The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-09-11
Morris Picture.
A. j. Fl. Duodnne


"It was a dream within dream, I tell
you, Charlie. | was asleep in my bed in
the next room, and there l dreamed that
was visiting the Randolph's over in Berk-
shire county. l thought l had been up
pretty late, playing billiards with Gale
Randolph and some of the boys. re-
member distinctly scoring seventy-eight
on a run-four- ball game. Well, went
to bed tired out, dreamed I did; fell a.
sleep, and dreamed this which call
dream within dream"
"Well, Mort" said I. "the thing is not
so extraordinary after all. 1t is COM
mon enough psychological phenome-
non."
beg your pardon" quoth Mort Amer
man, satirically, "would you be good
enough to reel me off little of that last
again, please? Say couple of fathom,
or So"
None of your chatting now?' laughed
l, "but tell me what has all this Chinese
dream-puzzle to do with the picture you
promised to show me?
"Much, 0 Sahib for on the silent yet
speaking canvas have depicted the scene
whereof speak, and now le voici;" and
with that he threw the cover from the
painting on his easel, and left me to ex-
anime it at my leisure, while he went to
his bedroom. The easel was of course
in the best position in the studio for view
ing the picture, and the soft, delicate
light of the autumn afternoon lay full
upon it; mellowed, however, by an artful
arrangement of screens and shadows, to
gain the precise effect desired.
The painting was of the ordinary
cabinet-size, and appropriately painted,
being also relieved by heavy maroon
drapery, gracefully festooned behind and
around it. l am not Of those who believe
that truly master-work of art may be
described aptly in words, yet / must es-
say the task for this once, and if render
only the bald outlines of the artists
thought, it may be, perchance, that l
shall still be enabled to convey some
glimmering of his meaning.
What first fastened itself upon me was
the murky darkness of most of the scene.
There was dense and gloomy forest fl
ling up the entire background and much
of the middle distance. Out from among
that under the trees streamed a wild tor
rent, and plunged over ragged rocks, and
through and about the gnarled roots, and
between riffs in the solid stone and so down
to leaping cascade that disappeared at
the extreme right in black and gloomful
pool. Stretching back from the right, a
broad expanse of gray moor extended in
prospective sight to the base of a range
of blue-gray hills, that lowered sloft into
the clouds; narrow path wound through
this moor into the dim distance, and was
lost, apparently, in the shades of night,
which were fast falling.
On the very edge of bold rock that
jutted over the pool, and on the very
boundary of the waterfall, was the only
seemingly living object of the picture.
young man PROSTATE on his knees,
shading his eyes with his two hands, and
gazing intently into the pool beneath.
There was that in the attitude of the
figure, so deftly and truthfully expressed
by the artist, that sense and meaning
grew upon me as gazed. He was ago.
nizing-distraught. His whole soul was
looking forth from his eyes, and seeking
in the dim twilight, now fast fading, to
wrest from the obscurity beneath him
some terrible secret. So clearly was the
story told, that my gaze instinctively
followed his, and tracked, as his must
have, the secret of the black pool.
Twining about the base of the rock,
upon whose crest the young man knelt,
meshed and tangled warp of roots and
fibres first met the eye. But now, cling
ing with death grasp to the largest of
these, saw the round fair arm of young
girl--and then--and as though should
have seen 1t, and nothing else, from the
first, so completely did it now fill the
! picture; I saw the white fgure-limp
white garments chnging to the body
and the fine white face, with rich golden
hair toating and tangled on the water