The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-11-21

all loved, of all that one desires to con-
ceal from other human beings; and he
tears it Open-he violates tho exhibits
it nakedly-he filings it to the public
Is it not atrocious, wicked, Infamous
why how can this be done? Does
anybody know? Why, what can any
body know about it? All is mystery.
We have no means of communicating
with other objects save our miserable
senses-incomplete, intirm, so feeble
that they have scarcely power enough
to discern what is round about us. All
is mystery. Think of music, for exam
pie; that divine art-that art which
troubles the soul, carriesit away, intox-
icates it, maddens it-whati is the music?
Nothing.
You do not understand me? Listen i!
Two bodies strike against each other.
The air vibrates. Its vibrations are
more or less numerous, more or less
rapid, more or less powerful, according
to the nature OF the shock. Now each
OF us has IN his or her eur o fine small
skin which receives these aerial yibra-
tions and transmits them to the brain
in the form of sound. Fancy a glass of
water turning into wine in your
mouth. The tympanum accompiishes
this incredible metamorphosis-this
miraculous change Of motion into sound.
Sect
Music. that complex and mysterious
art-precise as algebra and yet vague
as a dream-that art made of mathe-
mates and of wind, exists only through
the strange property Of n little morsel
of skin. Did it not exist, that little
skin-neither could sound exist, since
sound consists in itself in q mere vibra-
ton. Could music be understood had
we no ears? No! Very we'll, then! We
ure surrounded by many other things
the existence of which We will never be
able to even suspect, simply because we
lack those sense organs which could re-
veal them to us.
Perhaps magnetism belongs to this
class of things. We can only have a
presentiment of this power-we can
only feel our way tremblingly
in its spectral neighborhood-we can
only catch a fatal glimpse of the new
secret of nature-because the natural
instrument of revelation docs not exist
within us.
"Asfor myself-as for myself, I am
possessed of a frightful power. 1 feel
as though there were within me anoth-
er being, another life imprisoned in
me, necessarily trying to escape-anoth-
err being who IS ever striving to act
against my will, who agitates me,
gnaws me. exhausts me. What is it?
What is he? l do not know, but there
are two of us in this miserable body Of
mine; and it is he, Or the other one,
who often proves the stronger, as he is
this evening.
Il need only look at people in order
to stupef.y them as thoroughly as
though l drugged them with heavy
doses of opium. I have only to extend
my hand in order to produce things
things-horriLle things! II you could
only know! My power does not merely
extend to men, but to animals and
even-even to inanimate objects!
And this fortunes ond terrifies me.
l often think Of tearing ont my eyes
OF cutting off my hands.
But / am going to show you'll
want you to know everything! Here!
will show you the power I speak Of
not over human creatures-that can be
seen anywhere-but ~over-oyer ami
mails. Call Mira"
He walked to and fro with great rap
id strides, like one in a hallucination and
stretched out his hands, which had been
kept hidden in his bosom. They
seemed to me as terrible as though he
had suddenly produced two naked
swords.
And | obeyed him mechanically, COM
pletely subiugated, ~quivering with ter
ror, and nevertheless devoured by an
impetuous curiosity to see. { opened
the door and whistled to my dog, who
was lying down in the hallway. Forth
with | heard the hurried patter of her
nails on the steps of the stairway; and
she appeared at the door, all joyously,
wagging her tail.
Then | ordered her to lie down in an
armchair; she leaped upon it, and
Jacques began to stroke her and look
into her eyes. At once she became I'M
easy; she commenced to qulver, turning
her head first to one side, then to the
other, in order to avoil the gaze of the
man, seeming to be seized with an ever
growing fear. Then suddenly she be-
gan to tremble all over as dogs trem-
BILE. Her whole body palpitated ;shook
with long shudderings aud she tries to
escape, to run away. But he simply !
placed his hand upon the skull Of tile
animal; and under the touch she uttered
n of those long howls that may be
heard by night through the great silence
of the country.
I felt myself numbed, dizzy as one
feels when on the deck of a rocking
ship. / saw the furniture bending,
the walls moving. [ gasped out:
Enough of this, Jacques! enough!p
But he did not listen to me. He con-
tinued to gaze at Mira in a frightful,
continuous manner. She closed her
eyes at last and let her head drop as if |
sinking to sleep. He turned toward
me-.
ut is done,a he said. "Now watch. /"
And throwing his handkerchief to the
further end of the apartment, he shout
ed: Fetch it'll" The animal rose,
staggering, stumbling as if blind, NOV
ing her feet as paralytics move their
limbs. and found her way to the hand
kerchief, which made o white spot at
the edge of the wall. Several times she
tried to seize it in her mouth; but she
snapped in the air close beside it, as if
she could not seize it. Finally she
caught it in Ter jaws, and returned it
with the same unsteady, somnambulistic
gait.
I was something terrifying to see.
He commanded her: Lie down."
She crouched. Then touching her
forehead he cried: "a hare!-sick him
sick himl" And the animal, still lying
on her side, seemed trying to run,
tossed her limbs like dogs do, while