The Herald RICHARD B. SWENSON Editor ti Publisher . . . i t their mosques ami their light- tester of the empire wno, so we nine express ia the camel which! Baritone said, was by various traverses its sober way across means filching large quantities Enteral u Mcond-clu ratur 8pUrnb 1 IM. at Unpoatofficst Monmovtii.Onmn.iind Um Act of Muck t ITS. mVKD EVKKV FRIDAY Subscription Rates One year $1.60 Six monthi 75 eta Three months 50 cU MONMOUTH, OREGON FRIDAY. MAR. 16, 1917. 30 0 Monmouth Meditations 3 In these parlous times when all that is left for a conscientious meditator, if he would avoid the opprobrium of those who, in their own estimation, monopo lize the word "patriot," is to be come a little cuckoo to his hip daily brethren in the efforts of the latter to inflame our passions to a war heat, it is a pleasure to turn to the works of the late Ali Hackaback. Mr. Huckaback is n distinguished oriental author who is not so widely known as- he would have been had his writings been given a wider cir culntion. He appears to have written, however, for the enter tainment of himself and a few friends and it was only by the merest chance that we obtained possession of the cherished volumes. As to the manner am method of this acquisition, it b I n story in itself, the telling of which will have to wait for some future convenience. The pleas ure of bringing the works of Mr Huckaback to the attention of the reading public is the more accute through its opportune ness, it being a truth that hp wus born in Bagdad, a venerable city recently taken by the armies of our allies, the British. Mr Huckaback's works are semi historical in character and for the most part deal with a country which he calls "Sandova." We have spent some time investi gating Sundova but in atlas, en cyclopedia and history, have failed to find as much as a single suggestion of it. We have there fore concluded that, some of the relations being too personal to meet with the approval of the originals, Mr, Hackaback has resorted to disguised names in order to carry out 'his original purpose. One of these stories, that of "The Artistic Henhouse," has already been published in the Herald. This week we give a second selection: AWAKENING SANDOVA Or the Adventure ot the Jer sey Hummer and the Caliph "Blessed is Sandova. The balm of Springtime is in its gentle zephyrs. The shepherds of a thousand hills keep watch over their flocks as they did in the year 1. The springtime o life is still with its people am the nervous haste of the occi dent is not theirs. Their tele graph and telephone systems are the men who call the hours o the day from the minarets of the desert The most popular historian of the country was a blind man who could not write a stroke, but kept his knowledge in his head, and for many years their only printing press was a goosequill with which, upon sheepskin', the grand scribe of the caliph sent down to the peo ple the edicts of the Sublime Son of the Morning. "Not long ago a change threat ened to undermine old Sandova. An agent of the International Liquid Fuel Dispensary arrived in the metropolis of the country md proceeded to develop the ochI market. He speedily con vinced the housewives of the city into an appreciation of his wares and worked the old time trick of the magician iu trading new lamps for old ones. The old ones were of solid copper and sold in New York City for $14 99 as souvenirs. The new ones were of sheet iron, nickeled over, and coRt 97 cents in the. Chicago department stores, but they shone with a light which eclipsed the Lone Star of India for brilliance. In a very short time the path blazed by the Liquid Fuel man was widened into a thorough fare by the trampling feet of a throng of others. All sorts of new industries flocked into Sandova and began to tap the pocket of the fierce son of the desert. The game, while it last ed, was a good one, but the finish came with alarming suddenness. The green goods man, the gold brick man and the man who was looking for the heir to an estate in Dorsetshire. England, were just getting ready to secure the confidence of the opulent and guileless Sandovan agri culturist, wheiy of u sudden the bubble collapsed. A young man appeared and announced him self ready to start a modern newspaper. The young man, whose name was Stanton Merivale, was from credentials and outward appear ances' amply competent to the task of arousing and astonishing Sandova. Stress is laid on the fact that he was a graduate from the staff of the New Jersey Buz zer of Hoboken. He knew his rofession from the top to- the bottom thereof. . "In the initial issue of hit- paper he devoted a few lines to the death of Ali aboil Antisep tic, the distinguished sage of Damascus, and of the achieve ment of Omar ibn Flatcar, who after years of studious toil had succeeded in squaring the circle brief mention was made in an obscure corner. 1 6 "Conspicuous headlines how ever illuminated the front page, telling of the twelfth wife of the Emir of Cordwood who had eloned with her coachman; how the two had "been pursued and captured by the irate emir who had taken his captives, sewed them up in bags and dumped them into the Persian Gulf. In vestigation afterward showed this story to have no firmer foundation than that the Emir of CordwooJ had twelve wives. "The next issue of the 'Bari tone,' for so Mr. Merivale styled his paper, had a long account of an alleged embezzlement on the part of the official cheese of public coin. When the offi cial whitewashes had got done with this statement it was found to have as its basis the fact that Sandova had au " official cheese tester. ' "In rapid succession the Bari tone exploited a divorce case, a murder, two attempts at suicide as well as the exposure of a Don Juan in high society. "But these things soon ceased to attract attentiou and Editor Merivale resolved on a heroic stroke of genius. He heard one day that a gatekeeper had been discharged from the force of employees at the palace a'nd this rumor served as a hook on which to hang a grand fairy tale. "The son of the Akound of Akechew, so the Baritone stated in substance next day, had ac quired a liking for the daughter of the caliph and was wont to call clandestinely at the imperial palace. As the custom of Sand ova, like all oriental countries, is severe in its treatment of young men and young women, socially, the young man had to cloak his calls with the utmost secrecy. To succeed, he bribed one of the gatekeepers. The caliph, however, became cog nizant of the state of affairs, winked at the proceedings, and even went so far as to engage the young man for an hour each evening in the game of 'gash hesh,' the Sandovan game of euchre, at which the caliph was an expert. "In the course of a few games the young prince lost 'all his money and in anger one night he turned on the caliph, accus ing that dignitary of cheating. The caliph met the situation promptly, summoned his guard, and the young man was dis patched to the sixtn ivioiiamme dan heaven with neatness and precision. "Then the story was concoct ed and passed out with the re mains of the young man to his relatives that the caliph had dis covered the clandestine visits of the prince and he had been slain to preserve the good name of the household. The offend ing gate keeper had been dis charged with a warning, and altogether great pains were taken to keep the affair a secret, etc. "Those who took the trouble to investigate afterward found that while the Akound of Ake chew had seven daughters, it was the bane of his existence that he had never had a son. Also that the gatekeeper had been discharged for stupidity "The caliph, however, did not wait to investigate. He stroked his beard meditatively with his left hand and then ordered a general cleaning out of foreign ers. "It will be some time before Sandova regains the same stand ard of civilization she had ac quired at the time of the first issue of the Baritone. " 'Allah!' comments Ali Hack aback, 'Peace is monotonous, but it is restful.' 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