The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-07-13


eyes from the socketi | blush, T burn, 4
shudder while | pen the damnable atroc-
ity. sss
When reason returned with tho morn
ing-when | had slept of the fumes OF
the nights debauch-I experienced .
sentiment half Of horror, half Of re-
morse.s for the crime of which / had been
guilty. But it was at best q feeble and
equivocal feeling, and the soul remained
untouched. again plunged into excess
and soon drowned in wine all memory Of
the deed rs
In the meantime the cat slowly recov-
cred The socket. of the lost eve present
cd, 1t Is true. fr1ghtful appearance, bus
he no longer appeared to suffer any pain.
He went about the house as usual, but.
as might be expected. fed in extreme
terror at my approach. / had 90 much
of my old heart left as to be at first
grieved by this evident dislike on the
part Of creature which had once so
loved me.
But this feeling soon gave place to irri-
tation. And then came. as if to my final
and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of
perverseness. OF this spirit philosophy
takes no account Yet / am not more
sure that my soul lives than am that
perverseness is one of the primitive inn
pulses of the human heart-one of the
indivisible primary faculties or senti-
ments which give direction to the char
acter of man. Who has not hundred
times found himself committing a vile or
q silly action for no other reason than be-
cause he knows he should not? Have we
not a perpetual inclination. in the teeth
of our best judgment, to violate that
which is law, merely because we under
stand it to be such? 81
This spirit of perverseness, say, came
to my final overthrow. It was this un-
fathomable longing of the soul to vex
itself-to offer violence to its own ma
ture Ito do wrong for the wrongs sake
only-that urged me to continue and
finally to consummate the injury I had
inflicted upon the unoffending brute.
One morning in cold blood slipped a
moose about its neck and hung it to tre
limb Of q tree: hung it with the tears
streaming from my eyes and with TIE
bitterest remorse at my heart; hung it
because I knew that it had loved me
and because felt it had given me no
reason of offense; hung it because ]
knew that in SO doing was committing
sin-a deadly sin that would so jeopar-
die my immortal soul as to place tit
such thing were possible beyond
the reach of the infinite mercy Of the
most merciful and most terrible God.
On the night, Of the day on which this
Hua desdsHas dnas WAS aroused from
sleep BY the cry Of Fire. The curtains
Of my bed were in flames. The wholi
house was blazing. It was with great
difficulty that my wife, servant and
myself made our escape from the con-
aagration. The destruction was com
plete. My entire worldly wealth was
swallowed up. and resigned myself
thenceforth to despair.
am above the weakness of seeking to
establish sequence of cause and effect
between the disaster and the atrocity.
But am detailing chain of facts and
imperfect. On the day succeeding the
FIRE | vi4ited the ruins. The walls, with
one exception. had fallen in. This ex.
ception was found in a compartment
wall. not very thick, which stood about
the middle of the house, and against
which had sted the head of my bed
The plastering had here, in great meas
ure, resisted the action of the fire-a fact
which attributed to its having been re
Gently spread. About this wall dense
crowd We're collected, and many persons
seemed to be examining particular
portion of it with very minute and eager
attention. The words ''Strange" ''Sin
gular!''' and other similar expressions ex
cited my curiosity. l approached ani
saw. as if craven in bas-relief upon tht
white surface. the figure of gigantic
cat. The impression was given with IL
accuracy truly marvellous. There was {
rope about the animals neck.
When l first beheld this apparition
for l could scarcely regard it as less, my
wonder and my terror were extreme
But at length reflection came to my aiG
The cat, l remembered. had been huns
inagarden adjacent to the house. Upo;
the alarm of fire this garden had bee1
Immediately filled by the crowd, b,
some one ct whom the animal mus
have been cut from the tree and thrown
through an open window, into my cham
Der. This had probably been done will
a view of arousing me from sleep. Th'
falling of other walls had compressed
the victim of my cruelty into the sub
stance of the freshly spread plaster, th,
lime of which, with the flames and th,
ammonia from the carcass, had thc1
accomplished the portraiture as I saw it
Although thus readily accounted t
my reason, If not altogether to my con
science, for the startling fact just de
tailed, it did not the less fail to make
deep impression upon my fancy. Fo
months could not rid myself Of th
| nhaptas1n of the cat and durinor IN.