Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1894-02-12
THE FAIRIES.


eous and lettering leaned against the rail.
It was a bundle Of rags, Of rents, Of odds
and ends, Of faded flowers of faded feathers.
Add to that poor, scanned, withered vel.
low face, with the malice OF two small
black eyes glitteriug among It's wrinkles,
rs n lizard glitters in the Granny Of an old
wall
What is your namep the judge asked
her
'Melusine"
what did you say2"
She repeated gravely, "Melusine."
Under his great military mustache the
judge smiled little, but he went ON slowly:
"Your ageg"
~ do not know"
your business"
81 am II fairy"
At that the audience, the lawyers, the
Judge himself everybody, Joined In one
great burst OF laughter. but the old woman
was not NJ all disturbed, and in her small,
clear quavsring voice, which mounted high
above their hends and lowered there like a
voice in Il dream, she resumed:
"Ah, the fairies OF Fnncel Where are
they, All dead, my good gentlemen.
am the last, there are no more left but me.
Indeed 1t is great loss, and France was
far more beautiful when she had her fair-
les We were the poetry OF the land, its
faith its simplicity, It's childhood. All the
spots we haunted - the depths of lehfy
woods, the clear watercourses. the turreted
old chateauN, the misty pools, che marshy
heaths-took from our presence know not
what of magic and mystery. Once In
long while we would be seen trailing our
robes across mOonheam or fitting through
. Nasa "a. 81 - Al
The peasants loved US; they paid us great
honor
with the alteration in their artless
minds, our brows cleaning with pearls,
our wands, our enchanted distaiTs. min
gled touch of terror. Therefore our
haunts were always undisturbed. The
plowmen avoided the green alleys where
we met, and as we reyerenced all Things
old-we, the worlds oldest-France left all
her forests to groA wild for us and her
columns TO crumlD without ATTEMPT at
hindrance.
But the times have changed Roads of
iron are here. In following their tunnels
they ohoked up our pools. They cut down
so many of our trees that soon there was
no spot known where we might meet. The
peasants did not believe In us any more. In
the evening, when we tapped upon the
shutters, Robin said, 1t is the wind and
went to sleep again. The women came to
do their washing in our streamA From
that time forth It was all over with us.
Our lives layin the peoples faith, and when
faith was destroyed we also were DESTROYED
wholly The virtue ia gone out OF our
wands, aud from the potent queens that
we were we have fallen to be old, wrinkled
hays, willful as the fairies that are forgot
ten also we have our bread to gain with
our hands, which do not know how to do
anything.
AT first you might have seen us In the
forests YEARLY dragging fagots of
dead wood or gathering the aoorns from
the sides OF the paths. But the woodmen
were hard on us;-the peasants thrust us
irom the pleasant ruins. So, like the poor
who can find no way of living in the coun-
try we came to seek out work In your
great towns.
some of us toiled in the cotton mills.
Others sold apples during the winter on
your bridges, or beads before the doors of
your churches. We pushed carts full Of
oranges, we held out to the psssersby bou-
9ueS Whlch no one cared to buy, and the
nttle children Knocked at our wagging
chins, and the policemen ordered us away
M, -. N'-'"'eNSeS hhuIheu Us uOWn, linen
sickness want--a hospital sheet thrown
over the face All, see how France has let
all her fairies diel But well has she been
punished
Yes. yes good sirs, you may laugh. But
now we havo seen what things happen in
iNhd where there are no more fairies We
nave seen all those incredulous and sneer-
ing PEASANTS opening their gates TO the
russians and showing them the best roads
70 take 10. Robin did not believe ia sor-
Gerry any more. neither did be believe in de
yotion to his country All, had we been
tneie. we fairies, Of all those Germans who
invaded Franco not one would have gone
out awe Our spells, our witch fires, would
nave ied them inil The bogs With all the
pure springs tha our names we would
naNe mixed enc. d brews to drive them
MAJ aud at our trysting places, with one
magic word. so thoroughly would we have
confused the roads and rivers, so thorough
N eutangled them in the thorny brush
Nnere tuey were always covering, that NJ.
ue Moltke's little catiike eyes would never
have seen again"
Then the delicate little voice faltered for
. moment, aud the judge said;
bnt all this does not tell us what Won
We'S doing with that oil which was found
90 you when you were arrested"
was turning Paris, sir" replied the
olu WOMAN eoolly. Il was burning Paris
BECAUSE hate 1t, because It Is always laugh
INK because 1t has killed ua Il Is Paris