Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1886-05-13
THE PAPER-WEIGHT
1t Figures as the Savior of HUI
man Lives.

man Lives.
In one corner of the long library there
stood an ebony secretary which was
old and stained with use when the pre-
sent century was yet unborn. No one
knew where this antique desk, with its
ogre-like back, goblin arms and gnarled
and knotted legs which ended in great
carved claws, had come from original
ly. The master of the house had
picked it up in little unfrequented
inn in Roumelia. 1t had stood in his
bed chamber, where it served as dress
ing-case, layatory and clothes-press.
During the night its grim presence, so
oddly out of place, like a tombstone in
drawing room, had given to his
dreams strangeness and vividness
that made an impression upon him
which the bright sunlight of the sue
ceeding day utterly failed to remove.
SO he bargMned with the tavern-keeper
for it though the medium of his valet
so as not to excite the old mans cupi-
dity, and finally bought it for an amount
much larger than its value, and had
it shipped to his residence in this
city. This is the story he tells
to those of his guests who are attracted
by its grotesqueness, but the servants
and who, by the way, knows so much
about the house as the servants?-tell
different story. The valet who bar
gained for it relates weird tale of
murder in the old castle among the
Balkan mountains where the secretary
is supposed to have originated, of a
missing will, of secret drawers under
the goblin's arms, of trickery, of a
charming heiress and of an eventual
clearing up of the mystery to the in
tense enjoyment of all This is the
tale of the servants hall, and in the
hands of the glib valet it thrills his
listeners and adds not little to his
fame as hero, for Wallets are only hui
man after all. But whatever it came
from, whatever was its age and how
ever romantic its past history may have
been, its present is certainly common
place enough. In one end of the H.
brary, on Partisan rug of great rich
ness of color and depth of pile, it stands
the mute and unmovable attendant
upon five O'Clock teas, evening musi-
Gales and whist parties, where its his
tory is as little appreciated as though
it were planted in a drawing-room on
the planet Mars.
Upon the shelves in the back of the
secretary there are various curios of
varying degrees of value and ugliness.
also picked up in odd places in the Old
World and valued chiefly for their USE
fulness and rarity. Among these is a
vase prettily shaped, for wonder, and
delicately colorod. 1t came from the
Orient, where several hundred years
ago some patient Celestials spent days
and weeks compounding and mixing,
with pestles and mortars, shaping and
reshaping, burning and glazing, until
this article was turned out perfect
one of its kind. This vase is very proud
of its rarity and its value. In the cata-
logne which the owner has it is de-
scrihcd in whole page and its cost is
marked in large figures printed in very
black type The amount is ten thou
sand dollars, and connoisseurs declare
it is a rare bargain even at that. On
either side of it are other vases not so
pretty, some antique pots and mugs,
and various other articles of vertu
, which with saucers rough and cracked,
and plates long since used, go to make
up an industrious amateurs collection.
On the desk below these shelves there is
some writing paper, a magazine or
two, paper knife of Japanese manu-
facture and plain-shapen, iron
paper-weight with a turned knob
handle. 1t is clearly more for use than
ornament, and the presence Of any
thing useful among so many ornaments
often gives rise to talk. for bric-a-brac
will gossip as well as people, and with
as little judgment too. On this oc-
casion the library was very quiet. The
guests had gone down to dinner, the
lights were turned down low and the
ornaments felt in more talkative
mood than usual.
'Shs ohSClNtu tiiO IL
per Knife to the Chinese Vase. ''You
have had praise enough to-day to salts
fy any one who is not disposed to be
greedy. Which, of course, you are
not it added, with cutting irony.
Yes" replied the Vase languidly,
for it learned that all fashionably peo-
pie were languid-the more fashionable
the more languid they were-and il
was an apt scholar. '.Yes they seemed
to think that am very rare and very
beautiful
AT this remark the Egyptian Idol al
the farther end of the shelf smiled with
exceeding contemptuousness and added
not little to the hideousness its maker
had given it.
beautiful, indeedr' itchuckled, ma
liciously. "Why, only last year they
called me beautiful.
That was joke, my dear Idol, y
broke in the Knife, sharply. The,
occasionally do get off a joke now ant
then by way of diversion.
They never called you beautiful. =
retorted the Idol, rudely.
''No, responded the Knife, Il an
useful
"Well, 80 was /. for that matter,