The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1871-06-17
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Mr.. EDITOR Il have been a good deal interested
in the " SummerieId story" and after reading the
article with that caption in last weeks ADVERTISER,
1 hunted up the onion, to which you refer, and
there found the whole story.
A more ingenious dovetailing' together OF
isolated events, to produce 4 plausible whole, has
not appeared outside of the covers of our current
sensational literature, within my remembrance
My object in writing this, is TO give the facts in
my possession to the public, as far at least as it con-
Germs poor - Summerield,' or, as = very rightly
calls him Alfred w. Arlington.
To those, with whom this erratic genius contracted
q friendship, he was a phenomenon. And while all
acknowledged his mental superiority, still there
flashed out occasionally evidence of q want Of stabil-
ity of mind, and n disposition to speculate upon the
existence of agencies around Us, yet to be utilized,
that would enable the one who could control them TO
exercise almost omnipOtent power over the elements.
The necessity that forced him to lay aside his re-
searches into the regions of the unknown-and exer-
else his talent IN a manner that would bring him
bread, weighed heavily upon his mind.
Often did he sigh for the possession of wealth to be
expended in experiments, and many were the mid
night hours that he passed in wild dreams of great
ness, when he should have reaped the fruit of patient
toll, in giving TO the world the - grand secret - that
then lay half formed within his breast. Soon his
burning desire to develop his theory led him to
abandon his professional pursuits, and he wandered
forth from the scenes of his rising greatness, ever
accompanied by his " familiar the dread secret
nat Slowly out surely ueNelOpel Itself 10 MS nelteu
Imagination, more and more each day, until the idea
became his master, and the life of the man was there
after consecrated to its service.
To one person after another, did he cautiously dis
close his secret as such and when met by Incredibly, he
endeavored to prove that he held within his breast the
formula for the compounding of an agent that would
annihilate the power that binds together the simple
elements that go TO form our atmosphere, and, in diff
ferent proportions, the water that covers our globe
he failed TO convince, even when on a small scale he
demonstrated the power Of the agent he had com-
pounded.
I never heard that he had made even one convert,
until the communication purporting to emanate from
the pen of Leonidas Parker was Published in the
Union.
1t is a matter of history, that there was an I'M
fortunate man killed by falling, or jumping from the
platform of a car, while the train to which it be-
longed, was passing the point on the Central Pacific
Railroad, known as tCape Horn But that this
man was, Alfred W. Arlington, the holder Of the
'' great secret . we are prepared to ~deny-all of the
posthumous papers of the late Leonidas Parker, to
the contrary Notwithstanding.
1t may seem strange that a dying man (supposing
the Leonidas Parker document to be genuine) should
leave behind him such a confession. But when the
alleged murder has for its victim a man whom we
know to be living at this present time, our wonder
is changed into a~stonishment, at the stupendous pro-
portion of the joke.
In conclusion L would remark, that if Arlington
possessed now one half the fire in his nature that he
in the summer of 1886, when be first made him.
eddy call upon the writer Of the Union article at
' my Office, > and make it lively for him.
As it is, old age has found him still believing in
the greatness of the . secret - that he alone possesses
and confident in the belief that he can 9 set the
ocean on fire." ARKAHsAw TRAVELLER.