Thirdly--No little difficulty has been experienced in ascertaining the
exact whereabouts of my chief fellow sufferer and co-witness; also in
ferreting out the identities of the principal offenders against us. In
these matters I am able to report progress, but not entirely
satisfactory results. Zeno the Great, it would appear, is a person of
unsettled habitation, being found now here, now there, now elsewhere. At
last accounts he was connected with a travelling aggregation known as
De Garmo Brothers' Ten-Million-Dollar Railroad Show; but since that
organisation fell into the hands of the sheriff at Red Oak Junction,
Iowa, I have been unsuccessful in tracing his movements. Nor can I at
this time furnish you with the names and exact addresses of the bearded
ruffian in the long blue blouse, the porter of the hotel, the warder of
the dungeons, or the others implicated in those culminating outrages of
which I was the innocent victim. Repeatedly have I written the mayor of
the town of Abbevilliers, to the general commanding the French military
forces, and to the President of the Republic of France, demanding the
desired information; but--believe it or not, Mister President--to date I
have had not a single word in reply.
Accordingly, until this moment, I have contained myself with all due
restraint; but feeling, as I do feel, that patience has finally ceased
to be a virtue, I am now constrained to address you in the first person
singular, being further emboldened by the reflection that already a bond
of sympathy and understanding exists between us, you for years having
been connected with one of our largest educational institutions and
fonts of learning, namely, Princeton, New Jersey, while I for some
eighteen months have occupied the chair of astronomy and ancient and
modern history at Fernbridge Seminary for Young Ladies, an institution
that in all modesty I may say is also well and favourably known.
If you find opportunity in the press of your undoubtedly extensive and
exacting duties for occasional perusal of the lay-press I think it but
fair to assume that you are more or less familiar with the causes which
actuated me in resigning my place as assistant rector of the parish of
St. Barnabas' at Springhaven and accepting the position which I now
occupy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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