Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-10-13
From the French
A d u O..

nevertheless reached my fifth story in
caressing modulations and an exquisite
sweetness of tone.
did not see the singer; but i'm
agined him to be old and melancholy.
He accompanied himself upon the
guitar, whose low notes rendered still
more sad the Lament of Mignon."
That matinal romance foated into
my room together with a merry beam
of sunshine. When he had finished
the first couplet. the man paused; I
waited to hear the inevitable recital
OF his misfOrtunes. But he said moth
ing, and satisfied himself with simply
tuning his guitar; he was certainly an
extraordinary mendicant, who sang
really well, and trusted himself, with
out the least plea to public generosi-
ty.
| felt desirous to see this original
character, and to satisfy myself wheth-
er my surmise had been correct, and
whether the physiognomy of the man
bore any relation to the physiognomy
of his voice.
Between the Stats of the Venetian
blinds | caught sight of hun
tricked out in q frock coat of
pitiable green color, his face
all crevased with wrinkles-dis-
lance made him look even more
thin and frail than he really was; he
could not have been less than so
yeats of age; long white locks fell, like
snow, from beneath his hat upon his
benr shoulders; from above I could
see his thin fingers twanging the strings
OF the guitar, and the tendons of his
wrist seemed Ike cords moving under
the yellow skin.
He lntoned thesecond couplet OF the
romance the chatting and all the
laughter were hushed at once In every
story OF the building. In the limpidity
OF the morning air the voice rose up,
vibrant as with the keeping back of
tears and the restraint of heart
throbs-it foated up from the black
depths OF the court, as a thin curl OF
incense ascends from the altar even to
the vault of the church. Even such is
the sound of a sweet plant, coming
from the interior of distant sanctu-
airy.
just opposite me, the fastening
OF a window squeaked; and in the
stone framework of the aperture,
festooned by climbing convolvulus,
the face OF an old woman appeared
behind my Venetian blind, without
fear Of being seen, could watch this
singular creature, whom had already
passed on the stairway several times.
Her weary face was lighted up with q
smile, with the flash of teeth still
pretty, and the sparkle of two gray
eyes still bright with mischief. Her
hair, white, curled, vapory-looking,
stood out bushily about her forehead
she looked like one of those alIegor-
lcai representations of winter mag
med by the painters of the eighteenth
century, IN which the snow is made
as pretty as an April meadow, and in
which the north wind blows with the
tepidness of spring. She leaned out
dreamily, listened to the termination
OF the song, and dropped her obolus
to the singer.
The musician had deposited his gui-
tar IN corner OF the yard; he bent
down thankfully under the rain of
coppers; he went on all fours-show-
ing that his spine was still supple
carelessly plunging his fingers into the
gutter water, and slowing away, in
the pocket of his tattered mantle, the
offerings Of the poor.
Then, when he had picked up and
opened all the many colored little pa
per packets, which had fallen around
him with q metallic chink- feeling
pleased with his receipt, he rose up,
lifted his face toward the upper win
dOws, and bowed his thanks, not at all
awkwardly. My old neighbor con-
tinued to gaze into the yard, with a
somewhat Indifferent air-her ewes
suddenly met those of the musician.
I saw her hands clutch the bar on
which she leaned; she bent forward
over the void, as if she were about to
throw herself doWn-a sudden flush
made her face all pink-her lips CULVER
ing, had opened, and seemed about to
utter a word, when the guitar sang
again under the fingers of the must
clan.
To crafty the public in return for
their attention and generosity, the
man was going to regale us with g. Sec
ond piece OF his repertory. The guitar
muttered sombre prelude; then the
singer lntoned the song of the tavern
keeper Girot in the Preaux. Clercs-
Lies rendezvous de noble compagnie
Sc donnet tons en- &c charmant sejour."
His voice, awhile before so melan-
choly, now detailed with merry en-
phasis all the charms of that famous
enclos where life was passed
"A eelebrer lie Champagne ct Pamour?"
listened, ravished by the correct
ness OF his method-stupefed at find
ing such marvellous skill in the person
OF that ragged and shabby mendi-
can't.
On the other side of theyard the old
woman was also listening; but I saw
that great tears were streaming from
her eyes-no outburst of those miser-