Page:From Constantinople to the home of Omar Khayyam.djvu/41

 FROM CONSTAI^TmOPLE TO THE HOME OF OMAR KHAYYAM

CHAPTER I ONCE AGAIN EASTWARD HO!


 * K you've 'eard the East a-callin', why, you won't 'eed nothin' else.'

— Kipling, Mandalay, 30.

A Charity Ball and a journey to the East seem to have little connection, yet so they had in the case of the third of my four visits to the Land of the Dawn. A few words will suffice to explain. It was at the Charity Ball in Yonkers, my home on the Hudson, that I chanced to be talking with my friend Alexander Smith Cochran, about the success which the even- ing had proved despite the furious storm of snow that raged outside with all the violence of early January, Somehow — per- haps recalling snows I had encountered in Iran — our conver- sation veered to travel in the Orient, and a moment later we had resolved to take a trip together to Persia and Central Asia, starting in the spring, when travel would be easier in the Province of the Sun.

The weeks went swiftly by, and we found ourselves betimes on an ocean liner, speeding for Europe with messages of hon voyage in our mail — among them Hamlet's wish of *well be with you, gentlemen ! ' There was a spirit of eagerness for the prospective journey which will best be appreciated by those who have traveled in Eastern lands. Hour after hour on board the ship we talked of Persia, Trans caspia, and Turki- stan, of India, of Oriental problems, and of Alexander the

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