The Union and eastern journal. [volume] (Biddeford [Me.]) 1854-1858, 1854-08-11
MIS- CELLAN E0US.
THE WORST OF ALL THE GENu.
From the Country Gentleman.


THE BEST OF ALL TIE FAIRY STORIES NOT IN THE ARA.
BIAS NIGHTS.
Once upon time man, whose name
we will call Alchymy, was diging in an out
Of the way corner ofa laboratory. He was
surrounded by variety Of strange odd.
shaped implemenis-crucibles, yials alem.
bcs, retorts and cisterns. Upon small
but powerful furnace, which was glowing
with a red heat, there stood vessel that
was spuming lorth gaseous vapour which
was carefully entraped by means Of cool.
ing apparatus, and when condensed was
conveyed away by ciphOns and cOnducr.pile es
into u hagon OF considerable dimensions
Altogether the strange, haggard thoughtful
look Of the man, and the mysterious looking
tools, and the glare Of the heated furnace
made the plac" appear more like the haunt
OF some wizard or uecrOmanctr, than the stu.
dy of an alchymist; and his apparatus was
certainly more suggestive of distillery
Of poison than good and wholesome drinks
However, he was evidently bent upon eli.
ther hiding or burying some portion or sub
tie essence he had just made, for a vesse
containing ruby colored liquid was stand
ing close by the hole in which he was n,
work But as it was the custom OF some OF
the early alchymists to bury certain essences
in tho earth FROM the commencement to The
end Of the quadrature OF the NOON, in order
that nature might perfect their labors. the
old man dug away with yignr that was more
in unison with youth than age. But
suddenly he struck his spade against some
hard substance and stopping, he said, Z" Hol.
10 have found either IA box gold or a jar
Of transmitting auid buried here by my
predecessor. All. All he went on chuck.
ling, "lalways thought should lind some.
thing in this old laboratory il | only dug deep
enough"
The old fellow went on leisurely remov
ing the earth, every now and then stopping
To eximine his prize and ut length he had
removed the soil from The obstacle, and then
ascertained that he had found glass bottle
something like those upon his own shelves,
and which one sees nowadays in our chem
lists shops; and we stand and stare at there
tialtened sides, long scriggy necks, and mys.
teIious signs US intently as Achlymy did al
the one he had so unexpectedly found. The
old man was OF course, very much delighted
with It's treasurtrove, for he expected to reap
the reward ofsome alchymist's labors, who
had probably died, and made no sign OF
the secret he had left in his laboratory
AT hrst he handled it aud examined curious.
ly,then he tried to guess at its contents and
then he did what most sensible people would
have done first, he looked ut the cork and
discovered thu, j, was carefully and heavily
sealed.
IL was not, however, the golden seal Of
solomon, that was stamped on the bottle,
us that seal was only used, according 70
Eastern historians. when il was necessary %
confne powerful genie; but it was the
seal Of great efficacy nevertheless, for /, was
the seal PRuDEScE, the meek. eyed damsel
of Wisdom; and the device exhibited the
beautiful daughter Of temperance ofier.
ing goblet OF water to Exercise, and il wa.
struck in virgin wax.
Achlymy looked at the bottle again and
again presently he held il up to the light
and then he saw that it contained brigh,
clear LIQUID but somehow. though it looked
even brighter and clearer than water yet
there was juicy, oily humor, lurking and