The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-09-12
An Alchemist'S Trick.

off, about the middle of the sixteenth
century, upon Duke Cosmo l. of Flor
ence, by one Daniel, of Hcrmannstadt,
in Pennsylvania, who was descended
from an old patrician family of Nurn-
berg. Hcrmannstadt, the actual mill
tary capital of Transylvania, was
originally founded in 1l4O by one Her
mann, of Nurnberg, who led u German
colony there. Daniels first Transyl-
vanian ancestor had been one of the
leaders Of that colony. Daniel was a
wealthy man, an eminent physician,
and distinguished adept in alchemy.
1t would appear that a favorite niece
of his was deeply in love with Rufo
Szechenyi, a young Magyar cavalier,
who had joined the anti Medician fac
ton of the Strozzi, the Pazzi, the Sal
Wait, the Ridalti and other Florentine
families. The young man had fallen
into the hands of COsnO, the most UNI
scrupulous and cruel tyrant of the muir
dcrous house of Medici, with whom the
staying of their kinsfolk was simply a
family tradition. Deaf to all entreat-
les, the ducal trader insisted upon
ransom of 10000 ducats, keeping the
unhappy young Magyar meanwhile
confined in the Bargello of Florence in
carcere d,sro. When the sorrow-strick-
en- bride of the prisoner made an APP
peal to her wealthy uncle to assist the
Szechcnyi family in raising this enOr-
nous sum, the old doctor pondered
long and deeply. He was a wise man.
He distrusted the willy ruler of Flor
cnce, fearing lest the huge ransom once
paid, wholly or in part, the unscrupu-
lous Cosmo might devise some scheme
of creeping out of his share of the pact.
At last an idea seemed to strike him.
patience, my dear niece" he said,
with grim smile, "and fear not; !
promise you to set your lover free, and
to make his captor and jailer bestow a
handsome dover upon you in the bar
gain" With this somewhat bold prom
Use the poor young woman had to rest
content. To all her eager questions as
to the how and when, the old man re-
piled, simply, Patience, my dear;
trust me, and you will not be disap-
pointed"
He set cheerfully to work. He first
amalgamated the sum of 1900 golden
ducats with the requisite quantity of
quicksilver; he then melted about thirty
pounds of wax and colOphOny over a
slow fire, and added to the melted mass
coal dust sufficient to give the whole a
deep black tinge. This he mixed with
the au1o-mercurial amalgam. When
the mixture was cold he reduced it to
powder. The whole process was on
tremely simple. Master Daniel had
now black powder of no apparent
value, yet which contained the gold Of
about 1900 sovereigns. This powder he
packed carefully in Il great number OF
card-b cases, put the whole on the
back of his sumpter mule, and set out
on his travels to Italy. Here he wan.
dcred through the north as q travelling
physician. Experienced and skillful
and crafty withal, he soon gained q
high reputation for marvellous cures
easy enough to accomplish, as he gen.
orally managed somehow to give des.
perate aspect to the ailments of his pa.
tients by, in the first place, administer
ng to them cunningly and deity. and
without exciting suspicion, some nox'
ious substance, producing alarming
symptoms, which he found it, OF
course, easy to remove by his prescrip'
tons. Among the ingredients of the
latter figured Invariably certain pow
der, ingeniously christened by him
stsuJisr. No apotbecary in the north Of
Italy had ever heard of this powder,
which accordingly could not be sup.
piled. The great wonder-doctor ex.
pressed establishment at this, but con-
sented to add the article from his own
store.
Having thus achieved reputation
and created u demand for usufur, ht
disappeared from the scene for time
but he soon returned in the disguise o.
Ger nan drug pcddlcr, who, strange
to say, sold the powder usufur for mex
to nothing. Then the doctor came
again on the scene, and managed to &c
back his costly powder. So he worked
for about two years, when he succeed
ed in distributing the whole stock o1
usufur among the druggists of Florence
He then dropped the doctor and put Oh
the adept instead. As Cosmo had long
been in search of the great secret,
Daniel found it easy to gain access tt
him, and to impress the Duke with a
belief in his profound alchemistit
knowledge. He produced u small guam.
tity of gold in presence of the Duke, al.
lowing his Hi ghncss to procure and
supply all the ingredients, among
which figured also the powder usufur,
easily obtainable then for few pence.
The ingredients altogether came Ia
about ducat, to produce solid gold to
the value of fifty ducats. A cabalistic
formula, which the adept pretended
must not be uttered aloud, but be re-
cited in mind by the operator, was de-
clarcd indispensable to the success OF
the transmutation process. Of this he
gave the duke a convincing proof. He
and the ruler of Florence operated with
equal halves of the same ingredients,
only that by clever sleight of hand the
usufur in the Dukes half was replaced
by common coal dust. So Daniel pro.
duced his gold in the usual way, while
the Duke utterly failed. Cosmo. thor
oughly convinced now of the genuine
ness of the affair. subscribed willingly
to Daniels conditions. He set young
Rufo free, and promised to pay Daniel
the sum of thirty thousand ducats in
money untainted by magic origin,