Cairo. Africa. Feb. 3.
Al: Well Al here I am writeing you an other letter today and I dident know weather I would have time or not and I realy aint got much time but I got some good news and I cant wait till tommorow on the Ship bord but will write to you a bout it now and male the letter before we leave.
Well old Pal it looks like my bad lucks over and I wont have no more bad luck but good luck from now on and thats what Im going to tell you a bout it.
When we was comeing a way from the party this p.m. I and steve Evans was to gather and he says well what have you boughten here in Cairo to take home to the family and I says I havent boughten nothing because I havent saw nothing that was worth a plaster and he says well if you aint boughten nothing for your family what did you buy for your self and I says I dident buy nothing and he says Your a sucker to not buy nothing here where evry things a bargun and you cant make no miss take what ever you buy. So I says Well I dont want none of there barguns because they dont sell nothing that I want or got no use for it.
Then he dident say nothing for a wile and finely he says I wonder if I could find him now and I says what are you talking a bout and he says O I dident know I says any thing out loud but I was just thinking so I says What was you thinking a bout and he says he dident like to tell me because he might may be not be able to find the man and then I would be dissapointed. So I says What man was you looking for and he says Well I will tell you a bout it but if we cant get a hold of him again you musent get dissapointed and I says no I wouldent and then he sprung it on me.
Well Al it seems that the 1st day we was in Cairo he was walking down the st. a lone and he run in to a africa man standing on the coroner and the man called him to 1 side and ast him did he want the biggist bargun that a man ever got and Evans says what was it and the man says he had a scarab from Cops tume and Cops was the chief of police here in Cairo 4 thousend yrs. a go. A scarab Al is a bug thats turned to stone and use to be a live like any bug but most bugs when they die mole a way till they aint nothing left of them but a scarab gets hard and the longer they been dead the harder they get.
Well Al theys only a bout a ½ a doz. scarabs in the world and they averige $50.00 dollars a peace is what it costs to get them and of coarse they wouldent no body be a sucker enough to pay $50.00 for a dead bug but scarabs is some thing more then plane bugs. There luck peaces Al and the man that owns 1 cant never have no real bad luck but nothing but good luck all the wile. This scarab that the africa man had was the only 1 in the world from Cops tume and Evans says Cops was the luckest man in africa because he dide 4 thousend yrs. a go.
So Evans says to the man Leave me see your scarab and the man showed it to him but made him stand a way from him far enough so as Evans couldent knock him down and take it a way from him but Evans seen in a min. that it was a real scarab and not no fake so he ast the man what would he take for it and the man says ½ a porus plaster or a bout $10.00 and Evans ast him why was he selling it so cheap and the man says he picked it up in the st. and it dident bellong to him and he was hard up and out of work and he couldent find the man or womman that losted it and so he would half to sell it and get what he could for it.
So at 1st Evans was going to buy it off of him and then he thot to him self that he dident need no luck peace because hed been playing right clost to the right field seats in St. Louis and nothing never hapened to him and he says thats the most dangerus place in the world to play and besides hes left hand it and what more could a man ask and besides he couldent a ford to spend no more money on the trip so he told the man no he couldent buy the scarab and the man says your
