The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-06-20

ence. seized him, when, in his fright at
my violence, he inflicted slight wound
upon my hand with his teeth. The fury
of a demon instantly possessed me.
knew myself no longer My original soul
seemed at once to take its flight from my
body, and more than fiendish malevolence
gin-natured, thrilled every fibre of my
frame. took from my waistcoat pocket
penknife, opened it, grasped the poor
beast by the throat, and deliberately cut
one of its eyes from the socket blush,
| burn, l shudder while pen the damn
able atrocity.
When reason returned with the morn
ing, when | had slept off the fumes of the
nights debauch, | experienced a sentiment
half of horror, half of remorse, for the
crime of which l had been guilty; but it
was at best feeble and equivocal feeling,
and the soul remained untouched. Iagain
plunged into excess, and soon drowned in
wine all memory of the deed.
In the meantime the cat slowl y recover
ed. The socket of the lost eye presented,
it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no
tlonger appeared to suffer any pain. He
went about the house rs usual, but, as
might be expected, fled in extreme terror
at my approach. | had so much of my
old heart left as to be at first grieved by
his evident dislike on the part of creature
which had once loved me. But this feel
ing soon gave place to irritation. And
then came, as if to my final and irrevocable
overthrow, the spirit of the perverse. OF
this, philosophy takes no account. Yet l
am not more sure that my soul lives than
am that perverseness is one of the prim-
tive impulses of the human heart, one OF
the invisible primary faculties, or senti-
ments, which gives direction to the charac-
ter of man. Who has not hundred times
found himself committing vile or silly
action for no other reason than because he
knows he should not Who has not had
perpetual inclination, in the teeth of his
best Judgment, to violate that which is law,
merely because he understood it to be such?
This spirit of perverseness, l say, cane to
my final overthrow. 1t was this uniath-
omable longing Of the soul to vex itself, to
offer violence to its own nature, to do wrong
for the wrongs sake only that urged me to
continue and finally to consummate the
injury 1 had inflicted upon the unoffend-
ing brute One morning, in cold blood,
slipped moose about its neck and hung it
to the limb of tree; hung it with the
tears streaming from my eyes, and with
the bitterest remorse at my heart; hung 1t
because I knew that it had loved me, and
because l felt it had given me no reason of
offense; hung it because knew that in so
doing | was committing sin, deadly sin
that would so jeopardize my immortal soul
as to place it if such thing were possible,
even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy
: of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible
God
On the night of the day on which this
cruel deed was done | was aroused from
sleep by the cry Of fire. The curtains Of
nv bed were in flames The whole house
was blazing. 1t was with great difficulty
that my wife, servant and myself made
our escape from the eonhagration. The
destruction was complete. My entire
worldly wealth was swallowed up, and |
resigned myself thenceforward to despair.
| am above the weakness of seeking to
establish sequence of cause and effect
between the disaster and atrocity. But |
am detailing a chain of facts, and wish not
to leave even a possible link imperfect.
On the day succeeding the fire | visited
the ruins. The walls with one exception
had fallen in. The exception was found
in compartment wall, not very thick,
which stood about the middle of the house,
and against which had rested the head of
my bed The plastering had here, in a
great measure resisted the action of the
fire. fact which l attributed to its having
been recently spread. About this wall a
dense crowd were collected, and many per-
sons seemed to be examining a particular
portion of itswith very minute and eager
attention. The words "Sranger p "Sing
ular p and other similar expressions excited
my curiosity. l approached and saw, as
if craven in bas relief upon the white sur
face, the figure of a gigantic cat. The i'm
preston was given with an accuracy truly
marvellous. There was a rope about the
animals neck.
When l first beheld this apparition (for
| could scarcely regard it as less) my Won
der and terror were extreme. But at length
reflection came to my aid. The cat, |
remembered, had been hung in the garden
adjacent to the house. Upon the alarm of
fire this garden had been Immediately filed
by the crowd, by some one of whom the
animal must have been cut from the tree
and thrown through an open window into
my chamber. This had probably been
done with the view of arousing me from
sleep. The falling of other walls had com
pressed the victim of my cruelty into the
substance of the freshly spread plaster, the
lime of which, with the flames of the am
monia from the carcass, had then accom-
plished the portraiture as they saw it.
Although thus readily accounted to
my reason, if not altogether to my con-
science, for the startling fact thus revealed,
it did not the less fail to make deep i'm
preston upon my fancy. For months l
could not rid myself of the phantasm of
the cat, and during this period there came
back into my spirit half sentiment that
seemed, but was not, remorse. went so
far as to regret the loss of the animal and
to look about me, among the vile haunts
which l now habitually frequented, for
another pet of the same species and of
somewhat similar appearance with which
to supply his place.
One night as 1 sat, half stupefed, in a
den of more than infamy, my attention
was suddenly drawn to some black object,
reposing upon the head of one immense
hogsheads of gin, or rum, which consti-
tuted the chief furniture of the apartment.
had been looking steadily at the top of
this hogshead for some minutes, and what
now caused me surprise was the fact that 1
had not sooner perceived the object there
upon, approached it, and touched it
with my hand. 1t was black cat, very
large one, fully as large as Pluto, and
olosalv raeambliney hin, in avarvthiney bnt