There is a reminder of the stone which the builders rejected in the
story breezily told by Frank Ward O’Malley in the _Red Cross Magazine_
for July, 1919. It records the heroism of Bobo—Captain Stephen N. Bobo,
whose ancestors long ago undoubtedly spelled their name Beaubeaux.
Steve was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and began early to react against
southern ease. Anyway, as soon as he was graduated from college he made
straight for Honduras. “Thence,” says O’Malley, “Steve went to Chile,
where he started for Sidney on a trading schooner, but liked the little
ship so well that he bought a controlling interest in her en route. At
the Christmas Islands, Skipper Steve Bobo converted his schooner into
a trader instanter—and made a little money on her. He was wrecked off
Easter Island and, with five companions, had to swim seven miles to
land. Skipper Bobo and four of his friends were compelled during that
swim to help keep afloat betimes a sixth, whose swimming technique was
poor.
“He returned to Chile aboard a passing convict ship. He made a short
visit home, then was off to the interior of China, where he made a
little money. In turn he went to India; to the Philippines; to Hawaii,
where he bought swamp lands, parceled the property and sold it to the
Chinese tara farmers, and made a little money on that; to the State of
Washington on a hydro-electric venture and made a little money on that;
to the San Joaquín Valley of California, and made a little money at
ranching.”
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._