Litchfield enquirer., 1874-08-20
PROFESSOR FARGO.
T. CONTINUED.

| CSsiuutisSii-fs, 1HS.i0tete't, SdS utiil ft1
 the Inglorious tenure of militia service, and was only put forward to help him to
 make figure on Professor Fargo's plat
 form. 1t was part of the general hnm-
 buggery of tue attempt t., Gribe people 10
 listen t" whoit--oin.- trnths-trnths the
 neglect of which was its own chastise-
 meht. ''l have always had passion for
 scientific research, and have squandered l my substance in experiments which the
 world called fruitless They were curious,
 they were beantiful, they were divine!
 But they wouldn't turn any ones mill or l grind any ones corn, and 1 was treated
 like medisval alchemist, astray ill the
 modern world. Chemistry, physics. math-
 ematics, philology, medicine-I've dug
 deep in them all. Each, in turn, has been a
 passion to which I've given my days and
 my nights. But apparently haven't the
 art of finding favor for my ideas-of
 sweetening the draught so that people will
 drink it. So here am, after all my wig
 ills and ventures, an obscure old man,
 ruined in fortune, broken down i'll health
 and sadly diminished in hope. trying hard
 to keep afoat by rowing in the same boat
 as gentleman who turns tables and raises ghosts. I'm proud man, sir, and de- votee of the exact sciences. Yoa may | WuaJ l 1ItLlC I9nClCU
 ten years ago that I was ever going to
 make capital, on a mountebank's booth, | of the pathetic infirmity of my daughter. ]"
 The young girl, while her father talked,
 sat gazing at him in wistful surprise. I
 inferred from it that this expansive mood was rare; she wondered what long story Inc was telling. As he mentioned her, I gave her a sudden glance. Perceiving it,
 she blushed slightly and turned away The movement seemed at variance with what l had supposed to be her characteristic indifference to observation. 'I have good reason," he said, ''for treating her with more than the tenderness which such an infirmity usually commands. At the time of my marriage, and for some time after, was performing series of curious chemical researches. My wife was won- derfully pretty little creature. She used to come tripping and rustling about my laboratory, asking questions of the most comical ignorance, peeping and rummag- ing everywhere, raising the lids of jars. and making faces at the bad smells. One day while she was in the room I stepped out on tho balcony to examine something which had placed to dry in the sun. Sud- denly I heard terrific explosion; it smashed the window-glass into atoms. Rushing i'll, found my wife in a swoon on the floor. A compound which I had placed to heat on furnace had been left too long; 1 had underestimated its activ- ity. My wife was not visibly injured, but when she came to her senses again, she found she had lost her hearing. It never returned. Shortly afterwards my daugh- ter was born-born the poor deaf creature you sec. I lost my wife and l gave up chemistry. As advanced in life, I be- came convinced that my ruling passion was mathematics. I've gone into them very deeply; I consider them the noblest acquisition of the human mind, and don't hesitate to say that I have profound and original views on the subject. If you have head for such things Icould open great vistas to you. But I'm afraid you haventl Ay, it's desperate ly weakwitted generation. The world has a horror of concentrated thought; it wants the pill to be sugared; it wants every thing to be made easy; it prefers the braz- en foolery that you and sat through last night to the divine harmonies of the in- finite science of numbers. That's why I'm beggar, droning out my dreary peti
 tion and pushing forth my little girl to catch the coppers. That's why I've had to strike partnership with a vuglar char latan. was long time coming to it, but I'm we'll in for it now. I won't tell you how, from rebuff to rebuff, from fail ure to failure, through hope deferred and justice denied, I have finally come to this. It would overtax both your sympathy and the stories could relate of the impenetra- empire of Routine. I squandered my property, confess it, but not in the vul- gar way It was carnival of high re- search, long debauch of experiment.
 When had melted down my last cent in the consuming crucible, I thought the world might be willing to pay me some- thing for my results. The world had bet ter uses for it's money than the purchase of sovereign truth! I become solicitor; went from door to door, offering people a choice of twenty superb formulated schemes, the paltriest of which contained the germs of a peaceful revolution. The poor unpatented visions are at this shour all in bundle up stairs in my trunk In the midst of my troubles 1 had the inef- fable pleasure of finding that my little girl was genus. don't know why it should have been pleasure; her poor father's genius stood there before me us a warn- ing But it was delight to find that her little imprisoned, soundless mind was not blank. She had inherited my passion
 for numbers. My folly had taken a pre- cious faculty from her; 1t was but just I should give her another. She was in
 good hands for becoming perfect. Her gift IS rare one among women, but she
 is not of the common feminine stuff She's very simple-strangely simple in some ways. She has never been talked to by women about petticeats, nor by mon about love. She doesn't reason; her skill at figures is kind of intuition. One day it came into my head that might lecture for livelihood. Ihad listened to windy orators, in crowded halls, who had less to say than L So l lectured, sometimes to twenty people, sometimes to five, once to no one'at all. One morning, some six months ago, was waited upon by my friend there. He told me frankly that he had show which didn't draw as power fully as it deserved, and proposed that, as also seemed unable to catch the public ear, we should combine our forces and carry popularity by storm. His entertain ment, alone, was rather thin; mine also seemed so lack the desirable consistency; but mixture of the two might produce an effective compound. I had but five dollars in my pocket. I disliked the man,
 and believe in spiritualism about as
 much as believe that the sun goes round
 the earth. But we must live, and made | bargain, but it keeps us alive. I took l a few hints from the Professor, and bright ened up my lucky formulas little. Still,
 we had terribly thin houses. I couldn't
 play the mountebank; it's faculty I lack.
 At last the Professor bethought himself
 that possessed the golden goose. From
 the mountebank's point of view pretty
 little deaf and dumb daughter. who could
 work miracles on the blackboard, was n
 treasure to a practical mind. The idea of
 dragging my poor child ank her pathetic idiosyncrasies before the world was extre-
 mely repulsiye to me; but the Professor laid the case before the little maid herself
 and at the end of a fortnight she inform
 cd him that she was ready to make her
 curtsey on the platform as lightning calculator. I consented to let her try, and vOu sec flat she succeeded She