arrah, sure we've only been thratin you like a child by lettin yon play with the cork, but whin our friends in Dublin get honlt of you they'll insist on yer hav lag the bottle." And that is why I did not go to Dublin till I had finished my work. AtrtiFn li. CaIHOCTT. |
