Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-09

impenetrable reserve. She is said to be
able to improvise and recite her poetry like
Corinne, to have a more varied and perfect
control of the piano than List, who was
one of her instructors, to sing as no other
woman ever did, to paint like master and
write and talk like savant."
"A sort of She in real life, as it were,
interrupted Eberle.
"But you have seen her paintings,
Eberle, said Caxton, 'what did you think
of them?"
"well, they are reremarkabie- woman.
They are wonderfully broad and luminous
and beautiful in tone, but she often sacri-
fees composition and mere beauty for
realism. Her subjects are the last you
would imagine as the choice of such a
woman, being chiefly of the horrible, the re-
production of crime and misery with ter
rible truthfulness. But of course l had but
hasty view of them, and cannot speak con-
clusively of their merit. -
81 have heard" said Drake, resuming his
story to end it, "that in st. Petersburg she
came so near justifying the acts of the Nj
hilists as to be threatened with arrest, and
that nothing saved her but her beauty and
brilllancy. and the fact that women loved
her as well as men. She fiirted with nobody,
sought to attract nobody, and SO made no.
worship her wherever she goes"
And one man at least could worship her
now," thought young Caxton, as he sought
the place where Mrs. Fardella had been,
only to find that she had ordered her car
riage and gone home.
1t was but little while, however, before
Ca1ton gained the coveted introduction, and
he at once proceeded to devote himself with
all his ardor to Mrs. Fardella If there
were others who had an ambition to be suit
ors they desisted when he showed by his at
tentions that he was badly hit; for no one
would pretend to fighting chance with the
handsome, rich and accomplished young
Southron as his antagonist. 1t was an open
field for scion of one of the proudest and
oldest families of the South, which was less
hurt by the War of the Rebellion than most
other families of distinction, and which had
shown more pluck and cunning than most
OF them in repairing what was shattered.
What astonished them who had been con-
vlnced of the unimpressionable character
OF the woman was that Mrs. Fardella ap-
parently encouraged the attentions OF Cax-
ton, with neither suggestion of Irritation
nor yet of serious purpose, as though Turing
him to some point she had in view, and vet
holding him aloof.
"It was in this room 1 first saw you,"
Caxton murmered to Mrs. Fardella one
evening late in the season, and at the last
formal reception at the house of Secretary
Hamilton. 81 am negotiating for the pur-
chase of the place. want it for that mem
ory if for nothing more"
what pity the Southern poetry and
romance, of which your mind seems to be
the outgrowth, should be so commingled
with a history of brutal torture and wrongs
so horrible that they cannot be named"
said Mrs. Fardella
why do you always answer my kindliest
sentiments with references to such unpleas-
ant things?"
Because can never separate one of your
class from memories of the anguish of the
slave. Just as 1 hold every good man re-
sponsible for the brutal condition into which
the working people of the world are thrust.
"But we must wait fer time to correct
these things, and meanwhile"
"And meanwhile let millions starve and
drift into lives of crime on account of the
unequal conditions. Oh, know what YOU
would have said, that meanwhile we should
not make ourselves miserable on account of
what we cannot possibly remedy. Well,
what shall we do to forget it all?''
$50 into the conservatory and talk of the
loves of the flowers" said Caxton, laughing.
Their loves? Yes, but they neither
marry nor are given in marriage" rejoined
this strange woman. "Do you know" " she
continued, that the best thing in Washing
ton society is its suggestion of the freedom
of nature? With the exaggerated stories of
my career always travelling with ME / do
not suppose I could have gained entrance
to what is called the best circles in any
otner city of America, vou are SO careful Of
outward appearances, though secretly so
like the rest of the world. Here L find one
may be the subject of scandal and lies, and
at the same time welcome visitor, with no
higher recommendation than a show of
wealth, or official position or associations
By the way, you tell me you aim at public
life; what do you intend to do when you get
there?'
"The first thing to do is to get there"
said Caxton.
Suppose you were in the Senate now;
what would you do?"
Every much as the others do, suppose.
to the extent of my Abilities
"One hundred years of your Senate has
produced 1,000,0 900 men constantly lack
ing work by which to earn bread. That
means 100000 paupers. Will 100
years more, with Senate composed Of such
ambitious gentlemen as yourself produce
10. .000, 900 Daupers?"
II you Hdu llFeu IN France IN '93 /
could imagine you plotting along with
Madame Hehert and Charlotte Corday."
"And in France in another '93 1 NAV be
found plotting with greater women than
either Hebert or Cordav," said Mrs.
Fardella in low tone and with much en-
phasis.
'tAh," said Caxton, 81 am sure you were
not made for that Why, the thought is
simply horrible. This is a day of growing
humanity and liberty, and revolutions are
by means of the ballot and
ruling sentiment, and not by plotting and
throat cutting"
"Will you revolutionize the prejudice
against the negro in your Southern States
BY means of the ballot ?'' asked Mrs. Far
della with unconcealed irony.
"Oh, the negro question is great prob
lem," said Caxton with sudden eoolness
ana reserve. "We have the spectacle of an
intelligent white people overruled by the
mere numbers of people brutal, indolent,
without moral sense, and by |
reason of insurmountable differences an in |
ferior race now and for all time. The South |
ern white cannot and will not submit to any |
control from such creatures. After the war |
and so-called reconstruction we were timid |
for time. We were defeated and dis |
mantled. 1t was the sentiment of the |
victors that the former slave should |
now be the master by means |
Of the ballot. We bowed for while to that |
dictum. The time for submission is past,
and every day the whites are weakening the
power of the blacks. Soon, and the sooner
the better for them and us. they will have
no control in our State or national Govern
nent. We can rule better for them than
hey for themselves. They must be entirely
in fact if not in name"
I'm other words, you are about to repeat
IN a colossal scale an injustice to the negro