The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-06-09
Selected Storp.
The Paper Weights Story.

was old ana stained with use when the
present 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 originally. The master of the
house had picked it up in a little unfre-
quented inn in Roumelia. 1t had stood
in his bed-chamber, where it served as
dressing-case, lavatory and clothes
press. During the night its grim pres
ence, so oddly out of place, like a
tombstone in a drawing-room, had
given to his dreams strangeness and
a vividness that made an impression
upon him which the bright sunlight of
the succeeding day utterly failed to re-
move. So he bargained with the tav-
ern-keeper for it through the medium
of his valet, so as not to excite the old
mans cupidity, 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, know so much
about the house as the servants-tell a
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 COLLINS 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 lis
teners and adds not little to his fame
as hero, for Wallets are only human
after all. But wherever it came from,
whatever was its age and however ro-
mantle its past history may have been,
its present is certainly commonplace
enough. In one end of the library, on
a Partisan rug of great richness of color
and depth of pile, it stands, the mute
and immovable attendant upon five
O'Clock teas, evening musicales and
whist parties, where its history is as
little appreciated as though it were
planted in 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
lessness and rarity. Among these is a
vase prettily shaped, for wonder, and
delicately colored. 1t came from the
Orient, where several hundred years
ago some patient Celestials spent days
and weeks compromising and mixing,
with pestles and mortars, shaping
and re-shaping, burning and glazing
oct;n1a I'm aI
feet one of its kind. This vase is very
the catalogue which the owner has it is
described in whole page, and its cost
is marked in large figures printed in
very black type. The amount is $4,000,
and connoisseurs declare it is rare
bargain even at that. On either side
of it are other vases not so pretty, some
antique pots and mugs, saucers rough
and cracked, plates long since used, and
various other articles of vertu which &C
to make up an industrious amateur
collection. On the desk below these
shelves there is some writing paper, a
magazine or two, a paper knife of Jap
anese manufacture, and plain-shapen
iron paper-weight, with turned knot
handle. 1t is clearly more for use thar
ornament, and the presence of anything
useful among so many ornaments Otter
gives rise to talk, for bric-a-brac will
gossip as well as people, and with a.
little Judgment, too. On this occasion
the library was very quiet. The guests
had gone down to dinner, the lights
were turned down low, and the orna
ments felt in more laxative moo(
than usual.
"Well," observed the japanese Pape
Knife to the Chinese Vase, you have
had praise enough to-day to satisfy an,
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 had learned that all fashionabl
people were languid-the more fashion
able the more languid they were, and
was an apt scholar. g Yes, they SCENE
to think that / am very rare and yer
beautiful"
AT this remark the Egyptian Idol a
the farther end of the shelf smiled wit
exceeding contemptuousness, and adde
not little to the hideousness its make
had given it,
" Beautiful, indeed" it chuckled
maliciously. "Why, only last yea
they called me beautiful"
"That was a joke, my dear Idol,
broke in the Knife, sharply. "The
occasionally do get off joke now an
then, by way of diversion"
"They never called you beautiful,
retorted the Idol, rudely.
"No," responded the knife, " I al
useful"
Dwell, so was l, for that matter,
answered the Idol. Several thol
sands of years ago, when l was youns
/ presided over the destinies of a kinI
dom and l was consulted about ever,
thing that was DONE"
81 dare say" snapped back I'll
Knife, "and where, may ask, is th
nation now?"
What makes you so valuable?
asked the PaperW Weight of the Vase.
&C l am so rare" answered the orn
ment, with faint trace of enthusiasm
"and l cost the labor of many men fl
very many years. represent years
toll, of trials, of sacrifice, for the me
who made me gave up their pleasur
during that time and were shut up in
dingy workshop, like so many slaves.
am the result of secret process. Eve
the emperor didn't know how / WI
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