The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1888-01-13
The ROMANCE OF A BOTTLE.
A Curious rnle of A1nric,

A Curious Tale of Magic
The house had formerly been inhab.
tied by painter, aud the studio. which
spread its gaunt. unsllapcn length
along the southern wall of the neglect
ed garden. had been given over to the
old man that he might divert himself
in it as he pleased without fear of do.
mcsticinvasion. Evidently it was u place
where the intruding foot of wife or
housekccper was never suffered; for
lorn. disordercd place; dark. too. for
the great window was all smirchcd and
blind with dust, and scraps of paper
with queer, cabalistic devices wore
stuck over the lower panes, and rain
showers charged with SCOT had blurred
it till it was now almost Opaque.
1t was long and lofty room. Hero
and there the walls were smcared with
rude grotesquc sketches, which re.
maincd to satirize the memory of the
late proprietor, as his gcnious had ex-
pressed itself in his idlcst or most fam
tastic moods. The dim corncs were
spun all across with cobwcbs; dark
blotches of some long-dried chem
ical fluid. like old blood-stains, showed
upon the bare flooring; and y little
ridge of dust on either side of smooth
path some two and half feet wide, rum
ming the length of the eastern wall,
marked the course troddcn by the old
man when he paced his workshop in
thought or meditation. The rest of the
door was covered by q fine layer of
dust.
The old man himself was just tho
kind of old man whom you would have
expected to find i'll such a place. The
brown and VIZ mixed skin was stretched
tightly over his forehead and the upper
part Of his skull, which asce ndcd to q
sort of bluntcd point. A thin, irregular
fringe. to pale to be called gray, too
faded to be white, circled his head on
level with the ears, and gave him so
far the air of IN aged and withcred
monk. There was still certain bold
ness in the forehead, but the eyebrows
that had been full and bushy had
become mere ragged ana colorless
tufts. The mouth retained q little of
its native iirmness. though the loss of
the teeth had deprived it of half of its
character; but what powers of express
sion and what show of intellect had
vanished from the other features
seemed to have concentrated them
selves chiefly in the eyes. from which
there radiated light OF almost unnat-
natural brillancy. An eagerness. o
curiosity. and painful restlcssncss
glttcrcd in them, and they appeared
never to take in tho half OF what thcy
longed to see.
This old man was an alchcmist,
probably the last of tho alchom;sts.
a long line and a curious is the line
of the alchcmists. AT tho head of it
we may place Hcrmes Trismegistus,
the Egyptian. concerning whom so lit
tie is known that we need not hesitate
to accept the conjecture of his biogra-
phcr that at u certain period of his life
he died. Some would, assign priority
of date to Zolimus tho Panopljtc, who
said that one could make gold out of
lead if one went theright way TO work,
and who may have been the chancellor
of the eXchcqucr in Il government
whose pecuniary rccources were wan
ing.
The old alchemist in the studio had
tried honestly in his day 10 make gold
out of lead. and out of stones, plants.
and Heaven knows what other things;
he had his power Of projection and his
metals; his crucible. his furnace, and 4
poker of the proper Sort like the
other alchemists; but he had not made
any gold. Ten fruitless years he had
spent in the endeavor TO produce it by
technical and prescribed processes
of separation, of ,nuturation, and of
tran.mu.ation; and then. on day in
bright midwintcr. it flashed upon him
with tho dazzlc and shock OF nspira-
ton that the thing which above
oil things disc it beloved him to
d scover and make perfect for the
good of himself and his fellow men was
that grand and infallible disSolvant of
Paracelsus aud Van belmont, the true
and only elixir which conferred immor-
tallity OH mortals. Line by line the
old man pondcrcd all that had been
written by, an on account of, Paracclsus
and Van Helmont.
Yet, amid the dusky stiffness of that
dead chamber, There was a lifeless
thing that seemed to watch. now mock
ingly, and now in sympathy, the lean
rnpt figure of the Alchemist.
This thing that hal no life in it was
a bottle. A plain narrow-ncckcd vcs-
sci Of pale green glass which spirit
merchants had been once wont to fill
with some extravagant liqncur.
But when lie finished his work and
read the closing word. lie knew that lie
had mastered and made his own the
hitherto inviolable secret of the Elixir
of Life.
Quick upon the stroke of this I'M
mense discovery came u warning from
within that his own days were number
ell. Was he then to die before he could
prepare his Elixir of Life?
H $ spirit was not dashed, for VERY
curiously his desire Of life ceased with
his conviction that there was 81 means
Of cheating death.
What he longed for now was time
wherein to perfect his knowledge. that
happier men might profit By it. So lie
to:led afresh. that he might win his
.ecrct to the use of postcrity.
1t was spring, and the daylight
iengtllencd. Sunshine and budding
edges comfortei the world, and
nature herself seemed willing TO assist
the dropping alchemist. But one night
lie was seized with sudden faintncss.
md sank half dead from lack OF
kustenancc. whilst the experiment was
in the middle stage. 4 month later lie
had similar. but sharper and more
exhausting. seizure; and then he began
10 know that he should not 1.-Two to
make good tho secret Of the elixir.
Day followed day; the sun grew
warmer. aud the blood in tho al-
chemists veins grow colder. One
morning the paper stopper of the
..oltle, contracting in the SUMS ravs.