New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1857-04-06
The Man in the Reseryoir.
A NIGHT ADVENTURE.
BY THE LATE CHARLES rEsso HOFFMAN,.


l chose moonlight night, and an hour before the
edfce was closed to visitors secreted myself within
the walls, determined to pass the night on the top
All went as could wish it. The night proved cloudy,
but it was only variable drift Of broken clouds which
obscured the moon. had a walking canerod with
me which would reach to the margin of the water,
and several feet beyond if necessary. To this was at
tached the wire, about fifteen inches in length.
prowled along the parapet for a considerable time
but not single fish could see. The clouds madea
Pickering light and shade that wholly foiled my
steadfast gaze. / was convinced that should they
come up thicker, my whole nights adventure would
be throwa away. "Why should not descend the
soping wall and get nearer level with the fish,
for thus alone can Ihope to see ~ The question
had hardly shaped itself in my mind before had one
leg over the iron railing. L ,-a.s...s g
If you look around you will see now that there
some half a dozen weeds growing here and there,
amid the assures solid masonry. In one the assures
from whence these spring planted foot and began
my descent. The reservoir fuller than it snow and
few strides would have carried me to the margin OF
the water Holding on to the cleft above felt round
with one foot for place to plant it below me.
Just at that moment the flap of a good pound pike
made look round, and the roots Of the weed upon
which partially depended gave way as was in the
act of turning. Sir, ones senses are sharpened in
deadly peril and as live now, distinctly heard
the bells Of Trinity Ginning midnight as rose to the
surface the next instant, immersed in the stone caul
}dron, where must swim for my life, Heaven only
could tell how long!
i,
I am capital swimmer; and this naturally gave
me degree Of selfpossession. Falling as had, OF
course had pitched out some distance from the Stop
ing parapet. A few strokes brought me to the
chamber up the face Of the wall anywhere. hoped
that could. felt certain at least there some
spot where might get hold with my hands, even if
L did not ultimately ascend it.
tried the nearest spot. The inclination of the
wall was so vertical that it did not even rest to
lean against it. Surely, thought, there must be
some fssure like those in which that l.omened weed
had found place for its root.
There was none. My fingers became sore in busy
ing themselves with the harsh and inhosptable
stones. Ny feet slipped from the smooth and Shiny
masonry beneath the water and several times my
face came in contact with the wall when my foothold
gave way on the instant that seemed to have found
some diminutye rocky cleft upon which could stay
myself.
Sir, did you ever see rat drowned in halfflled
hogshead? Flow he swims round and round, and
after vanly trying the sides again and again with his
paws, fixes his eyes upon the upper rim as if he
would look himself out of his watery prison.
thought of the miserable vermn thought of him as
had often watched him thusin dying agones, when a
cruel urchin of eight or ten Boys are horribly cruel
sir-boys, women and savages All chd-like things
are cruel cruel from want of thought and from a
ingenuity although by instinct each of these
is so tender. You may not have observed it, but
savage is as tendon to its own young as boy is to
its favorite puppythe same boy that will torture
kitten out of existence. thought, then | say, of
the rat drowning in halffled cask Of water and
lifting his gaze out of the vessel as he grew and
more desperate, and / flung myself on my back and
floating thus, fixed my eyes upon the face of the
NOON
The moon is well enough, in her way, however you
may look at her but her appearance is, to say the
least of it, peculiar to man floating on his back in
the center Of stone tank, with dead wall of fifteen
or twenty feet rising squarely on every side of him.
The last time had noted the planet with any emo
ton, she was on the wane. Mary was with me-. l
had brought her out here morning to look at the
view from the top of the reservoir She said little of
the scene, but as we talked of childish loves,
that its fresh features were incorporating them
selves with tender memories of the past and / was
content.
There was rich golden haze upon the landscape,
and as my own spirits amid thevoluptuous atmos
phere, she pointed to the waning planet, observable
like faint cash in the welkin, and wondered how |
long it would be before the leaves would fall Strange
girl did she mean to rebuke my joyous mood as if we
her pomp and the sickly moon wasting in the blaze of
noontide, were there to remind of" the gonefor
eyer?' They will all renew themselves. dear Mary"
said encouragingly and there is one who will ever
keep tryse alike with thee and nature through all sea-
sons il thou wilt but be true to one of u.s. and remain
as now child of nature"
A tear sprang to her eye, and then searching her
pocket for her card case she remembered an engage
nent to lie present at Miss Lawson's opening of fall
bonnets at 2 o'clock And yet dear, wild, hayward
Mary, l thought Of her now.
You have probably outlived this sort of thing sir
but looking at the moon, as oated there upturned
to her yellow light thought Of the loved being whose
tears would flow when she heard of my singular fate,
at once grotesque, yet melancholy to awfulness.
And how often we have talked too, of that sylvan
shepherd who spent his damp nights upon the hills,
gazing as do on the lnstrous planet who will revel
with her amid those old supersttions? who, from
own unlegended woods will evoke their yet unde-
tected haunting spirits? Who peer with her in pry-
ing scrutiny into natures laws, and challenge the
whispers of poetry from the voceess throat OF mat
ter2 Who laugh meirily over the stupid guess-work
OF pedants that never mingled with the intntude of
nature, through love exhaustless and a-embracing,
as we have Poor girl, she will be companionless.
Alas! companionless, never-save in the exciting
stages of some brisk Irritation. She will live here
after by feeding other hearts with the loves lore she
has learned from me- and then Pygmaion.like grow
fond Of the images she has herself endowed with
semblance of divinity, until they seem to breathe
back the mystery the soul can truly catch from only
one. .
How anxious she will be- lest the coroner shall
have discovered any of her notes in my pocket
felt chilly as this last reflection crossed my mind.
Partly at thought of the coroner partly at the idea
of Mary being unwillngly compelled to wear mourn-
ing for me- in case of such disclosure OF our en-
gagemert. 1t is provoking thing for girl of nine
teen to have to into mourning for deceased lover
at the beginning OF her second winter in the me-
tropofs.
The water, though, with my motionless position,
must have had something to do with my chiness. !
see, sir, that you think that tell my story with great
levity; but indeed, indeed should grow derious did
venture to hold steadily to the awfuness of my
feelings the greater part Of that night. think in
deed, l must have been most of the time hysterical
with horror, for the vibrating emotious have recapi
tulated did not pass through my brain even as have
detailed them. .O.
| But as am become calm in thought sum
moned up again some resolution Of action
| will begin at that corner (said y and swim around
| the whole inclosure. will swim slowly and agait
| feel the sides of the tank with my feet. If die
must let me perish at least from well directed though
exhausting effort not sink from mere bootless weari
ness in sustaining myself till the morning shall brin:
relief. f.Hr Ha
The sides of the place seemed TO grow higher as
now kept my watery course beneath them. 1t wa
not altogether dead pull. ! had some variety O
emotion in making my circuit When | swan in TIL
shadow it looked to me more cheerful beyond in tn
moonlight. When / swan in the moonlight, | ha
the hope Of making some discovery when | Shout
again reach the shadow. / turned several times o
my back to rest just where those wavy lines woul
meet. The stars looked vicously bright to me tror
the bottom of that well; there was such compan
of them they were so glad in their lustrous rerelry
and they had such space to move in! was alon'
sad to despair, in strange element prsoned, and
solitary gaZer upon their hooking chorus. And "
there was nothing else with which could hold con
munion.
THE CATASTROPHE
! turned upon my breast and struck out almo;
franticolIy orre The stDrs wore th