Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-02-24
AN ARYAN STUDENT.

1t was more than three thousand years
ago, in that golden era when cinderella
and kid and u were coming out, that a
party of students, young Aryans, while
pursuing thcC studies under the shadows
OF the great Himaiayas, were summoned
by their teacher, a deeply read priest, to
overlook the doings of q company OF
DaryaS or slaves. who were erecting a
curious stone temple in honor Of some
potentate. The oSudite instructor babe
them observe the tseft way in which these
artisans handled their flint hammers in
cutting and shaping their material, and
the skill they displayed in fitting their
blocks together into a growing whole,
most exquisite in its symmetry and beauty.
Then he turned him about and looked
down. Suddenly his eyes sparkled with
the light of strange discovery, which, in
another instant, had fascinated the gaze
Of every member of his class.
II was living toad, an actual sentient
thing, that had lain inbedded in the
heart Of great bowlder the picks had
Just cloven, why, ever since the world
was made! Yes, alive! At first it lay
perfectly still, but presently it quivered
as though its delicate epidermiS at this
first contact with the atmosphere suffered
a spasm of establishment, but the more it
quivered the more it seemed to rally its
forces, until after tedious series of con-
yulsiye squirmings it succeeded in mus
tering sufficient energy to hop out of its
cell, and presently TO open pair Of bright
eyes and spy about itself where it now
Equatted under the shadow of a mass OF
piled up rocks. Did its amazemcnt bear
comparison with that of the student look
ers on?
ITS a miracler' calculated one, the
tallest and fairest skinned of the whole
group. 1t CHANGED that he had witnessed,
with his own eyes, the cleaving of the
rock and had looked on its imprisoned in
habitant at the very instant when the
light first touched him. 'Oh, what to me
would be an experience like that. To die,
20 be smut away, ages and ages, from the
time | was born in-now-for instance, |
to shut my eyes-and then to wake up.
What will the world be, oh, / wonder as
long from this time forward as from now
back, to when the rocks were being
kneaded into shape and that creature got
worked in. I'd like to try it, declare /
would"
$50 would l." shouted soldierly look.
ing young fellow, throwing back his head
as though bracing himself to fight any
adverse circumstances that might stand
in the way of his putting the thing
through. They say the world is grow
ing wiser. I'd like to pit my brains
against those Of n class of young fellows
born, say, 1000 years hence"
And so would / mine!' "And In'
"And IT, "And Ir' was echoed all
around. The two first speakers being
class leaders il was fashionable to follow
their fancies.
Good, was the comment of the priest.
He uttered his monosyllable in a deep,
awesome voice, and being parsonage OF
grave presence and imposing dignity of
bearing. the students, as was their custom,
all bowed their heads and reyerently put
themselves in listening attitudes while he
spoke on.
Il see il written in my book" He
pointed with his staff to the creature S
pretty well hleached, but still distinctly
notified back. lone among you is com
manded-one. The rod pointed-moved.
There wasn't young fellow of them all
who didn't believe in his heart that what
ever the appointment might be, it was GER
tain to fall on him, and, for the most
part, every youngster who had said. land
J." in his Utmost soul fervently wished he
hadn't. Bot they We're brave Aryan
boys, and, one and all, they sturdily held
themselves composed while the next fate
full words found voice. Zone, among
those here before me, who has been dedi-
Gated 10 that experience"
But which one?
The students looked at each other with
them The priest, without further pre-
liminary words, proceeded to gather up
twenty-three pebble stones, on each of
which he scratched a cabalistic character,
copied, he indicated, from the living page,
which he again knelt down to study.
These he solemnly distributed, it being
understood that a certain one bore the
mystic mandate which appointed for its
drawer a far off mundane resurrection to
be obtained through entering Immediately
into mundane oblivion.
O. the wild, Shudderng heart beats that
prevailed during that momentous dis
tribution! 1t was Ono. the very one who
had preached such possibility, on whom
the lot fell. Even his bold face blanched
winch IS UtstIu Ills O"H III
was IA years old, daring, naughty, self
willed, but precociously intelligent young
fellow, with mind forever on the alert
for new discoveries, and for tracing out
the causes and meanings of things. He,
with all his healthy, throbbing pulses,
and his intense risor of life and thought
oblivion for him?
The word. however, had been said. He
did not finch, but silently, at the beck OF
his instructor, placed himself in the fore
ground and assumed a prone position.
The very pulses Of the lockers on seemed
10 have stopped their throbbings as they
circled round their daring classmate in
this awfully fateful moment.
:'How long, o priest, how long is it that
be must be dead2' whispered one, in the
intense strain of the moment. forgetful
even of the unreasonable distance that
lay between his young existence and that
of the mystic oracle.
''Till he is Called was the stern an
swer.
The speaker directly turned his counte-
nance with a mighty intentness Of obser-
walton upon his youthful subject. Ono's
ewes met his. Presently he seemed 10 see,
not a pair of human eyes, but, through
them. the approaching vistas Of strange
new world, opening ont, radiant and lur-
ing lust before him. He said-was that
himself, Himself-and clothed in o gar
rnent woven from threads made up of ali
tie memories of his life, some pure white
how they softened and beautitied the
whole would there were more OF
them!" was his reflection. Some cleaned
an angry red. o that he could tear them
out, If he had only withheld them from
getting in! Some were changeable-rec'
oras of deceits. Ono looked at them and
his whole soul yibrated under blush oil