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"That is
nothing,"
said Nasr-ed-
din; "if I was
bound not to

lend my string,
I would even
spread water
on it."

"Nasr-ed-din was awakened... by his wife."

ing tempted to take some melons from a field, brought a ladder and put it against the wall to help him over. Just then the owner of the melons drew near; so he lifted the ladder upon his shoulders and pretended that he was trying to sell it.

One of the kinsmen of Nasreddin was very ill, and neighbors "What are you doing?" asked the man. called to ask "Are you blind?" said Nasr-ed-din. after his "Don't you see that I am selling this health. "He ladder?" died yesterday," said the hoja, "but today he is a little better."

A man came

to the hoja on one occasion and asked what
he would charge to teach his son to read.
"Three hundred piasters," said Nasr-ed-
din.

"That is a high price," said the man; "for that I could buy six donkeys."

"Buy them," said Nasr-ed-din, "and your son will make the seventh."

Nasr-ed-din had a dream one night, and he dreamed that a man offered him nine piasters in a bargain.

"It is not enough," said the hoja," you must give me ten." Just then he woke up, and finding no money in his hand, closed his eyes in haste and cried, "Give them quick; I'll take nine."

One day

"It is impossible to sell a ladder here where there are none to buy."

"Foolish fellow," said the hoja. "Know that fear will make men do stranger things than that."

One night there were sounds of quarreling before the hoja's house; so he said to his wife: "Rise up, woman, light a candle, that I may understand the cause of this trouble." "This quar

"Lie still," said his wife. rel is no business of yours."

But Nasr-ed-din would not heed her, and covering himself with a blanket from the bed, went out into the street. Thereupon the men seized his blanket and made off with it, leaving the hoja shivering. When

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Nasr-ed-din be

"The hoja took off his fur coat, and laying it by the table, said: Eat, Mr. Coat,

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One day Nasr-ed-din went up the mountain to cut wood, and being in a happy state of mind, he sat on the limb which he was cutting. Just then a shepherd warned him of his danger, but even as he spoke the limb broke, and the hoja got a fall. Nasr-ed-din lay there for some time reflecting on this happening, and the shepherd went his way. But presently the hoja sprang up and ran after the shepherd, calling, "Stop, man, I have things to say to you." And when he had come up to the shepherd, he said: "My friend, you are wiser than I: you knew when the limb was going to break; therefore tell me now the day when I shall die."

And as they went they came to a bad place full of mud and water, and paused a moment, hesitating which way to take. Then the hoja lifted himself and said: When I was alive, I used to go on that side."

"He lifted the ladder upon his shoulders.

To pacify Nasr-ed-din, the shepherd said: "When it happens that your donkey brays once carrying a load up-hill, then you may know that you are half dead. And if the donkey brays again, then you will be entirely dead."

Some time after this, as Nasr-ed-din was driving his donkey up-hill with a load of wood, it happened that the donkey brayed. Then the hoja remembered the shepherd's words, and waited in

terror for another bray to to come. After several minutes the donkey brayed again, whereupon the hoja exclaimed, "Now I a m dead," and laid himself down on

the road.

Soon the people gathered about him, and some brought a bier and began to bear him to his house.

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At one time Nasr-eddin went to Diarbekir in search of work, and there he saw very large water-melons, and asked a man what they were. The man, taking Nasred-din for a foolish fellow, told him they were the eggs of donkeys.

Nasr-ed-din believed this, and when he had finished his work in Diarbekir, he bought one of the melons and started home with it. When he reached the top of the hill near his house, he took the melon out of his bag to look at it. But the melon slipped from his hands and rolled down the hill, landing in a rabbit's hutch. At this the rabbit, being frightened, darted from the hutch. Behold," cried the hoja," the colt has come out from the egg, and ran after it. The rabbit took refuge in a vineyard which, by chance, belonged to Nasred-din. And when the hoja came up breathless from the chase, he asked his wife, whom he met, if she had seen the new colt. His wife, thinking that he had really bought a colt, replied, "Blessings on you, man; I am going to ride the colt to the bath-house."

When Nasr-ed-din heard these words, he felt great alarm, thinking that the little colt was hidden by his wife's garments; so he called out: "Come down from the colt, you cruel woman; you will break its back. It has only just come out of the egg."

"The hoja exclaimed, ' Now I am dead,' and laid himself down on the road."

While walking in the fields one day, Nasr-ed-din saw horsemen in the distance, and taking them to be robbers, undressed himself hastily and hid his

Nasr-ed-din would

brother,

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whisper in his ear: Take care, my

garments in a hollow rock. Then he sat down beside a tomb. When the robbers came up (for they really were robbers), they said to him: "Poor old man, why do you sit on a cold stone this cold day?" The hoja was at a loss to reply, but beginning to speak, he said: "Yesterday I died, and they buried me here; but when I entered the cave, I found a great multitude there, and we were choked by the heat, so I came out to breathe the cool air." At this the robbers decided that Nasr-ed-din was crazy and left him unharmed.

A countryman brought a hare to the hoja for him to eat, and Nasr-eddin paid him much honor for the present. A week later the countryman came back, and Nasr-ed-din offered him an excellent soup. After a time some other countrymen came, and said they were neighbors of the man who brought the hare. Nasr

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One day a beggar knocked at Nasr-ed-din's door. "What is it?" asked the hoja from the roof. "Come down, sir, I beg of you. I have something to say."

When Nasr-ed-din had come down the stairs, the beggar said, "Kind master, please give me some money."

66

Come with me," said Nasr-eddin; and when the beggar had climbed to the top of the house, Nasr-ed-din settled himself in his chair and said: "May God give to you."

"You might have told me that while I was down below," grumbled the beggar.

"Yes," said Nasr-ed-din, "and you might have told me your business while I was up here."

One night for supper the wife of Nasr-eddin boiled the soup a long time, so that it would burn the hoja's throat; but when they

sat down, she forgot the trick and took some of the soup herself. Seeing the tears come out of her eyes, Nasr-ed-din inquired what was the matter. Not wishing him to know what brought the tears, the wife replied: "My blessed mother liked soup very much, and I weep because she is dead."

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"A countryman brought a hare to the

hoja

At this the simpleminded hoja began to eat his soup, but at the first spoonful he burst into tears.

"Why do you weep?' asked his wife.

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One day, when the Hoja was putting on his turban, he lost the end of it, and after trying in vain to catch it, he flew into a great rage, and determined to sell the turban. So he took it to the market and sought for a

purchaser. But whenever a man came forward to inquire the price, Nasr-ed-din would bend over and whisper in his ear: "Take care, my brother; don't buy this turban, for it is impossible to find the end of it."

HOW THE NEWS OF THE WAR IS REPORTED.

BY RAY STANNARD BAKER.

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AR with Spain began, so far as the newspapers were concerned, when the "Maine" was blown up in Havana harbor. The explosion occurred at 9.40 o'clock on the evening of February 15, 1898. At half-past two on the following morning the first reports, filed by the correspondents in Havana, reached New York, and at daylight newsboys in every city in America were crying the extras which gave the details of the disaster. Before noon on the 16th, a tug steamed out of the harbor at Key West with three divers on board. In the few hurried hours after the news reached New York "The World" had telegraphed its representative in Key West, and divers had been roused out of bed, had collected their paraphernalia, and had embarked on the newly chartered tug for Havana.

Early in the afternoon, "The World" correspondent in Havana received the following cabled instructions:

"Have sent divers to you from Key West to get actual truth, whether favorable or unfavorable. First investigation by divers, with authentic results, worth $1,000 extra expense to-morrow alone."

But when the divers arrived, they were not allowed to make a descent, and all that the newspaper sponsors of the enterprise derived from the expedition was a bill of expense amounting to nearly $1,000.

This was the beginning. During the next few days scores of correspondents were rushed into Havana, and half a hundred great newspapers began to fill with news and pictures of the wreck. From the very first, the hand of the Spanish censor worked havoc with the reports. A correspondent never was certain that what he wrote would reach his paper. In a week's time the transmission of messages had become so uncertain that the newspapers of New York began

telegraphing to different cities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to secure suitable despatch-boats for carrying their messages from Havana to Key West, in order to avoid the censor. One paper chartered a boat in New York, another secured one in Charleston, several were hired in Florida ports, and there was a wild rush for Havana.

For a few weeks, messages flew back and forth across the troublous Florida Straits, and each newspaper found itself very well served by a single steamer. But with the approach of actual war and the attendant blockade, a more extended service became necessary, and several newspapers acquired a veritable fleet of vessels-three, four, and five-to patrol the waters of the West Indies. All of these vessels were swift, ocean-going steamers, capable of making from twelve to fourteen knots an hour, and carrying crews of a dozen men or more, with several correspondents. At least two despatch-boats chartered by New York newspapers were formerly private yachts, fitted with dynamos, powerful searchlights, and a hundred and one other conveniences.

Previous to the declaration of war, the sole service of these despatch-boats was a daily trip between Havana and Key West, and the sole cargo was a little package of copy which a man might carry in the breast pocket of his coat. But it was a most expensive mission. Owing to the threatened hazards of war, ship owners exacted from $5,000 to $9,000 a month for the use of each of these boats, and the newspapers were required to bear the additional expense of fire, marine, accident, and war insurance, which the alarmed underwriters of New York had fixed at the enormous rate of eight per cent. a month-equal in a year to nearly the total value of the boat. One New York newspaper pays $2,200 a month insurance on a single tug and it has five boats in service in different parts of the world.

In addition to these initial expenses, the

newspapers must buy their own coal and supplies, at war-time prices, and pay the salaries of the correspondents who direct the boats. One managing editor showed me his salary list for a single week, including only war correspondents. It amounted to $1,463.51. A single correspondent, representing another New York paper, is said to receive $10,000 a year.

Nor is this all. Every time a despatchboat made port in Havana harbor, a rapacious Spanish officer swooped down upon it and collected all manner of fees-health-office fees, custom-house fees, and fees for clear water to use in the boilers, to say nothing of pilotage charges-a total of from $70 to $125 a day for this purpose alone. At the Key West end of the voyage, there were still further charges, rendered necessary by the inevitable medical certificate and the pilot hire. Expenses are paid in cash, and the correspondents find it necessary to go loaded down with all the gold they can carry. Gold will lubricate a way out of almost any difficulty.

These figures will give some idea of the cost of maintaining the war-news service in Cuban waters, and yet they are only the initial expenses. During the height of the "Maine "" excitement, and many times afterwards, the correspondents of single New York papers filed as high as 5,000 words a day at the cable office in Key West, often with supplementary censored despatches direct from Havana. The cable rates from Key West to New York are five cents a word for press despatches, making a charge of $250 a day for this item alone; and after a despatch is received, it is often crowded by more important news into a mere paragraph, the greater part of the high-priced message going to the newspaper limbo" on the floor."

After the correspondents were driven out of Havana and the blockade was begun, the difficulties and hazards of getting the news were immeasurably increased. The correspondents were subjected to a constant and exhausting strain on body and mind, and they knew not at what moment they might find themselves in the thick of a great battle. The blockade off Havana was 120 miles long, and, to "cover" it properly, a newspaper had to speak every ship in the line every day. No one despatch-boat could do this successfully and get back to Key West with the news. Accordingly, several papers employed two boats on the blockade, one at each end. They patrolled the fleet and met near the mid

dle, where they spoke across the tossing water of the straits through a megaphone; and then the steamer which was to act as messenger let down a boat and sent it across to the other. Here a package of despatches, recounting the doings of the last half day, an illustration or two drawn by a special artist, and a number of photographs and films, were taken aboard and transferred to the messenger steamer. With its cargo complete the swift little vessel then sped northward toward Key West, the correspondents who still remained aboard of her working steadily at a long desk in the cabin. If it was at night, the crew of the messenger boat never knew at what moment there might come the shrill challenge of a blockader:

"Ahoy, there! Who are you?"

In such a case, the captain came to instantly, knowing well enough that any indecision might bring a twenty-pound shot crashing through his bows. Not infrequently there were several challenges in a single trip, showing the effectiveness of the blockade.

If the news was very important the messenger boat blew a whistle signal as it entered Key West, and the correspondent on shore hurried out with a launch to bring in the precious budget of reports. A cab was ready at the wharf, and a few minutes later the news was singing over the wires to New York.

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The big, rolling men-of-war were always most friendly to the sociable little despatchboats, even if they did sometimes rouse a weary correspondent out of his bunk at night with a fierce challenge. If anything of importance had happened during the day, an officer was ready to shout the news. In return for the favor, the despatch-boats brought the precious gossip of the line, letters to the men, newspapers, and sometimes light supplies. The Associated Press and the Laffan News Bureau ("The Sun") each had a man on the flagship New York," as well as on the "Brooklyn" of the flying squadron. They were also represented on several other ships by officers who acted as correspondents. When the despatch-boats of these organizations appeared, the men aboard had their reports all written. If it happened to be rough weather, so that the messenger boat dared not venture near the precipice of steel, the news copy was bottled up and tossed overboard, being afterwards picked up by the men of the despatch vessel-unless some prowling shark had seen fit to swallow it.

When the outworks at Matanzas were bombarded by the "New York" and her con

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