Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-09-08
WHAT LAY BENEATH.

WHAT LAY BENEATH.
While passing the summer at a sea-
side resort some years ago I met and
fell in love with a beautiful young lady
whom for present purposes l will call
Miss Atwood In addition to her
( beauty she had many other attractive
/ qualities; she sang sweetly, if With lit
tie power; played the piano to perfec-
ton, was well read. and above all
| judged her to be pure, simple minded
and affectionate.
Many time rs we walked together
on the beach did she stop TO toss some
poor stranded crab or shellfish back
/ into his native element; she was so sem
I sitive 1 had known her to cry at the
sight of little boy being whipped,
| and once at the table, when some one
/ had thoughtlessly spoke OF the man
gled bodies in recent railway acct
dent, she tainted and had to be carried
away.
I was completely enthralled by her
| charming qualities, yet because she
seemed such a lofty and wonderful be-
ing I was miserably unhappy. For
how could I ever hope that such par
| gOn-such an angel on earth-would
| even condescend to look with favor up
on q mere ordinary man like myself
! especially when he was more than or
| dinarily hOmely.
In spite of the tremendous difference
1 in our natural qualities however, she
did not seem TO regard me with a feel
| ing of utter l0athing-tnGeed she al
lowed me to be with her so much that
my friends began to joke me about it
and to think that my DAYS of bachelor
! dom were drawing to a close.
The miserable hours during which |
could not be with her / passed as best
l could. walking in deep meditation
| along the beach or, more fortunately,
| I'm playing at chess with q man named
| Arkin. He was tall, dark, morose
| looking man who, as | was told, had
/ travelled an over the world and been
! through many strange adventures, but
| he never spoke of these things himself
indeed he seldom spoke at all except
/ when he sat down with me for an hour
/ at our favOrite game. The very loneli-
| ness and separation from the rest or
| humanity made his an especially agree
| able companion to me at that time, for
| was not 1. too, cut off from the world,
lost to Joy forever by reason of a hope
less passion? I used to speculate
much as TO the nature of the sorrow
which had made my friend so reticent,
! and gloomy, but as the event proved,
not TO much purpose.
One day we were sitting in little
| UDsta balcony of the hotel, from
/ which we could see i'm one direction the
great. rolling blue of the ocean, eX-
! tending TO the horizon and in the other
, the intricate arbOr work and gorgeous
flower beds of the park, looking like a
! huge piece OF printed calico in the sun.
We had finished our game, which my
! companion had, as usual, won, and we
| were putting lazily at our cigars.
"A scene like that he said, nodding
toward the park, always gives me pc
| Culiar satisfaction.
ION account of its beauty / asked.
yes" he replied, land because it is
so typical of life as a whole beauty
without. foulness within
How do you mean?'
ssWhv look" said he, cat the mar
! velous flower beds glowing in the sun,
mt the splendid magnolias in full
bloom. and at the orange grove in the
distance. the golden fruit cleaning in
its rich setting of GREEN'S it not all
| lovelv2 Now. think of what is be-
| Meath. but a few inches below lies the
| dark. dank earth. full Of blind moles,
! crawling worms and the bones Of dead
! men.
"Soe that group Of young women
I coming down the gravel walk. II Is
with them as it is with the earth; II
Won we're TO look into their hearts you
/ would find meanness. jealousy, petit
/ ness, everything revolving. -
ooh. come, / exclaimed in disgust,
"vou carry your analogy altogether too
far will grant that there is often an
/ evil nature concealed beneath beau
/ tiful form and face bat I believe that,
ON the whole. people are what they
seem. and what right has an individual
man. who can only know one human
/ heart to condemn them all?
"But." said my companion, 'suppos-
inc one we're to have the power? What
81 one were able TO read the inmost Sc
crets of "a human heart as easily IS d
gardener lays bare the earth with ms
! shade? What .then?
"Why." replied 1, the thing is i'm
possible ,
"Don't be too sure he said; 1T IS a
rash man who says thing is impossi-
| HE Would yo ulike to hear a little
story?'
"verv much indeed. Go ahead
'When 1 was young man oesah
! Mr. Arzin. Il was an enthusiastic stu
| dent of natural science; chemistry,
nhvsics. astronomy, zoology, botany,
an came in for their share OF attention
But the subject which interested me
most of all was the anatomy and ply
sioioev of the human brain and nery-
ons system. In my travels in the East
( T had seen a good deal Of opium eating
and smoking. the use OF Indian hemp
and other narcotics, and being thus
led 70 study the action Of drugs upon
/ tho nervous tissue 1 discovered sonf$
strange and curious facts things OF
| which the scientists of the day know
nothing. nor ever will if they continue
to work in their present superficial
! fashion.
cone day 1 received from a friend in
/ Zanzibar little package OF roots which
he SAID. were used by the medicine men
there and were supposed to have Won
derful properties. ! made a decOctiOn
/ Of some of them, and, after testing 1t