Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1894-03-24
TALES OF TEN TRAVELLERS.
siADOMIR LEuPOLTs BEQuEsIs.
BY EDGAR L. wAKKNAx.

Br KDGAR L. wAKKHAs.
tCopyright, 1885, All rights reserved.l
Herr Psuius being young man of gen.
erous nature and famous artist of Chem
nitz, had hosts Of admirers for his grand
portraits. Austrian battle-pieces and land
scapes, 90 long - he continued the kindly
practice Of giving them away.
At last there came time. before be was
forty years of age, when, having no pic
lures left and no Ruilders for those which
were gone, his noble enthusiasm in the
house furnishing line for others was
brought to sudden check by such demands
as fame alone was never known to meet.
To an artist these demands were gross
and trivial in their nature, but their very
insigni6osncs seemed to spread q pesti-
lsnoe of contempt which rendered them
more serious and Imperative; euriously
causing the recipients Of his past favors
to turn their faces with great and critical
attsntivenees upon his fine paintings
which had not cost them q forin, and
their backs with uubending pertinscity
upon the fine artist. Thus Herr Psulus,
ruminating in his bare studio, took his
frst lesson In bslated thrift.
While thus engaged his eyes alighted
upon . newspaper abstrac. of q paper,
then recently communicated to the French
Geographical society by DR.. Le Bon, upon
primitive and little known race of peo-
pie calling themselves Podhalisns, who ex-
lat high up among the Carpathisn noun
tains of Gslicis, in the Tatras range of
these mountains separating Galicis, or
Austrian Poland, from Hungary's glowing
plains.
Herr Paulus had reread the article many
times, and sat looking out of his studio
window over and above the quaint old
Chemnitz roofs, as IL his artists eyes ssv
the billowy swaths of the Tatrss range,
and gave him communion with the Area
dian people there.
This dsy-dreamipg had been interrupted
BY another rude demand fo- rent. He
satisfied the intruder with definite prom
iss of Requirement, and then reresd the
sketch once more, some portions of ID
aloud, ss though half arguing to invisible
though interested friends:
Though poor they are content That
is much. Their food is principally oats,
either simply boiled or groand and con-
verted into cakes; and though their diet is
long lives.' Now there must be wonder
ful complexions and types among such
people as these"
he walked back and forth for q time
with the paper in his hand, seeming to re-
alIzs more and more how little his studio
really contained. Then he read aloud
again:
1.-the population of this remote region
- why, Il 10 not one hundred miles from
Chemnitzl-'numbers several hundred
thousand individuals. During four or ave
months of the year those of them who
accompany their focks and herds TO the
goat-milk whey, each person consuming
from thrss to four iiters daily"
here Herr Paulus rested his bead In ons
hand discoursgcdly, closed his eyes tightly
% II from palm, and made an exose1tr ~
wry face. He hllped the psper IN III az.
engaged hand for . long time sef0rr -
opened his eyes and resumed:
Though far from being cultured the
Tatras pessantry are poets and artists BY
nature Ach, Gott," he groaned, "hne
beautiful and how rarel They are fond
Of dancing, and often, when the lsbors Of
the day are over, meet 10 indulge In their
visatores, too, and many of them can sing
their own songs tet TO music of their own
composition. Their poetry Is tender and
artless In sentiment, and generous and Ell
evated In style; qualities attributable to
their wealth of spontaneous resources, not
infrequently possessed by natures know
ing neither violent passions nor unnatural
excitements'"
Herr Paulus sprang from bis chair to
the window as though the little, dark and
lonely studio were . prison. BE spread
his hands upward and hutteripgly upon
the panes, while his face pressed the glass
with backward and forward, impatient
movements.
1t was growing dark in the hard, old
street below. The stone gables opposite
| looked hateful to him for the first time
| now; and the ssffrony glow of the after
sunset sky seemed resting most lovingly
away In the northeast where the TatrAs
mountains lay.
Finally he turned from the outer glow.
ing 70 the inner darkness, struck bis
i hands together sharply, from which they
seemed to rebound into the air with the
Il gesture OF one throwing on nopelees
load, when he sang for little ss merrily
as he had ever done In the student days
when hope was high at Buds Pesth.
He had lights brought In unusual num-
bsre; wrote . note and dispatched 1t by {
kellner; told the little old fellow with ths
gray mold of the rsisin upon him who an
swered IL, to set q price upon the trifis
he could find within the studio; accepted
the proffsr at once; found himself In pos
session of less than two hundred 10 rim
whsreupon Herr Psulus paid his rent and
with hastily and secretly packed KNAPP
sack, containing only such materials ss Al
artist of experience would require. shortl.
after midnight of the same day gained ad
mitiancs to the little inn of Altsohl, wher
he remained until the next evening; set
ting out in the bslmy June twilight, afte
having heard from the gossip at the I'M
that his strange disappearance and proba
BILE suicide had advanced the value of hi
csnvasses to their lucky possessors full
an hundred fold.
But Herr Paulus was gaining In philosc
ply a. wen as experience.
"The best beloved are the dead" he re
hected. "I will be as one dead to thos
In ChemnitI novi" with which be presses
forward ch,erily toward Neueohl and th
/ p..s fhro1oh the Tyntau heiuhta beyoud.