The Osceola times., 1880-10-16
The CITY Under the Sea.
philAdelnhia Times.

The City Under the Sea.
Philadelphia Times
Who has not heard of the sunken city
that lies stately and fair beneath the sea?
Temple and tower and slender column
and rich frctted palace halls lie buried
in the deep, and the mariner sails over
the spot, ignorant of the hidden glories
underneath. Only at sunset the bells
from tower and minaret peal forth a
Wild, sweet music that floats taintly over
the waters, and to who listens comes a
great longing to see the mysterious
beauty OF this hidden city, Tapped in the
waves of the ocean. Still, as he fingers
the desire grows stronger; strange,
sweet, overpowering force urging him to
descend through the cold, pure water,
until with his own eyes he can behold
the loveliness that lies concealed be-
nea.h. II he is strong in spirit he closes
his ears to the impelling music and steels
his heart within. If he is weak or sor-
rowful or wide-eyed with hidden fancies
he yields to the spell. and the sunken
city holds another victim, lying dead
amid the beautiful desolation below.
Lazily floating in small boat were
two men, one gray-haired and spent and
worn, with far-of look in his tired
eyes; the other young and strong and
! happy with the ignorant happiness of
youth, The day was drawing to a close
and the sunset gilded the smooth
waters on which the boat rocked gently,
while both men sat absorbed in thought
and hardly conscious Of each others
presence.
Suddenly the younger one started.
'Harkr said he; "what far off bells are
those that can be heard at this distance
| from the shore2"
The other listened. Soft and clear
and strangely sweet they rang, now
| diving into silence, now pealing forth
anew over the water. Spellbound they
| listened as the sounds swept by them
on the evening wind. "They are the
| bells of the sunken city," said the gray
haired man at last, "and it must lie be-
meath us now"
In silent awe they both leant from
the boat and looked long and earnestly
| into the quiet waters. Clear and green
| they lay, bathed in the radiance of the
setting sun, and as they watched it
seemed to both that the rays of light
were reflected back from cleaning roofs
beneath. Intently they gazed and grad
ually unfolded before their eyes lay
| stately towers and minarets. vast marble
halls and strangely gllded domes and
| steeples. Between them surged fathoms
| Of crystal water, but underneath all was
| still and fair and beautiful and shrouded
in a mystery no man could penetrate.
The sunken city lay revealed in this
brief hour of sunset TO the rapt watchers
overhead
Neither spoke a word, but straining
their eyes to see more gazed at the shad-
Owy beauty of the scene and listened to
the Wild sad music of the bells. Strange
visions hoated before their bewildered
sight, and the deserted streets and lone
ly grandeur of the buried city told 10
each silent watcher a widely different
tale.
The Young man with glowing eyes
beheld beneath him all his hopes and
desires reached and fulfilled. All that
he worked to possess awaited him in
the sunken city, peopled with the
shadows of those he loved, rich with
the wealth lac longed for, teeming with
the fruition of his proude6t hopes. His
life and its completion lay there; If he
would but take the step and reach il;
and what should hold him back?
And the other man, older in work and
disappointment than in years, saw be-
meath him in the sunken city all the
past iovs of his life return. Those whom
he had loved and lost walked through
the deserted streets, and his bygone
youth, rich with the hopes now dead
shone alluringly before his eyes. One
downward plunge and he could retain
il all.
With a start both men rose in the lit
tle boat ready to leap into the waves
when suddenly with a aint ccheinp
sound the music of the bells broke and
died into silence, ard the glories beneath
them grew dim and indistinct before
their straining eyes. Tower and turret
and gilded roof melted softly away into
uothingness, and they saw only the lap
ping waters growing gray and misty il
the approaching gloom.
With a shudder the young man drew
back from the edge of the boat. at i,
over" he said; "lhe spell is past nnC
night II coming on. We must return t.
the shore without delay, and in the rea
world and following out my own life
will gain all that | have seen shadowec
forth to-day, Ny path lies before m,
and | am eager to tread it. Let u
hasten back"
But the other did not heed him. Hi
eyes were fixed upon the water. BE
meath lay hidden the golden vision o
the past and he could never hope to re
produce it on the earth. An overwhelm
ing yearning seized him. All that h,
valued lay in the sunken city and h,
would Join them there.
4 There was faint cry, a sudder
plunge, and the young man sat alon,
within the boat as the twilight darkene,
into night.
Rising Women.
New York Graphic.
Tho woman arp steadily coming IN m,