The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-04-20
BEFORE HIS OWN SHRINE.
A TOUCHING PICTURE OF AUGUsTIN
DAILY AT WORSHIP.
A Herald Reporter Takes Advantage of
His Semi-Entranced Condition and In
terviews Him with the Aid of a Mind
Reader-Alleged Ideas of the Manager.
August Augustin DAILY !

Yes, it was he. That square-crowned, rare
old hat, those baggy trousers those expansive
feet-above all, that impressive pose of deep
abstraction, that mystic, eerie, awful air of self
convicted genus-it could be none else. Soli-
tary as became his illustrousness-nes he stood
in an attitude of reverential, almost prayerful
contemplation, reposing his crooked and emf
nent elbows on the breast-high guard-rail which
runs round behind the ultimate row of seats on
the orchestra floor of the National Theatre
His Jovian jaw was firmly yet softly set; the
westerly elevation of his face was eloquent with
all the surface symptoms of gentle reverie and
two days. neglect of his razor; and from beneath
his arching brows shot stageward those beams
of beautiful incandescent luminosity which
even in states Of partial intellectual coma still
CLEAN in the eyes of transcendent genius. A
moment-two moments-passed, and still the
great man stood there silent, moveless, far-with-
drawn into the innermost penetralis of his own
submely concentrated consciousness. Then
a change came DER the contour of his counte-
nance. The set of his Jovian jaw almost i'm
perceptibly softened, his classic chin dropped
down a sixteenth of an inch nearer his neglige
necktie, and faint wave of mild emotion un-
dulated backward among the roots of the two
days. stubble OF his cheek and broke against
Jl6 outer reeuetS OIL Ills ear aS ~ pasSeu, uulS
wave of emotion swept before it all the rough
sand-ridges Of expression and left behind only
the subdued serenity of worship and of prayer
Mr.. DAILY was deeply moved. The contempla-
ton of the splendor of his own work, the con-
cretion of his own genius in the absolute artis-
tic perfection of the performance then going
forward on the stage had overcome him as he
gazed, and he worshipped humbly at his own
haontiful and n tOuphiOp Siphf
and The SUNDAY HERALD reporter who saw it
felt that life was indeed worth living; that
whether he drew an approximation prize this
month or not he had not lived in vain.
But as the reporter gazed he was filed with
nameless terror. He had come to interview Mr..
DAILY and his sensitive soul recoiled in panic
from the thought of breaking in upon those
impromptu religious exercises which he was
witnessing at a respectful distance How could
he ever dare to draw nearer that august Angus
tin presence and drag down from its Himalayan
heights of worship or haul up from its abysmal
abysses of contemplation, that transcendent
spirit? The reporter had talked familiarly with
Senators, judges, statesmen, great and small; he
had shaken bands with Gen. Grant; he had
travelled in the same Pullman car with Russell
Harrison; he had mingled cigarette smoke with
Charlie Hoyt, and he had drunk over the same
bar with the author of Listen to My Tale of
Woe" but never before had he felt that sense of
goneness about the regions of the diaphragm, that
utter collapse of courage which now assailed
him. But he remembered the stern mandate Of
his editor, and he resolved at least to attempt
the discharge OF his duty, even if he perished.
Respectfully he approached and in SOFT fiat
tering accents whispered in the nigh ear of
Mr. DAILY the object of his mission. The great
head slowly turned; the luminous eyes gazed
with mild reproach into the reporters; then the
great head turned away again. Once more the
reporter broke the awful silence. The great
head slowly shook, and as from the depths of
some enchanted cave these sounds welled up:
"Ah, no. it cannot be. You know not what
you ask. l have never at home or abroad, con-
sented to talk to an interviewer. In my wisdom
have not deemed it best"
Then with a sound like the noise of Water
bury watch that has bust its handspring the re-
porter could hear Mr.. DAILY withdraw into him
self; and thereafter silence fell about him like a
mountain dew, so thick and chill that the re-
porter hastily took two iye-grain quinine
capsules to ward off a cold. He essayed to
speak again in the dulcet accents of persua-
sion, but he saw that Mr.. DAILY was so lost in
contemplation of the glories of his own handi-
work upon the stage that it would be an easier
task to find Silcott than to find him.
So with a sad heart the would-be interviewer
turned away, his task unaccomplished, his mis-
sion unfulflled. He was about to rush out into
the night, when he caught sight of an acquaint-
ance who is possessed of wonderful gifts as a
mind-reader. A bold and happy thought struck
the newspaper man.
Would it be possible to interview Mr. DAILY
with the aid of the mind-reader? 1t could al
least be tried. In an instant the mind-readeI
was seized, dragged into the lobby, and the
great scheme sprung upon him. At first he was
paralyzed with astonishment at the boldness OF
the proposition. Then he smiled at the novelty
of it. Then enthusiastically he consented tc
try it.
The next moment the reporter and the mind
reader were leaning upon the guard-rail as neal
as discretion allowed to the only great theatri
cal manager The mind-reader was nearest th,
intended victim of his experimentation, and
almost touched elbows with him. The condi
tions were unfavorable to the success of the un
dertaking, but the mind-reader energetically
concentrated all his powers of psychologizatioI
and sailed in When he felt himself rdppOr
with his unsuspecting subject he made sign
TO the newspaper man.
"Can you tell me first what is going on in hi
mind ?' whispered the latter.
she is thinking" slowly and softly answered
the mind-reader, show beautiful are the work
of genius and what wonders can be wrought
with such common mortals as Ada Rehan, JOIN
Drew, and James Lewis by man of high artis
tic taste and No. intellectually like himself
Now he is lost in a dreamy haze of soulful ad
miration of the beauty, the esprit, the grace o