Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-04-12
VIGNOL'S BABY.

For 20 years Jean Vignol lad written
novels for the popular journals-novels in
which murders and infants changed in the
cradle played prominent parts.
He was really no more clumsy than his
rivals in this speciality, and if ever you
have a dangerous illness and do not know
how to pass the long hours of GONZALES
cence read the "MvstcrcS of Mcnilmon-
tant." You will find in them all the Gus
tomary ingredients of this literary kitch
en-. The opening is startling, especially
when that scamp, the Duke de NclX- Don
Jon, on leaving the opera. dcsCends into
1.-THE sewers for n rendezvous with an ex-
,COnviCt of his acquaintance, who Is To give
'him papers capable of running the bcHuti-
ful MlrquiSc dc DcuX-P OiVricrCs. This
lady, having been changed as a babe was
not the daughter OF Il first class Spanish
ictandce as all the Faubourg St Gclnrin
believes, but the child of II cabinet maker
i'm the Rue Popnnc0urt, who had sonr inc
Rgo been condemned to death by II judicial
icrror and guil!o;incd III place of The convict
TO whom the duke gave this uncOmforta-
BILE suhterrtH"Il rendezvous.
You perceive from this simple example
that Jean Nigl1l WAS perfectly acquainted
with his art Ncyculc lcsS the poor man
and had Eluch ado TO place his copy"
l'irst it vas because he had no luck. and
On Because he was timid and modest and
did not know Low to elbow his way in the
American fashion.
OF course ho had not entered tho world
:of letters by wa Of the story papers. He
still preserved il drawer, bur with strong
hopes of brnring them to light, the two
works of his youth, composed at the time
when he still Lad all his hair and his am
billions of high art. The first was the man
uscript of volume of clcgirs, Poison
Flowers" in which the poet complained
notably of the fcllcncss of young per-
son to whom lie gave the rOr . ltic name
Fragolrtia and whom he Cd pared To all
The celebrated loves from far. hest antiQui-
~ to our day, while in reality the incon-
slant damo3clle called herself A gatha and
was florists girl.
The other manuscript, more VoluminouS
still, contained drama very fearful and
of the dark ages, bearing TIE bloody tide
of "Thc Ella; nr@" during tile entire course
Of which hooded people, felt shud, made
passes at eac! other across dead hodic, with
two handed swords and with cndl 49, IL
rildcs. Unhappilv dramas in verse are not
catablc, and the "P0ison Flowers could
not even sa.,'. like the na.tirium>. to
garnish the iid. Ii was necessary to live
up there in he tiny fifth floor lodging
which Jean N!~nol occupied with III. old
mother, who was twisted with rhrUnlati,n
and groaning from morning ill night
To earn mYury-oh, very li;tl.-thr poet
became a popular romanccr the way that
a painter who fails becomes il uhorogra-
phcr Gentle and resigned, he accepted The
trade and put all his efforts into it, but,
has bn.n saiI Xvitbnut Snrgns.
1t was bU. Justice, after all, for he lack
cd conviction and sincerity and did rot
take seriously cough these mar1ui5es who
had IA guile i".I cabinet maker for q IA
thcr or hi, duNoi who promcnadcd in tho
sewers in fur coat and white tic
The Manager Of The PctiJ Prolrtairc
where Joan Nignol published his stories
;hat would put one to sleep standing up,
had said to him bluntly, My dear man.
tDne feds that You don't believe what you
write, " aud ga'c him but two sous line.
The pD.r fellow knew himself 20 be SUI
perior 10 lis mean task, suffered there
from and 81 }!!cd often. But what to do?
1t was his destiny, and to keep the moagcr
pot au feu boiling lie exhausted himself
inventing more and more extraordinary
adventures
Once, by way Of example he would not
in arrears, and would without doubt have
been r,ictea, had he not at the last mo-
ment Obtained an advance from the man
lger OF The Pciit Proletairc, who was Sc
duced by the subject of "a novel of which
the following il the substance of the first
5heet An orchestra musician of the Am
higu who is wi,hout knowing it, the son
If an English peer, goes home after the
performance and finds skeleton in tho
case of his bass viol. To be continued in
our next. "
So long as the mother had lived Jean
Nignol, a model of fllial piety, had sup
ported his life well enough, but during
the two years that no was alone in tho
world, with no relatives, few friends and
indoor habits he could not tolerate it.
He was at present little man of AZ, be-
ginning to have presence, with "A big
black beard, a SOcratic nose, the eyes of a
good dog and st. Peters tuft on butter
color Uranium. Having little health ard n
second class stomach, he had even been com
PEELED to renuunce the consultations of to-
.bacco
Never before h,sl the ordinary characters
of his fiction seemed to him so tedious.
The murdarcr in yellow gloves, the virtu-
.sus work II girl, wrongod and contempt
IDLY abandoned by the vile aristocrat, thu
generous engineer, graduate of the Ecold
Centrale, Obtaining at the beginning the
red ribbon CT the Legion d llonncur and
tie hand Of the young person ten times
menaced during the course of the story by
ahe worst outrages. Positively, never had
the unfortunate man been more disguised
with his work than now.
What a borel" said he to himself one
night, mounting the five stories slowly,
'for he was becoming asthmatic. "What Il
bore! The people on the paper find that
my last thing hasn't enough stabbing in
it. l shall have To resurrcct BOuffe Tou
jours, ny con, ict, whom had jump from
the top Of Che Tour Eiffel IA week ago and
furnish him more victims And even afC