The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-06-25
MY DEMON.

w nen IOTsooK tne college Walls
of W, some years ag0, l was pos
sessed of-Of-"
"0f immense knowledge?"
''No such thing, my friend"
Learning ?-lore p old as mus
"Nothing of the kind, dc assure
you"
"Acquaintances, thorough, vast,
varied, with men and things? 7"
Gar from it. If anything, rather
the reverse of this"
Shades Of the eampusl You but
joke, my dear fellow. Possessed
and Of what, pray ?"
"Of demOnp'
"a demon"
GA demOnp
"And that demon?'
"a desirew
My friend interested me ; his story
was making me curious; but I ex-
hibited calm exterior and upper
turbed cOuntenance. He was deal
ing in enigmas; l would show him
the virtue of laconics. l simply
said:
"IndeedT"
eyes" said he, 81 was possessed of
it continually. 1t haunted me all
the night and all the day. l strove
with it, but puissant effort and
superhGman exertion were alike
pnerile and inefficient"
l smiled a little, partly to encour-
age nay friend and partly to cover
the growing interest I felt in his
story. q consider that no person
ought ever to get excited.)
Proceed" said 1.
"The demon, l said was a desire!
That desire, to encounter a CO.
quette; to humble her naughty
spirit, and subdue her obdurate
hearth
| 1 nodded three times. Each nod
was given with deliberation.
eyed him attentively as LIE cOntin-
ued.
"Look at that person, not tall, to
be sure, but well knit, full of grace
and AdOnis-like."
AS he said this, be arose from his
chair and, drawing his coat tight
about him, stood erect and turned
quite around.
"And those eyes, note them
large, dark, luminous. Just imagine
how they shOne and sparkled on
that night-On the occasiOn!"
l imagined.
CT was the heir of my rich bach
elor Uncle; and scarcely had 1 en-
tered upon the possession of the
wealth his demise had left for my
sole enjoyment, and had time to ar
range some business matters in the
little village which was honored by
his name, before the intelligence
was conveyed to me that one of the
most beautiful girls, yet one of the
most arrant and tickle Of coquettes,
was a resident of the place,and lived
in the white house just across the
way.
81 can't begin to tell you how this
news delighted me. l was superla-
lively elated-edifed.
"She appeared to be the theme Of
every tongue. No one spoke of the
society of the town without giving
her name the preference of first
mention. Her beauty, her voice,
her eloquence, her education and
accomplishments, her standing, and
above all, her desperate flirtations,
her audacleus cOuquests, her cruelty,
her"
"Stop a moment-take breath, I"
said l, interrupting what was like
TO be an endless chain Of subStan-
tives.
According to rumor," said my
friend, mo such tyrant was ever
before seen. No man ever ap-
preached her but he went away
with a deadly arrow cleaving to his
side, and she laughing at his an
guish."
This was quite enengh. l desired
to know no more. 1t was bliss to
me-ecstatic bliss. 1t sank down
into the well Of my heart, and then
gushing up, it meaudered every
vein, nerve, fibre, muscle. 1t per-
meated my whole being. Ifelt nice.
Then l drew myself up, every
feature beaming with the one
thought-vast, illimitable it seemed
and swere by the ashes of my
sires and my demised bachelor
uncle, and by that guardian genius
which never deserted me in any
! emergency, that l would teach this
naughty and cruel tyrant what it is
to maltreat my seX-What it is to
fieut my kind-What it is to make
hermitS and misanthropes Of nay
fellow-men, and what, consequently,
it is to cheat the census roll of its
Legitimate increased
"The night Of the fete came, L
drew on my low patent feathers,
over pair of immaculate silk
stockings, shook ambresial fra
GRANGE into my snowy kerchief, and
was off to meet and subdue the all
dangerous siren.
CAS- l passed along the way L
thought of nothing but the coquette
and the triumph had in aRticipa'
ton. l argued to myself:
"A party of illiterate country
ounces have been swelling her tri-
umphs with a list of unmeaning
and dish0norable cagtfveS, and
hence her fame. Doubtless she is
some sneoth-faced dell-some pert.
forward miss, full CT airs, and
smelling Of neutrality-suspicious. and
bread and butter. Proud of a