The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-12-08

OeECoee, 10
with foam, humning lullaby and the moon The pale
eye ofnght locks down il with sorrow. r. kIeias
Mare senza pescL mont senza lisno, nomin senzs
moi ic5yh D1sleh.D ,ilt 5aQ r5stit t1Al ~ l1lpff
George is in quite pitiable way indeed, and
has wofully receded from that sleek, laughing
darkey, who sailed two months since out of
New York. He has fallen victim to his own
generosity, and is eaten up by Atra Cura-a
doubly-blaek pestilence in his case. His hair
is not half so kinky as it used to be, and his
skin looks duh, his eye is heavy, his step un-
elastic. Beyond all doubt, he is that saddest
of all mortal speetacles-a melancholy darkey
And this, too, in spite of Genoa and'its sunny
smile, in spite of having nothing to do, in spite
of the intense seasoning of genial philosophy
with which his whole nature was seasoned.
Aye, It's melancholy darkey that kicks his
heels in the courtyard of the Falazzo Cieco
yawning, and talking to HIMSELF with intervals
of attention to certain spots which fea-acapunc.
ture gave him an excessive consciousness Of.
he has been ten days in Genoa, and in those
ten days has actually ceased to cut pigeon
wing more than ten times q day. He has ex
hausted both his own resources and the sights
of the city. He has been to the opera, but
didn't like it. The Marionetti have taken their
departure for Milan; the popular buffo has
failed TO make him laugh more than once, and
the street-singers are no longer able to arouse
him into generous coin.showers. He has sur
feited himself with sweets at every shop, but
they only give him the dyspepsia, and he longs
now, with the longing of miserable nostalgia,
for a couple of dozen "Sound oysters on the
halfshell, or a big plate of clam-chowder, as
Gully Molly knows how to prepare it. All
Molly THAT thought chokes him. He has
gambled with some of the chrome colored hang
ers-on of IL PaldzzO CieeO for cigars, at their
strange finger game, la D,Ora-a sort of !" Simon
says wiggle-waggle but one oi the bandits
drew a knife upon him, and his sclf.respect pre-
vents him from renewing acquaintance with
such dangerous sport. If he walks on the
street, the children yell baboo' after him, and
the priests cross themselves Significantly. Only
yesterday, he dotted his hat to pretty English
nursemaid, and was replied to with the oppro-
brious epithet of SNOWFALL" So his ways are
lonely, and his heart within him is bitterness
and gall. His only hope is in watching the
hotels, to learn if Mr.. and Miss Beale have ar
rived, and in looking for the Semaphore on the
mole of the harbor to telegraph the approach of
the steamer from Marseilles. ..a
Why, then, this SO intense righteousness of
George, in spite of the sunshine---that sunshine
in which invalids love to die--in spite of his
money, and of his dignity ralet de chambre !?
In spite also of mora and the theatre-the pref
ty harbor and the dainty sweetmeats-in spite,
finally, of this grand Paiazzo CiecO, of whose
lessee and occupant he is the most prominent
outward and visible sign? 1t cannot be his
separation from Molly, for he is used to that,
and, moreover, has very little talent for domes-
ITCHY, at the best. No; there is another cause,
and that is, simply, because within that palace
there is a dark SHADOW, whose chilling infu-
ence has extended itself over Georges very
SOUL and awes him with the perpetual sugges-
ton of its malign mystery. So the Pontins
marshes send forth their subtitle malaria, and,
Lby night, neighboring walls reek with moisture,
are grown over with fungus, sported upon by
filthy and Shiny insects, and rot away by de-
grees. So, in the East, when the plague riots
around you, hearing the wild cries of mourning,
feeling how the ever7sRrfaasfReq fy0at Sf efirfea
t9aa, dGaYya4 peppihf your blood shrinks back to
your heart, and you shudderingly recognise
yourself for the next victim.
For Beae Lloyd---or Mr.. William Beale, as
we shall have to know him i'll Genoa-is there,
within the palace; and he is exceedingly bad
company for any poor darkey having soul,
| being fond of the sunshine, and prone to show
his white teeth in pleasant laughter All of us
have a certain timidity towards that which We
cannot understandable being exactly afraid of
it. but desiring to be out of the sphere of its in
fluence since, being once cOmprehended, it
may turn out something very terrible indeed.
Especially is this our case with respect to
shadoW-mysteries = mysteries, namely, that
come between US and enlightenment with the
manifest and palpable effect OF a cloud which,
whether it contain lightning and thunder or not,
fails not in either case to make all around us
DARKER than it was previous to the clouds COM
ing. Now, this was Georges case, very exactly.
| He could not by any means comprehend the
man whom he had yet saved. Indeed, it is
| probable that this man could not understand
himself For two months he had been going
in,odrd, so to speak, digging away at his own
grief, toying with it, and curiously specializing
upon its form and substance, color and dimen
sions. He had ceased to view himself in the
light of outside laws had refused to measure
himself by other standards, had declined to as
sociate or have intercourse of any kind with
men, and so he had insensibly come to invest
his crime with a species of metaphysical cover
ing, had clad it in garments not belonging to it,
had set it up before him en- graade tenue, and
was now prepared to worship it, as the Yezid
worships his devil, with curiously- blended
sense of shuddering horror and awful rever
ence--like the Oboe man before Fetiche,
which his morbid, dark, selfish brain has taught
him to hedge about with terrifying and destruc-
tive attributes. $50, .,,,,I ..5.
There is no wonder that honest simple-heart
ed George felt the shadow finging across his
ways and shuddered. The merest child will
shudder at contact with the bars and bolts and
drear walls Of prison, though all unconscious
Of their meaning and intention; and here was
this merry lover Of the sun and the song, com;
PEELED to behold his patron as it we're locked
close in dungeon, as deeply secret as the
heart of the great pyramid, reached by no pos.
sible ray Of sunlight, unapproached by any
breath of pure air, and drowned in eternal dark
ness, save for the lurid glare of the fires by
which he was performing his strange, mystic
and las George could not help thinking) dia-
| bolcal rites. Nor was George very far out of
| the way respecting the diabolical nature OF
these rites. Though it was a simple process of
cookery and of preparation of food for his own
spirit, Mr.. Beale was feeding upon his own
thoughts, and to do that morbidly is surely to do
it instigante didbolo. 1t is singular indeed upon
what food the spirit is able to subsist-nay,
more, to rejoice in, to get fat upon. The dis
parity seems great enough between simple
bread and meat and your pates de Joie g'as,
your potage aur ,.ids des 0iseaNr, your Jricds6e
q la 6iche de mer--but spiritual appetites have
far wider aud more extensive range. Arsenic
seems deadly enough poison, yet men and
women have gained in figure and flesh, in wind
and strength and beauty, by its use; aad 80,
| some souls have attained An unnataral develop
ment by resorting to equally unnatural provis-
ion. Contrast William Milburn, and Theodore
Parker, in their respective estimates Of spiritual
necessities, and you will grasp my meaning
So Beale Lloyd, left to himself and his disease,
fed himself upon his crime, instead OF trying to
eradicate it from his system. Nor is it strange
that he should do so. Leave the most petty
murderer to his own thoughts, in the dark cell
of punishment, and he will almost certainly ar