The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-07-19
A LITTLE BISMUTH.
A Story OF Artist Life in Munich.


. An artists procession in Munich has caused a
suspension of business for the day. Toward
| dusk an elderly appearing woman, black
! cloaked and yelled, enters a drug shop in a
| street a little removed from the business por-
| tion of the town.
| The clerks of the establishment are among
| the thousands viewing the pageant then pass
ing Il few streets away. When the heels of
| the womans boots rattle upon the marble
flooring the proprietor of the shop comes for
ward from the back of the long room, where
he has been brooding under the single gas jet
| lighted in the place He is II yonng man,
white of face, and wild of eye, looking as
though he were undergoing severe mental
strain.
What is your wish?" he asks in q voice
that has an English ring in it.
The woman was fumbling at her pocket as
| though in search of her purse.
Il should like small quantity of ofbismuth," "
she answered. when he had addressed her a
second time.
The druggist picked up horn spatula,
went to the back of the shop, returned with
the spatula filed with white powder, put
| counter. wrapped it in bit of fine paper
and handed it to his customer.
She did not Immediately take it from his
hand which caused him to look ut her and
note her apparel; thus he was able to de-
scribe her appearance to the police a little
later on. He also noted that the eyes back of
the veil were fixed upon him. This, in his then
frame of mind, irritated him.
Here is your bismuth,' he said almost
harshly.
Then she caught up the little package. toss
ed down a piece of money and walked rapidly
to the door. The knob in her hand, she paused.
is there anything else?" he asked
She opened the door and was gone. A
5and in the procession was playing the live
hest of tunes; wisps of the melody entered the
shop. The druggist groaned, and picking
up he spatuia went to put it i'll the drawer
from which he had taken the powder left over
from the quantity he had weighed out for the
| woman. When he came to the place he
started back with an exclamation. He had
neglected the shop for several days
and during his absence clerk
had taken the bismuth from the
drawer where it had always been kept and
| substituted for it Il newly discovered drug.
one of the deadliest and most subtle poisons
| in the pharmacoppia. He had properly
| marked the drawer with the name of the
poison, but the druggist had automatically
gone to the usual receptcal of the bismuth
and had not noticed the change. He had
given the unknown woman enough of the
poison to kill her
He flew to the door The woman was no.
where to be seen. He ran to the corner and
looked up and down in the gathering gloom,
but no one was in sight. He retraced his
steps to the shop and found on the thresh old
the abel marked ''Bsmuth" which he had
placed upon the woman's purchase and which
she must have torn off as she agitatedly put
] = 4lr ,1- Jap % 1,kn
bore his name His first sensation was al
most of relief The mistake might not now
be traced to him if the poor creature swal-
| lowed the drug he had given her.
| Where was the happiness of life? Here
was an elderly bowed woman whose mourn
ing weeds bespoke sadness and loss. Might
! he not have placed within her reach relief
from care and memory? Then he revolted
| from this morbid reasoning and the enormi-
| ty of his responsibility flashed across him.
! He went to the parlor back of the shop, Here
he found his mother reading-a stern. cold
woman, in whose eye was power of will un-
possessed by her son.
Let me tell you what have done,' he
said in English.
She slowly closed her book.
"Nhat do you mean?" she asked leisurely
! as though she expected some eXtravagant
story of an escapade. He told her what had
| occurred. Her brow contracted.
"No, blame you" he retorted.
| How me?" she demanded rising to her
| feet. Explain yourself
| Have you not made me as | ann" he
said, unfit for business, unfit for anything
| whatsoever"
II have not" she answered, "but the act
| ing woman has
| With a stride he was beside her, his hand
| upon her arm.
do not touch me-" she said, shaking him
off and listen to me-
''Weil?"
"You have not for days allowed me to
speak. shall speak now"
sWell?"
| His irsolence of manner cast a glow in her
| face and made her harsher than she meant
| to be-
Il say that you should blame Lilli, the
actress. If aught of harm comes from your
reprehensble carelessness. she said 81 have
told you that she maddened you-you knew
that no good could come of your intimacy
with her..
Il know that love her.
"A woman barely knowing her name, q
woman acting, upon the stage. You are of
irreproachable descent; your dead father was
n gentleman. your mother is u lady. Could
brook alliance which should bring into
| our family player whose face has turned the
heads of half the youth in Munich? Let her
marry one of her own fraternity, one who
views her trade from the art standpoint. A
marriage with you was simply impossible
From the first told you how it would be-
Did you take warming? You but allowed
| yourself to be all the more carried away by
your infatuation, and were on the point of
declaring yourself to her when came to the
rescue"
"And how did you come to the rescuc?'
he asked. ''Tell me that
by appealing to the woman herself she
answered, las you well know"
Yes, by going to the back door of a thea
ter, asking for actress and laying before
her your puritanical ideas, to such a degree
| showing her your distaste for her that she
needs must see in me the weakest of men be-
cause of your presumption, and SO she gives
me up. And this is the woman you say is
not fit to enter our poor family that sendsits
| sons to foreign countries trying to exc out an
existence on beggarly income which at
home would not keep us according to tradi-
ton and in the ''set' We call our own. In GO
| ing to Llli as you did you showed that she
was equal to the highest womanhood; a
| woman less than lady would never have re-
sented your visit as she has done-woud
never have given up the man who loved her. !"
| She was putting on her bonnet.
You are scarcely accountable for what
you are saying" she said. 81 did that for
you for which you will yet thank me. Lilli-"
lis as true woman as you are"
'oHc HeT CHILL AS though L SnOulu
have gone to her had she not BEEN" she said
'sas though Clark would harbor a feeling
| of admiration for q woman who is not as IT.
| reproachable in every respect as the ladies of
| his own family She is good woman, but
SO are there many good women of unfortun-
| ate parentage, and with miserable ways of
earning living. A ballet dancer, q waitress
| i'll a cafe may possess all that the Fraulein
! Lili has ascribed to her: but would you mar
ry the dansuese or the waitress? 1t is all
| over, and happily over; tomorrow night is
| her last in Munich. In Berlin she will renew
her early triumphs, while you will have
| grown calm enough to recognize the force of
my reasoning-especialIy when the fraulein
| marries a title" She had not mean ito say
| that.
What is that?" he cried quickly.
! "Your violence has prevented my telling
| you all. Your love, as you persist in
terming your insane infatuaton, has made
me somewhat fearful of the consequences were
| to tell you all that the frauein told me- but
| your mistake in the selling of poison proves
| that nothing you might know could make
| you more reckless. Lilli informed me when
last saw her, two days ago, that she had
! been asked in marriage by the Baron Vol