GLORIOUS FAILURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 June 1941, Page 6

GLORIOUS FAILURE

PERSIAN HEROINE'S EXPLOIT. Hai-Mehi lived in Persia in the 18th century. She was 18 when she learnt from her aunt that her father had been a prisoner for 15 years, so she walked away from her home intent, upon finding him and rescuing him. It was mad, of course, a scheme doomed at the outset to failure, but she kept on. For a whole month she walked through a burning land, her feet cut by the hot sand, but she went on again till she reached a town by the Tigris, and there—near by—was a castle in mid-stream, and in the dungeon of the castle lay her father. Poor Hai-Mehi had no money, no friends, no power, but still she kept on. She hired herself to a canvas manufacturer, and worked hard for four months. Then she learnt to swim. Every day she swam a little farther against the strong current, and at last she was strong enough to reach the naked rock. There, at last, she saw her father peering through the prison bars. She whispered orders to him after telling him who she was, and one night soon after she swam out again, and tied files to a length of cotton he had unwoven. Another night she swam across, heard the bars break, and found her father in her arms—a poor, broken, skeleton of a man. There was no time to lose. They plunged iqto the tide together, the man .sinking, but the strong daughter bore him up till they reached the farther shore, where unhappily the cruel governor of the castle, who had seen the attempted escape, was waiting for them. Before sunset both were executed. What a glorious failure was hers!