The Portland daily press., 1882-07-19
The Man With the Golden Brai
Pathetic Story of Gilded Youth by Al
phonse Daudet.
Paris Figaro.1

lRar1S t1garo
There was once man who had brain of
gold-yes, madame, a brain of solid gold.
When he came into the world the doctors
thought the child could not live, his head was
so heavy and his skull SO inordinately large.
He lived nevertheless; and grew up in the
sun like beautiful olive plant; only his great
head always dragged him down: and it was
pitiful to see him knock himself against the
furniture when he was trying to walk. He
often fell down. One day he rolled down
flight of steps and struck his forehead on a
marble projection, against which his skull rang
like an ingot They thought he was dead; but
on picking him up they found he had only a
slight wound, whence two or three little drops
of clotted gold oozed out among his blonde
hair This was how the parents first learned
that their child had golden brain.
They kept the thing secret; the poor little
fellow himself never suspected anything.
Sometimes he would ask them why they would
not let him run out before the door and play
with the other little boys in the street.
Somebody would steal you, my sweet treas
ure," the mother always answered. The little
fellow was very much afraid of being stolen; he
went back to play all by himself, without
word, and went stumbling heavily from one
room to another
It was only when he was eighteen that his
parents revealed to him the monstrous gift fate
had bestowed upon him; and as they had
brought him up and nourished him until that
time, they asked him in return for a little of
his gold. The lad never hesitated; immedi-
ately--the tradition does not say how or by
what heans-he tore from his skull piece of
massive gold piece as big as a nut, which he
proudly flung into his mothers lap. Then,
dazzled with the idea of the riches he carried
in his head, mad with desires, intoxicated with
the knowledge of his power ne left the pater-
nal mansion to wander through the world dis
sipating his treasure on the way.
One would have thought, from the rate he
lived at, royalty flinging his gold about him
without reckoning, that his brain was absolute
lu inexhaustible 1t was becoming exhausted,
nevertheless, and meanwhile one might have
seen that his eyes were becoming DINNER and
his cheeks hollow. At last one morning. after
a night of mad debauch the unfortunate man,
finding himself alone among the paling lights
and the wrecks of the banquet, became terri
fed at the enormous breach he had already
made in his ingot--it was high time to stop.
From this hour he entered upon new life.
The man with the golden brain withdrew from
fashionable .gayety TO live by the work OF his
hands-suspicious and timid as miser = flee
ing temptation-seeking to forget the very ex-
istence of those fatal riches which he wished
never TO touch again; but unfortunately
friend had followed him into his solitude, and
this friend knew his secret.
One night the poor man was suddenly awak-
eued by a great pain, frightful pain in his
head; he started up in bewilderment, and by
the light Of the moon he saw his friend running
away, hiding something under his mantle.
1t was some more of his brain that had beeh
taken away from him.
Soon afterward, the man with the golden
brain fell in love: then it was all up with him.
He loved with all his soul little blonde wom-
an, who also loved him well but who preferred
pretty tassels, and white feathers. and the
pretty dead-gold acorns which culver against
the supple leather of pretty shoes.
In the hands of this dainty little creature
half-bird half doll-the little morsels of gold
melted with delightful rapidity. She had
every caprice imaginable; and he never could
say mo" indeed, through fear of paining her,
he kept the sad secret of his wealth from her
to the last.
"Why, we must be very rich!" she used to
saw The poor man would answer, SO, yes;
very rich!'' And he would smile lovingly at
the little bluebird that was eating his brain
unconsciously. Nevertheless, fear would come
upon him sometimes: he had sudden desires to
become a miser; but at such moments the lit
tie woman would trip lightly toward him and
say: ,...,. ,..s - ;, r;oh T
want you to buy me something very, very
dear" And then he would buy her something
that was awfully dear
This lasted about two years; then, one
morning, very suddenly, the little wife died,
no one cOulQ Gell WHy-JuSL llko pHO. 1ho
treasure was almost exhausted, but with what
was left of it the bereayed husband gave the
dear little dead woman magnificent funeral.
Full peals of chimes, ponderous mourning
coaches hung with black, plumed horses, silver
tears in the velYet-nothing seemed to him too
dear or too beautiful. What did he care now
for his gold? He gave it to the church, to the
sections, to the porters, to the dealers in immor-
telles-he gave it here and there and every
where, without bargaining. So it came to pass
that on leaving the cemetery he had nothing
of that wonderful brain left except perhaps a
few specks clingng to the sides OF his skull.
The people saw him wandering through the
street with wild look in his eyes, holding his
hands out before him, and stumbling like
dunken man. In the evening, just at the hour
when all the great bazaars are lighted up, he
pansed before a large plate-glass window,
where there was qRite wilderness OF dress
stuffs and beautiful garments displayed, and
he remained there a long time looking at two
little shoes of blue satin edged with swans
down. 81 know somebody who will be so de-
lighted with these shoes" he said to himself,
and then, forgetting that his little wife was
dead, he went in to buy them.
All of a sudden the shopkeeper, sitting IN
her little back room, heard terrible cry; she
ran into the shop, and recoiled as quickly with
horror on beholding man who was leaning
upon the counter and gazing upon her painful
" with stupefied look. In one hand he held
the little blue satin shoes bordered with swans
down. and he held out the other hand, all
bloody, with scraps of gold like filings, cling
iYo m his ffnOpr-naig.