Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1890-03-04
CAl.RISlUN'S GIFT.
The Story Of ali Occult. and Mvs-
terions Power.

| plain. unvarnsh1 I'd truth, and expect
| my full crcdcncc to he given to his
| words.
1t was too absurd! too sad! It was
evident to me that the barrier between
his Authorizations. dreams. visions, or
| whatever he chose to call them. and
pure insanity was now n very slight
and fragile one. Rut before l gave his
case up as hopeless ] determined to
make another strong appeal 10 his
common ems. told him of his cous-
in visit to me--of his intentions and
| pi o. oSi ion. l begged him to consider
beliefs nd cytravagant actions must
eventually entail. He listened atten-
lively and calmly.
"1ou see now" he said. show right
l was a:tri1utIng all this to Raj phi
Carriston how ght l was to come to
you, a Doctor of standing, who can
vouch for my anity."
"Nouch FIR your sanity! How can I,
when lou st here and talk such arrant
nonsense and expect me to believe it?
When you jump from your chair and
rush madly at some visionary foe?
Sane rs you may be in all else. any evil
dence ! could give in your favor must
break dom in cross-eXam nation if an
inkling If these things got about
Come. Carr ton, be reasonable. and
prove your sanity by setting about this
search for Miss Rowan in proper
way
He made no reply, but walked up and
down the room apparently in deep
thought. My words seemed to have
had no effect upon HIM. Presently he
seated him self; and, as if to AVOID re-
turn pg TO tho arguln mt, drew q book
at hazard from my shelves and began
to road He opened the volume at ran
dom. but after reading few lines
seemed struck by som hing that met
his eyes, and n few minutes wa,
d 'epiy immersed in the contents of the
book. glanced at it to see what had
SO awakened his interest. BY curious
fatality he had chosen book the very
worst for him in his present fran, of
m nd-Gilchrist S recently publ .sh d lie
OF William Blake, that mastery memoir
OF q man who was on certain points as
mad Carriston himself was about
to demonstrate, when he laid down the
volume and turned to mo
Marley, the painter he said, was
firm believer in Blake's visions"
Marley was bigger fool than
Blake" retorted. Fancy his sitting
down and wat .;;ing his clever but ma
friend draw spectral heads. and believ-
ing them to be genuine portraits of
dead kings whose forms condesccnded
to appear to Blake'
4 sudden thought seemed to strike
Carriston. "Wilf you give me some
paper and chalk?" he asked Upon
being furnished with these materials he
seated himself at the table and began
to draw. At least a dozen times he
sket he'd, with his usual rapid ty, some
OBJ ect or another, and dozen times,
at or moments consideration, threw
each sketch aside with an air of di,ap-
pointmcnt, and began fresh one. At
last one of his attempts seemed to come
up to his requirements. II have it
now, exa "" he cried. with .;oy, even
triumph. in his voice. He srcnt some
time in putting fni hing touches to the
sue e sful sketch, then he handed me
the paper.
That is the man 1 saw just now
with Madeline" he sa d. ..When l
find him 1 shall find her. He sroke
with all sincerity and cow elton. |
looked at tho paper with. l am bound
TO say, great amount of curios ity.
No matter from what visionary
source Carriston had drawn his
inspiration, his sketch was vigorous
and natural enough. l have already
mentioned his wonderful power Of
drawing portraits from memory. so
was wiling to grant that he might
have reproduced the outline of some
face which had somewhar re struck him.
Yet why should it have been this one?
His drawing represented the three
quarter face OF man-aq ordinary
man-apparcnuy ween forty and
fifty years of ago. 1t was a coarse
featured, il-favored face. with
ragged ruff of hair round the chin.
1t was not the face of a gentleman, nor
even the face of gentlv-nurtured
man; and the artist, by few cunning
strokes. had made it wear a crafty and
sullrn look The sketch, az 1 wrte
this. lies before me, so that am not
speaking from memory,
Now there are some portraits of
which. without having seen the
original, we say: What splendid
licensees those must be!' 1t was so
with Carriston's sketch, Looking at it,
YOU felt sure it was exactly like the
man whom it was intended to repre-
sent. So that. with the certain amount
of art knowledge which 1 am at least
supposed to possess, it was hard for ME,
after examining the drawing and
recognizing the true artists touch in
every line. to bring myself to accept
the fact that it was but the outcome of
diseased imagination, AS. at this
very moment, l glance at that draw
ing. | scarcely blame myself for the
question that family framed itself in
my innermost heart. Gould it be
possible could there be in certain or
CARNATIONS powers not yet known
not yet properly investigated?'
My thought-supposlng such
thought was ever there was not dis
couraged by Carriston. who. speaking,
as if his faith in the bodily existence Of
the man whose portrait lay in my hand
was unassailable, said:
IL noticed that his general appear
ance was that of a countryman-an En-
gil h pea ant; so in the country l shall
find my love. Moreover, it will be
easy to ident fy the man, as the top
10 mt is missing from the middle finger
of his right hand. AS it lay on Made