DE ROUGEMONT AGAIN

Timaru Herald, Volume CVII, Issue 16432, 2 January 1918, Page 5

DE ROUGEMONT AGAIN

A SOLDIER'S AMUSING CHARACTER. "I havo somo amusing news Tor you," writes a wounded Now Zealand soldior from London to a friend in Otago. "The other day. :ls 1 was wlalking through a little-used short-cut to tho Strand. 1 \v:;.s accostvd In - a . rather shabby-gontvel chap o: about 00. Hid overcoat was o|>en, ami under it showed a shining frock coat, and] on his head was a ; r n'a\v slouch hat, 1 a few inches too MiKil! for him. He' aslced :ne peroral questions about New I Zealand, which was a country lie si'em-i c-d we'll acquainted with. He said he had been "rambling" there. When he lived in Australia • frequently went across for a "ramble"'; it was a fine country to "ramble''' in. Had 1 rjieii known who lie was I mi-lit have t.oid him thnt he had upon occasion "rambled" pretty far from the well of truth, for ho was no other thjn Louis dc Rougemont. I "He told mo he was a writer of stories, which made me remark that ' might have read some of then', ami led mo to ask his name. The surpiisfwith which I "learned that he was ile Rougoniont almost deprived me of the power of speech. I had a lone talk with hij?. and we laughed together ovor his "article in the 'Wide World." Ho told me (lie speaks with a -or|0: ' You know—every writer—lil.es to have—a joke—with the pub'ie—sometimes.' Then a splutter of mcrnn ont. He lias spent the last si* years in Turkestan, Persia, Tiber;, jnrf round about there. He is enc*>-od in writing an account of his travels, .vhicb he s&ya is to.be published bv an American magazine. As he did iu;i s-y which magazine, I louchid* tint he has not yet deecidcd which one slia'.l he favoured with his precious 353. "His last words were; 'I — yon will live to grow one Hice tli's," and ho fondly stroked a soncwhat scracgv leard, which I should not be a*, all proud of. Anywav, I was pleased to meet the 'old bird'* for ho is an interesting and a picturesque char-, acter." I