The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-09-21
THE SILENT CITY.

Henry INLAND was a misanthrope at SO.
He had often found temporary comfort
In long voyages on his magnificent yacht,
and so he sought the ocean with his def
erential and silent Grew Of able seamen.
And so In the Pacific seas, studded with
the fragments Of continents, alone in his
cabin, his books his only companions, he
worked away tho otherwise unbearable
time alone.
A storm came on and drove his craft at
will before 1t for days, and the silent sail
ors worked on. At midnight on the fourth
day the yacht was driven Oh the rocks and
dashed to pieces. Buffeting with the rough
waves, INLAND was driven to the shore,
the sole survivor of the human freightage.
Ascending the clifflike coast at sunrise,
his eyes swept over vast plains, and at n
great distance he saw the glistening of
the suns rays upon the dones and spires
and pinnacles Of great city. Thithcr-
ward he bent his footsteps, passing the
rough country of tho coast and entering
upon smiling farmland through which
n broad road ran to tho distant city. A
large farmhouse attracted his attention,
and, feeling the calls of appetite, he enter
ed the swinging gate and stood before the
door. For farmhouse and Its surround
ings it was strangely silent about tho
place. There was no flutter of wings from
the big dovecot, there was no call of
fowl in the barnyard there was nothing
of the hustle and stir that characterize the
feathcred tribo at that time in tho morn
ing, and there was no low of kline. But
INLAND did not notice it. He was city bred,
and he raped again upon the sounding
door, There was no response, and he ven
I,.,l N,,1- .
wary eye out for tho dog But his way
was unchalonged. The door of tho great
kitchen was wide open, and he raped
again. He cast his eye down the lane to
tho barn and the corncribs upon the knoll
and found his way thithcr, entered the
barn and stables and found them tenant
less, walked round the buildings, and,
climbing ladder that leaned against the
barn, looked round about the cultivated
fields.
Then for the first time he noticed the
absence of living things about the sarm
premises, and he returned to the house with
a strange feeling Mt his breast. Entering,
he walked the house through from room
to room, stocked with all OF the comforts
of a successful farmer, but found nobody
living or dead. There were no signs of
visitation of plague, for the beds were
made and the pillows smoothed. The
closest search failed to develop the marks
of possible violence. All of the vehicles
employed about farm We're in the yard,
among them, beneath an open she'd a
double carriage. Peering in the closets,
INLAND found an ample store of clothing,
and from these he made change from his
torn garments. IIo found loaf in the
cupboard and some cold meat, and on
these, with u cup of water from the we'll,
L %. 4.
tho city, his observation sharpened by tho
tenantiess farm, no could not fail to note
that all along the miles of road which he
travelled that day there was not the slight
est appearance OF human or animal life
There was no smoke from the chiInneys of
houses and he met no travellers along the
great highway.
In the suburbs of the city at evening he
stopped Mt tavern whose swinging sign
gayo notice of cheer to the traveller. Tint,
too, was tennntless and silent, and the de-
preston of heart that seized upon INLAND
decpened into vague terror as night fell,
and he nodded on bench the night
through, waking at fanciful sounds OF
coming travellers that never came. At
early dawn he was on his way to tho city,
where surely, as he muttercd, there must
be men md women and little children.
And as surely these were strange wishes
for the misanthrope INLAND, who had
grown to despise men and women In the
heyday of his career, because they were SO
common, and, as for children in the me-
topolis upon which he had turned his
back, they were in countless swarms, noisy
and troublesome. Here on the terribly
lonely road he could have taken the dirti-
est, tho most Ill favored, of these little ones
to his heart, though all tho eyes of amazed
society should suddenly look on.
Down the long reach of the city avenue
he looked In vain for signs of traffic. He
noted tho pavement worn by tho wheels,
and he experienced a glow Of gladness for
"a moment and hope that something might
lay beyond.
A rat ran across the way, and INLAND
for moment felt the expectancy of COM
panionship, and it gave him IA fleotng feel
Ing OF comfort He fain would have had
1t stay, but tho little animal scurried
away. Still from this INLAND inferred that
the city had been but recently deserted, II
oil were gone, else the rodent would not
have shown fright at his prosonce. A new
hope sprang up in this that the people
would soon return.
A gust of wind made a sign creak, and i,
he ran eagerly in the direction OF the sound
and entered the shop from which the sign
hung and looked in all the rooms but
looked in vain. Ho found faint pleasure
in reading tho signs upon the stores, and
he confessed to himself that tho secret of
the pleasure lay In the names of the hui
man beings written thereon.
He entered tho lofty and spacious ware
houses and stores piled with the worlds
merchandise He stood for hours gazing
on raro paintings AID statuary not In
wondering admiration of the great quali.
ties Of the painters and of the sculptors
not with the love for living art with which
In former days he reviewed the great gal
leries of Europe, but his eyes dwelt luv-
ingly upon the human forms depicted,
sick at heart for human presence, for hui
man sympathy and he turned away and
looked ON thom no more.
Fine fabrics wrought in nil the cunning
of the tailor's skill, in woolens and in lin
ens of patient weaving, in nil tho dyes and
shades that please tho ego of taste and re-
fnenent for him had no attraction. Al
though they were all his own, he was con-
tent with the hemely garb exchanged at
the farm, for there were no human eyes
to see and to admire. And he thought
with bitterness that in the past he had
dressed to please his own flno taste AMI
not for tho envious eye of the vulgar
crowd.
Penetrating the vaults of banks, gold
coin was heaped up in sealed bags and
loosely heaped in preparation for sealing;
silver bars and weighty mounds and
wrought gold plate, whole services, whoBe
workmanship was art that made the gold
more prsGou6. All was his own to do with
as he pleased, with none to Interfere or say
him nav. Something of passing thought
nltteu aerosS MS 9raln OF INT mlenty pow
er that these countless millions might have
winlded some remnant of the time when
men We're common, cheap and plentiful
and despised, so common that work was
bestowed on them as charity, and women
couited them for but the merest fragment
of the wealth that now was heaped so Law
ishlY In view and all won't unregartlel