Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1895-01-31
A NAGNECTIC MAN.
nv EDWARD s. VAN z1LE .
CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER I.
The strange career Of Marcus Rodney,
inventor, scholar and electrician, has
long been the source Of q vast amount of
gossip and speculation. The facts of his
case are known to me alone, and l now
intend to make them public, partially to
relieve myself Of q weighty secret and
partially to open the eyes Of scientists to
! great discovery.
Al the age Of 80 Marcus Rodney was
what the world calls "a failure" Though
he was in perfect health, cultured, ener-
getic and in mental attachments a many
sided man, society looked at his thread
bare coat, his stern, forbidding counte-
nance, learned that he lived in cheap
lodgings and had mo visible of
support" and at once placed him outside
Its own narrow limits and left him severe
" alone. It is true that Rodney was en-
titled by birth to q standing In the conf
munity very different from the one he
held. He had, however, become ONE
what soured by his inability to acquire
money and made no effort to claim from
the friends Of his youth the consideration
due him. He had invented various cleo
tfical contrivances aud had patented an
improved sight for rifles, but his lack of
tact and his unpleasant personality had
made it difficult for him Il interest capi-
stalists in his designs.
He was q queer fellow in many ways,
abrupt in speech and at times very sar-
iGnstic. ] remember a remark he once
made to me which, to some extent, illus
trated his character. He had been sit
ting for a long time, his huge head rest
ing upon his hand, and his ungainly body
reclining upon a sofa. "Old man. he ex-
claimed at length, turning his large gray
eyes full upon me, when l die l want you
to place upon my gravestone this cpl
taph, q. Il. D." The very essence of
modern fatalism lay in his words.
One night, not many years ago., I had
left my luxurious quarters on Fifth ave-
nue. to visit my old friend in his dingy
room on the east side. 1t was a warn
evening in July. and as I entered his
apartment he was sitting at an open win
dow smoking q pipe. The cries of count
less rugged children filed the dir, and the
odor of m uncleanly and o~verpopulated
neighborhood offended the senses. Little
did | suspect at the moment that upon
our conversation that night would hinge
the fate of Marcus Rodney. He was in
q more laxative mood than usual, but his
loQuacity did not seem to be the result of
cheerful spirits. Never before had I
heard him so bitterly bewail his lack OF
success, but he freed his overburdened
heart to me in words of touching earnest
ness. Why should he, a man Of ability,
Q scientist, q student, a worker, a progress
sive thinker, be condemned to poverty
and neglect while the world poured its
treasures into the laps of fools? What
his weakness? Where had he failed
to take advantage of his opportunities?
He put these questions to me spitefully,
almost desperately. Finally he said:
The truth is, my friend, I repel men.
There IL something about me which an
~tagonizes the very people / want to at
tract. There is not a child in the street
there who would approach me. I have
lived In this populous house for three
years, and no man or woman has ever
wished me good day l believe 1 am the
only man in the city who was never
besought by a beggar. When 1 enter an
Office to talk business with a stranger /
seem to chill my victim by a single glance.
Good God, sir! Am I a leper or a scoun-
drel? Have / the smallpox? Am 1 the
Wandering Jew or the Prince of Dark
ness? Why should my fellow men detcst
me?"
After q moment he became calmer and
continued: "All this has had an evil eff
feet upon my nature. Whatever warmth
of feeling I may once have had for man.
kind has been destroyed. Hereafter I
shall let no sympathetic throb agitate my
heart. From this time forward / shall
take my way through the world coldly,
unpityingly, remorselessly."
He arose, lighted q candle, and going to
q book shelf brought q much thumbed vol
to the window. Placing the light ad-
vantageously he said: II have been read
ing q book by Hamerton entitled Human
Intercourse / have been much struck
by his opening sentences. Listen-.A
book on human intercourse might be writ
ten in q variety Of ways, and among them
might be an attempt to treat the subject
in q scientific manner, so ms to elucidate
those natural laws by which intercourse
between human beings must be regulat-
ed. IT we knew quite perfectly what
those laws are we should enjoy the great
convenience OF being able to predict with
certainty which men and women would
be able to associate with pleasure and
which would be constrained or repressed
in each others society. Human inter-
course would then be rs much q positive
science Is chemistry. in which the effect
Of bringing substances together can be
fOretold with the utmost accuracy
Again, later on the author says: Sym
PATTY and incompatibility. These are
the two great powers that decide for us
whether intercourse is to be possible or
not, but the causes of them are dark mys-
teries that lie undiscovered far down in
the abysmal deeps of personality"
He was silent for a time, and relighting
his pipe pulled away n%ervously. I let
him indulge his dreams for awhile, though
I was anxious to learn the cause Of his in
terest in the works of the English writer.
] realized. however, that it was best to
permit him to take his own course in the
conversation, as he was one of those
eccentric men who cannot be hurried.
My self-restraint was rewarded.
Sympathy and incompatibility," he re-
peated after q time. Those are terms
unknown to exact science. They may
satisfy an artist like Hamerton, but they
mean nothing to me"
Here he arose and paced up and down
the narrow room.
"But, / understand him." I interposed.
n have long believed that the indifference
Of one individual toward another is an
impossibility. / was never presented for
the first time to q man or woman that I