The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1860-01-05

it resembled, indeed, the old lanes and
courts of St. Giles's, (only still with the
mansion and infinitely more wretched.
$50 then" I said, edo you see pow
erty here at last" and / felt with proud
satisfaction my one pound twelve. A
miserable looking lad now was beside
me. He was resting on a heap Of bro
ken rubbish. Looking at him, OBJ
served that he was deformed, but not
like any deformity I had seen in the
living. I cannot describe how the de-
formity differed, except that he showed
me his hands, and they were not like
human hands, but we're distorted into
shapeless knots and Jumps. And / said:
"No wonder you are poor, for you can
not work with those hands. Mans ply
seal distinction from the brutes is
chiefly in the formation of his hand
Your hand is not the hand Of man"
And the lad laughed, and that was
the FIRST laugh had heard amongst the
dead.
"But are you not very unhappy"
said l in amazement.
"Unhappyl mol am dead"
"Did you bring your infrmities with
you, or did you acquire them here"
"Here"
was appalled,.
Chow? by what misfortune or what
sin?"
The lad laughed again, and jumping
off his block Of rubbish, sidled away,
mocking at me as he went with vulgar
gesture.
"Catch me at explaining" said he,
and was lost
Now a sort of despair, but an intel
lectual despair, seized me. 1 say intel
lectual, for with all my amazement and
all my sense of solitude in that crowd,
never felt sad nor unhappy on the
contrary, I kept constantly saying to
myself, "After all, it is a great thiug to
have done with life. And to feel so
we'll and so young!" But my intellect
oppressed me; it was in my way; my Gu
riosity was so intense, my perpleXlties
so unsolved, even by conjecture.
I got out Of the squalid part of the
building; and in a small lobby 1 en-
countered a solitary being like myself.
1 joined him.
/ said: "You and I seem both alone
in this vast space, Can We not explore
it in company"
"Certainly not my way is not your
way, nor yours mine. No two have the
same paths through inhnity."
"But," said I, angrily, "T always uu-
derstood on the earth, that when we left
it we should 90 into a region of spirits.
Where are now the angels to guide us?
see them not. see them not. 1 have
seen poverty, and suffering, and brute
force. But of blessed spirits above
mankind have behold none. And if
this be infnity, such spirits must be
here"
"Find them out for yourself, then, as
must find them out for myself This
is my way, that is yours"
zone word more; since cannot dis
cover those who have gone before me,
whom I loved, 1 will wait for some one
whom 1 have left on earth, and he will
be my companion, for he will be as
strange to this place as I am, and will
want a friend, as 1 want some one. Tell
me where I can watch and see the dead
come here from life"
ayes, that 1 can tell you. There are
plenty of places in which you will see
the dead drop down-there is such a
place close by. You see that passage;
take it, and 60 straight on"
did as the man told me. I came to
an open space always between blind
walls, but the outer wall seemed far
loftier, soaring up, and soaring up, till
the dull blue sky that rested on it ap-
peared immeasurably remote.
And down at my feet from this wall
dropped a man. "You are one of the
dead, said 1, approaching anxiously,
'just left the world Of the living?"
He seemed bewildered for a moment;
at last he answered, rubbing his eyes,
and in a kind of dreary voice: "Yes,
am dead.
"Let JUS look at each other" said I;
'pcrhaps we we're friends in life
We did look at each other without
recognition. But, indeed, as 1 had
been told, not amongst the myriads I
had met, had l recognized one being I
had ever known on earth.
"Well," said I, "this is the strangest
place There is no getting on in il
alone; no one will put you into the way
Of things. Let you and / be friends
now, whatever we we're before. Take
my arm; we cannot fail TO be more COM
Portable if we keep together"
The man, who seemed half-asleep.
took my arm, and we went on together.
was very much pleased aud exceed
ingly proud TO have found at last com
pauion. 1 told him of all 1 had wit
messed and experienced, Of all my doubts
and perplexities. He listened with very
little interest or attention; still 1 was
glad that had got him safe by the arm.
"But the first thing" said /, "is 10
find a lodging to ourselves; and are you
not hungry? am. By the by, what
money have you brought with your
Thereon my man looked at me sus-
pioiously, and eXtricating himself from
my arm, broke off and though / hasten
ed to follow him, he was lost in the
infnity, and I felt that l was once
u,ore amidst inGnitv-- -dood and oIoro