The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-12-18

"Is this intended for sarcasmf'
screeched the beldame. ~ suppose per-
son can roll where she pleases in this
present Kosmos. l haven't heard yet
that you have preempted the whole uni
verse-for all your Aryan and pyramidi-
cal profundityp ..,
"My dear Mrs. Tregarva," was the calm
reply, don't fuster yourself, for you
know how it always injures your poor,
dear spine to labor under undue excite
ment. Think, too, of your threatened
paralysis. Sarcasm? No. The day for
that is long past. Its effects are by no
means exhilarating, besides being always
Fictitious and untrue from an artistic
standpoint" =
"Oh! you and your truthw was the
cackling reply. "1f John knew how you
put quill in your shoulder and blow
yourself up plump every morning, he
mightn't think you so truthful as you try
to make Outp
"A truce to this, Mrs. Tregarva," said
our heroine, while smile of ineffable dis
dain curled her ripe lips. "At all events
l don't go to bed perfectly fiat like pan
cake, and then be obliged to have ser
want blow me up to wizenedness in the
morning before can even open my eyes,
to say nothing of taking my chocolate"
The old woman WINGED at this, and
asked her companion not to reveal her
secret to the outer world. "I said this"
said she, "as much for your advantage
as my own"
GLOW is that, pray% inquired Amelia.
"Well," was the reply" old age is
something that comes to us all if we live
long enough; it has its secrets and its ad-
vantages. You know that l can visit
portions of the universe which to you are
wholly unknown, and in them I may be
able to acquire knowledge which, al
though it can not make me young again,
might be of interest to you who are yet
in the heyday of life. Do you remember
that once there was a constellation named
Orion, and in that constellation there
was star named Betelgeuze? Speak
low" said the aged crone, "or we may be
overheard"
81 remember" said the maiden, press
ing her hand to her heart, "that in the
lore of the ancients there is tradition of
such constellation-nay IF such star
but / have always deemed it myth.
Strange was the stupidity of the men of
old. Perhaps they lied even about
Orion"
"Nay, they lied not" returned the hag
"Only yester eve l visited Betelgeuze."
"Aha" gasped Amelia, 'then there
may be truth in magic--in that strange,
weird learning of the ancients. How do
you work itp' .
"The CHARM" returned the seeress. "is
in becoming perfect shell. Sometimes
through means of holy rites, such as that
of abstaining from farinaceous food and
discarding lime containing substances, as
we'll as keeping oneself piously aloof
from fluids, acids and the like, and sub
sisting only on keration, the youth may
become perfect shell, not an incomplete
one. What is our boasted science? You
perchance can visit the planets and the
sun, but how shall you reach the stellar
universe of mysteryp 7
"Alas, know not" sobbed the now
thoroughly reduced Amelia.
I will tell you," said the Mass of De-
crepitude. "But in return you must
lose one Of your eyes. don't zee very
we'll now even in the strongest light, and
I want new eye. Give me one Of yours
and the secret is your own"
The soul of Amelia was thus placed in
quandary. Should she tell John, her lover,
Of the revelation that had been made to
her by this sorceress, and leave to him
the job Of discovering it by means Of his
powerful ratiocination, or should she deal
directly with the witch and lose one of
her eyes2 1t was indeed a terrible d.
lemma, and she asked week to consider
it.
"Not an hour, not minutew shrieked
the aged crone, and 80 Amelia was forced
at once to accept the situation and agree
to the terms.
1t was hag-ridden nighton the Brock
en- when Amelia and Mrs. Tregarva ap-
preached the catapultic observatory
which crowned that mystic height. At
the bidding of the crone Amelia, step
ping into the degravitating apartment,
was divested of much of her weight. She
was exhausted of air and then desiccated,
undergoing tortures which, had she not
been sustain ned by the thought Of what
she might learn in Orion, would have
been wholly insupportable. The magi-
clans of that age were the physicists and
astronomers of olden times. The engi-
neers, with their slight powers of trans
lating somewhat weighty bodies through
out the limits of the solar system, were but
feeble compared with these men Of
might. The theory upon which the
latter worked their mystic charms was
wholly based on the doctrine Of gravita-
ton. The reason why the purblind
creatures Of an obsolete antiquity could
not send heavy bodies through space to
great distances was that they possessed
no means of degravitating bodies by the |
thorough removal of all their solids and
fluids ana leaving ss.!y Ss!y the still undis- !
covered keratin to inclose the conscious |
ness. All that keeps body on the earth |
is its weight. The slightest propulsion Of |
q degravitated body will send it in a |