The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1878-06-13


mo, sir.
sOne question more 1 see you have
We'd fro. Do -or ever ',r"" "c.l-
'Charco-. sometimes, f~. ---o -
poses.
Il mean hard coal, stone coal!
There is no such thing in existence
so far as know. What are you up
to, anyhow? Going to invent some
thing?
Il will tell you after awhile, maybe
replied Ephraim and then to himself
he said: eIJam beginning to catch
the meaning Of all this experience!
How strange it isl!
A lady entered from the front door,
and passed the parlor. Ephraim saw
that she had on a very narrow dress,
with high waist, almost beneath the
arInpits, and that she wore upon her
head an enormous and hideons green
calash' which bore some resemblance
to gig top.
He had not seen one of those won
derful bits of head gear for fifty
years.
In few moments the lady entered
the parlor, AS Mr.. Miller presented
Mr.. Batterby to his wife, Ephraim was
shocked to perceive that she seemed to
have on but a single, thin, white gar
ment, and that even this appeared to
!, nf eli
downwards. He thought it shocking
" immodest, but he remembered the
figures of women he had seen in the
remote past, and thought he knew
what this meant. So he gave no indi
cation of surprise.
They went to the dining room. Eph-
rain was very careful in conducting
his share of the conversation. Mrs.
Miller, unlike her husband, had not
been forewarncd. However, once
when she was lamenting the absence
of fruit and vegetables from the mar
kets in winter Ephraim incautiously
asked her why she did not use canned
goods and this opened the way to
some veXatiOus questions. "A little
later Miller commenced talking about
the Warmers, people whom Ephraim
in his soul knew had been dead forty
years and Miller mentioned that two
of them were down with smallpox.
ThereupOn Ephraim asked it the mall
ady was prevalent, and if Miller had
been vaccinatcd. And thus again he
got in trouble for neither his host nor
hostess knew his meaning. lie was
trippcd up again by reference 10
sewing machines; and finally, by re-
marking innocently. when Miller OBJ
served that it had just begun TO rain.
that he was sorry that he had not his
rubbers with him.
But he would not try to explain his
meaning when they pressed him. He
had, indeed, an increasing tendency to
taciturnity. He struck more and more
from the thought of attempting dis
cussion of the situation in which some
| wondrous mischance had placed him.
AS Miller waxed boistrous and lively
in his talk, Ephraim was strongly i'm
PEELED to complete reserve.
For he had creeping over him grad
ually, horrible feeling that these peo-
pie in whose company he was linger-
ing. were not real people; that they
were dead, and that by some awful
| jugglery they had been summoned
forth and compelled to play over, be-
fore him, trayesty of their former
| lives.
He became gloomy and wretched
beneath the oppression of the thoughts
that crowded his brain. AS the hOnr
slipped away his distress was made
more intense by the conduct of Miller
who, warmed with wine, mingled
oaths with his conversation. Ephraim
felt as if that blasphemy came to him
clothed in new horror from the re-
gion of mystery beyond the grave.
! Finally, after Mrs. Miller had left the
room, her husbands utterance became
thick and harsh, and presently he
slipped, drunken and helpless, beneath
the table.
( Ephraim sat alone at the board. The
room grew darker, for the rain was
now swhirling without against tho
window panes. There was something
ghastly and fearful in the appearance
of the apartment. The outlines of the
furniture, seen through the dusk, were
distorted and misshapen. Ephraim
felt as if he were in the presence o
phantoms. He had the sensation o
one who sits in charnel house, aD(
knows that he is the only living
among the dead.
His good sense half revolted agains
the fear that overspread him; but i
seemed not strong enough to quell th'
tremulous terror in his soul for tha
grew and grew, until it filled him will
kind of panic. He had such mean
ingless dread as the bravest know
when they find themselves amid dark
ness aud loneliness in a dwellin!
wherein of late have been pleasan
company and mcrrimcnt and laughter
wherein has been ioyousness that ha
suddenly been qucnched by utter, dis
NAL silence.
lie was seized by a sudden impuls
to fly. He pushed away his chair ant
glanced timOrously around him. Thel
! he trod swiftly, and with ficrcel,
, beating heart 10 the hallway. Grasp
, ing his hat from the table he openet
| the door and fled out into the ragin,
tempest.
RI AS he sped away through til
gloomy street, now wet and slipper,
and covered with pools of rain,
cp,oto h;s heart with q new fnar T.