The Republican journal., 1871-10-26

| at length attained the mOCeSb competence
for which | had long labo1ed in vain, and
could say to myself, when sat down il
my easy-chair in the evening and lit my
pipe, Now, Juslus Weissenbart, thou
hast done all that the earthly and corpo-
real part of thee demands for its susie
| nance; hencetorth thou art free to serve
the cause Of science, and, it may be, even
to add little grain of knowledge to the
sum of human learning | went to work
with all earnestness. | filled my house
with rare plants, rare fossils, rare miner
ais. | paid high tor curiosities of every
kind. Once l gave q handful of thalers
| for the carcass OF donkey which exhibit
| ed a singular maltormatiol of the spinal
column. Its dissection led me to one Of
the most interesting discoveries which
have ever made. All, mcin Herr! you
who are man of amusement and adven-
ture, cannot fathom the delight | felt in
cutting up that glorious donkey But
once before in my whole life did | eX-
! perience the same pleasure, and that was
whe, ! was called in, Il little while after
first came here, to treat a patient whose
case exhibited some very unusual and
perplexing symptoms. examined him
reflected; the truth flashed upon me. |
| flung my hat on the ground, and, embrac-
ing the sick man with rapture, cried out,
i congratulate you my friend you have
revived a disease which has been I'M
known for the last SIX centuries ,"
The idea of such consolation admins
tered TO an invalid was too much for my
gravity. laughed till | was fairly ex-
hausted and Herr Weissenbartve very good
humoredly Joined in the merriment though
evidently without the least suspicion OF
having given any cause for it.
''Well, mein Herr, he continued, ''you
will doubtless have remarked it rs SIN
gular law of nature that whenever a man
lives all by himself, in a particularly old
and shabby-looking house. he invariably
acquires the reputation of being immense
ly rich Perhaps my paying so high for
| fossils and skeletons gave some color to
the myth in my case bat at any rate
was soon known in Heidelberg as the
rich Professor Weissenbart,' and my
friends began to warn me that if did
not take care might some day chance to
get robbed
Now, 1T that time | had but one ser
want who had been with me many years,
and was beginning to get old and feeble
Every one said that he was not enough to
take care of the house by himself, and
that ld better have Il Younger man TO
help him; but | didn't like to veX poor
old Johann by seeming to think him past
work, so Just let things 60 on rs they
were. lie was a capital servant, and did
his work as well AS man could do; but he
had one failing. Every now and then.
when the chance offered, he would''-a
significant gesture of the professors hand,
as if lifting glass to his lips, completed
the sentence.
"H'm rather bad fault in a man upon
whom the safety OF the house depended"
observed |.
80 thought, answered the professor;
land more than once | doubted whether
1t might not be rs we'll to take my friends
advice after all, and engage Il second ser
want. But kept putting it off and put
ting it of till at last | got punished for
my hesitation, as YOU shall heas.
s'Onn rirht | bad sent -ToIra,r" ..,-4
do some marketing, and was expecting
him back every minute. As q rule. when
ever he went abroad he took the house
key (of which had duplicate) along
with him; so that nobody could get in
till he came back. unless | chose TO let
them. He was very punctual on. the
whole; but this time, ten-fifteen--min-
utes passed, and there was no SIGN Of
him. | began TO fear that he might have
taken a glass too much, as he sometimes
did, and was just thinking of going to
look after him, when, all at once, | heard
far down below, noise rs if the house
door had been suddenly opened, and then
a step come up the stairs right toward my
door | have quick ear of my own,
and it struck me directly that the tread
was tirmer and heavier than old Johann's
[ guessed at once that there had been foul
play somewhere, and for 4 moment
thought of locking my door and calling
for help through the window; but, on
second thought, decided that it would
be better to let the intruder, (whoever he
might be) come right up to see what he
really wantcd.'
| looked at the professor with involun-
tary admiration. To hear this little, del
icate, benevolent-looking old gentleman
talking so coolly of deliberately allow
ing robber (perhaps more than one)
to march right into his room at night
without stirring u step to give the alarm
simply because he ''thought it better to
see what he wanted had really heroic
flavor about it; and ! bent eagerly for
ward to hear the sequel OF the adventure.
''The door opened pursued my friend
land in came Il tall, hurley fellow, with
Il black mask on his face and pistol in
hand. The moment he was in, he locked
the door behind him, put the key in his
pocket, and came forward to the table
where | was sitting
Now, my old 'un,' said he, with a
chuckle, we've got the house all to our
selves. Your servant is lying fast asleep
under the club-room table at the Thirsty
Fox. Drugged beer is fine thing to
make a man sleep sound, and he won't
wake much before tomorrow morning
In the meantime, out with your money, i,
OF you're a dead man..
ale cooked his pistol rs he spoke, and
levelled it at my forehead.
"You will think mein Herr, that must
have been frightened; but, strange as it
may seem, | was not. Had / met this
man in the street, or out in the open
country, he would have been on his own
ground but here, within the walls of
my laboratory, he was on mine. He
came to me in the guise of u new experi-
iiiSiio, .tht lSlu illil III MY power. Dc
fore he had done speaking, I had tried
him in my own mind. condemned him,
and sentenced him to DEATH
Soft and pleasant as the old mans voice
was, there was Il hard metallic ring in it
Just then, and an ominous compression of
the small delicate mouth, which showed
me, for the first time, what this quiet,
good-humored scholar might be capable
of doing. In truth, the cruelty of passion
or revenge is as nothing compared to
that OF science. Parrhasius crucifying his
slave in order to gain more vivid idea
of the sutferings which he painted
Michael Angelo studying with cool anaIy-
tical keenness the loathsome minuti;e of
the plague e-hospitals- DR.. lie Cat keeping
horses and dogs alive for weeks under his
scalpel, only to intlict upon them more
varied and complicated tortures-such
examples are terribly suggestive; and |
could not help thinking that, had l been a
robber, l should have been very 10th to
pOtruSt myself to tho tonJor ,,ora;oc Of