The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1877-10-05
Se'rrf Sforp.
MESSALINA.

accompanied the Board On a visit to the
insane asylum at. While there !
heard and saw it. As / then heard and
saw, now tell it:
"Mademoiselle was preparing to ap-
pear in her great part, 'Messalina, said
the strangely old-looking young man,
apparently one of the doctors assistants,
resumrng the story my entrance had in
terrupted, and to which several of the
visitors, who, like myself, had fingered
in that ward, were listening.
"Mademoiselle's lightest wish was law
to me. So I travelled nearly two hun
dred miles to fetch her, and we came to
this very mad house. The doctor will
remember, for no one who saw Made
meiselle, could forget her But-the
doctor, / see, is interested in a new
patient, and does not listen"
Pardon me- said the doctor, with
his grave impenetrable smile. Il listen.
You were saying-Oh, yes, about Made
moiselle, that"
The doctor was interrupted by L
stroke of the bell, signaling him TO
another ward, and abruptly left us.
I'VE came to this very mad house.
repeated the strangely old looking young
man. at was Mademoiselle's desire to
make a study of the most violent frenzy.
The doctor hesitated when she said it.
But after eyeing her sharply for an in
slant, he no longer hesitated. He saw
she was incapable of fear, and he brought
us TO this ward.
1t was as you see it now. Here where
all is craze, there comes no change. 1t
is always the same. To the end it will
be the same. The madness sofenormcu us
vanity, which inside and outside ofmad-
houses is the commonest madness, was
here then. So was the madness of SUI
preme seliishness, which narrows life
into such small compass that they grow
dazed in making a circuit of it. Here
were then, too, the mad folks who are
not mad-sent here because they caught
glimpses Of what is unseen, unknowable
to fools and the blind. And the madness
of morbid sen>ibilityof unearthly phan.
tssy and of despair-all was much as you
now see-as will be seen in all mad
houses for all time.
But ii was the mad women Made.
moiselle wished to see. The study she
would make was of the madness thai
comes of lost love-not of the Ophelias
and Gretchens, but of the women who
can not be won, who seize and take to
themselves their beloved as the tigress
does her prey, and guard him even in
death, with ferocious jealously. Such
you know, was Messalina
the doctor smiled and arched his eye
brows when Mademoiselle indicated
what study it was she wished to make
II was plain that among the thousands Of
patients who had been his care there had
teen no mad Messalina. But he showed
us TO the womens wards
| Little note did lake of them then;
had eyes only for Mademoi.elle You
have not seen her? Then YOU canno
tell how queenly she was; not before the
foot lights only but always was she queer
majestic, with the majesty of true roy
atty, tha; even in rags could not have
descended to the common, but mus
have lifted the commonest in her pres
ence to nobility. She was stately, tai
and graceful, with the matches grace
that comes Of symmetry and strength
which in truth is the grace of the god
desses. She had, too, the wondrous eye
tha. belong only TO true royalty the roy
atty which parliaments, peoples ant
popes can neither make nor unmake
Deep and clear, they concealed nothing
Fearless, proud as truth alone may be
q, and ina noble, what has real royalty t
conceal?In them flashed fierce passion
all consuming. They drank in greedi
ly, all beauty. They commal ded, ant
ii was impossible to elude them; We
never were woman's eyes more tender
The world did not know her then
and she was poor and obscure; but haa
looked into her eyes, and knew he