The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1881-05-19
AN EVENING WITH COLUMBUS.
IF. A. Stokes in the May Wide Awake.l


Among his heroes, Christopher Colum-
bus most calls forth his hearts affection
and his souls admiration, and he is ever
ready to take up cudgels in behalf of the
great patriarch of the sea. With his
blue eyes in a glow of wonder, he dilates
upon the learning and the foresight Of
his hero, his perseverance and his man
illness during the years of rebuffs previ-
GUS to the one great voyage, his daring
in setting out, with wretched equip
msnt, to seek region believed to be in
habited by dreadful monsters, and at
whose limit, did he escape these foul and
shapeless creatures, the sailor would be
| horribly launched into space, to fall-no
one knew where; and is scarcely checked
/ by his fathers wonted reference to un-
pleasant things in connection with CO.
! lumbus; his use IN warfare of blood
hounds, who tore the hapeless islanders
limb from limb, and his extortions of
gold and cotton.
Still, in spite of his admiration for Co
Iumbus, and his pleasure from the his
tories of illustrious men. all OF Charles
reading is not historical in character:
His imaginative disposition Graves the
romantic and the fanciful: he SO enters
into the spirit of these wild tales, that he
often is half persuaded that they are or
could be true; and he has other strange
startle you. could you but know them.
He is firm believer in ghosts, and has
| formed many theories upon the deepest
subjects. At any rate, he is boy of
ideas; but he will very soon lose many of
the outlandish ones among them, if he
passes through but few experiences like
| one of recent occurrence.
! His parents we're in New York at the
| time, and Charlie and the servants were
alone in the great, old house on W
| street, in Hartfork. He was sitting in
the cosy room which he had been allow
! ed to fit up as his own "den," reading,
when there came loud knocking upon
the front door, Charlie thought it
strange that whoever it was did not ring
the bell; bat he felt it his duty to see
what might be the matter. So he eau
tiously went into the hall and opened the
door, He was surprised to see standing
there man of commanding figure and
fine face, with beard trimmed into a
pointed shape, and with quite long hair.
The stranger bowed: Good evening,
young sir. l request the honor of brief
conversation with you7"
Charlie hesitated; but looking once
again at the stranger, he replied. some
what meditatively:-
Certainly, sir. Come in
The door was closed, and the unknown
conducted to the family sitting room, and
offered chair. He seated himself and
at once began to speak,
''Can trust you, young sir, with some
thing of very delicate and confidential
nature?"
81 think so, said Charlie, in wonder.
"Ah!' said the stranger; and then in
dramatic manner he asked, "Know you
whom you behold?"
''No, I fear I don't" said Charlie,
quite i'll at ease.
"You see before you none other than
the discoverer of your native land-Col-
umbus!"
"Great Christopher, gasped Charlie.
Precisely" returned the stranger,
calmly. 'Great Christopher Columbus. !"
'Bat how"-began Charlie in amaze
ment.
''You shall learn all. A young gentle
men of your wide reading must have
heard of the Elixir of Life?"
Charlie nodded assent.
"On my return from the most aus
picious of my four great voyages, the
first one, my old friend, the prior of La
Rabida, paid me visit, and told me a
wonderful story. Near his convent had
lived an alchemist who was known to
have toiled for years in search of the
| philosophers stone and the elixir. He
was an ayowed infidel; yet one dreary
night there came from him a summons to
the good prior, who obeyed it to find the
man of research surrounded by his cru
cibles and his retorts-dying. He could
scarcely speak; his lips were shrunken
and parched as though suddenly blight
ed; but in whisper he made known to
the prior his conviction that he had dis
covered an Elixir of Life; also the fact
| that Just at the moment of success his
muscles had bee 1me shriveled and pal
sled SO that he could neither touch nor
taste the precious liquid. He motioned
the prior to a curious glass vessel in
which was a very small quar- tity of deep
red liquid, and bade him take this,
charging him to give it to the man who
should best serve God and Spain within
a year from that time. Then, giving the
prior certain Instructions and asking his
blessing, the old alchemist died.
''The year had passed when returned
to Spain, and the prior chose me as the
man deserving of his gift. he gave to
me, in ilrn, the instructions given him;
to torce myself to take the elixir when
first could heartily wish myself dead,
and to take as many drops of it as I
chose, and then to throw the rest away,
knowing that for each drop taken I
should lie century in the grave; but at
the end of the time thus measured,
should become alive, and live forever
such man as [ was in the prime of for.
mer life. Under any other circumstances
the elixir was powerless.
Tha Ior of Iao,, hot r