Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-10-17

4 tWphty 'iD hlallOu1S. JNAIuuIu II. Udu u
coat, valued at thirty tho1sand marks,
which was covered with balas rubies. Hall
describes Henry VIII, on bis way to the
Tower previous TO his coronation. as wearing
"a jacket Of raised gold, the placard en-
broidered with diamonds and other rich
stones, and q great bauderike about his
neck OF large balasscs." The fayorites Of
James ]. wore earrings of cmeralds set in
gold fligraEe. Edward ii. gave to Piers
Galveston "a suit Of red gold armor studded
with iacinths, and a collar Of gold roses set
with tGrquois stones, and a skull-cap var
sepsc with pearls. Henry ii. wore jeweled
gloves reaching to the elbow, and had .
hawk-glove set with twelve rubies and fifty
two great pearls. The ducal hat Of Charles
the Rash, the last Duke Of Burgundy OF
his race, was studded with sapphires and
hung with pcar-shaped pearls.
How exquisite life had once BEEN How
gOr9eous IN its pomp and decoration Even
TO read The luxury Of the dead was wonder
full.
Then he turned his attention 10 embroid-
cries, ana 10 the tapestries that performed
the Office Of ~frcscocs in the chill rooms Of
the northern nations Of Europe. AS he in
vestiga'ed the subject-and he always had
an extraordinary faculty OF becoming abso-
lutely absorbed for a moment in whatever
he tool up-hc was almost saddened by the
reflection Of the ruin that time brought on
beautiful and wonderful things. He at any
rate, had escaped that. Summer followed
summer, and the yellow jonquils bloomed
and died many times, and nights OF horror
repeated the story OF their shame. but he was
,..ba,~rl NJ ,;,4,. ,,.,.,I L.. go 80.
stained his fiower-like bloom. How differ
ent IL was with material things Where
had they gone to- Where was the great
crocus-colored robe, on which the gods
fought against the giants. that had been
worked for Athcnai Where the huge vela-
riumfhat Nero had stretched across the
c-oJ0~cuu 90 ftome, ON wnicn wcro r-pre-
sentcd the starry sky. and Apollo driving a
chariot drawn by white gilt-reined steedsi
He longed TO see the curious table-napkins
wrought for Elagabalus, on which were dis
played all the dainties and viands that could
be wanted for a feast; the mortuary cloth
OF King Chilperic. with its three hundred
golden bees; the fantastic robes that excited
the indignation of the Bishop Of Pontus,
and were figured with 'lions, panthers,
bears, dogs. forests, rocks, hunters-all, in
fact that a painter can copy from nature; /"
and the coat that Charles Of Orleans once
wore. on the sleeves Of which were en-
broidered the verses Of a song beginning
"M1ddme, je suis tout Joyeur," the musical
accompaniment of the words being wrought
in gold thread, and each note. Of square
shape in those days, formed with four pearls.
He read of the room that was prepared at
the palace at Rheims for the use Of Queen
Joan Of Burgundy, and was decorated with
thirteen hundred and twenty-one parrots,
made in broidcry. and blazoned with the
kings arms, and five hundred and sixty one
butterflies, whose wings Were similarly
orramented with the arms Of the queen, the
whole worked in gold.n Catherine de
Models had a mourning-bed made for her
Of black velvet powdered with crcscents
and suns. Its curtains were of damask,
with leafy wreaths and garlands, figured
upon a gold and silver ground, aud fringed
along the edges with broideries Of pearls,
and it stood in a room hung with rows OF
the queens devices in cut black velvet up
or cloth or silver. Louis XIV. had gold
embroidered ~caryatides fifteen feet high in
his apartment. The state bed of Sobieski,
King Of Poland, was made Of Smyrna gold
brocade embroidered in turquoises with
verses from the Koran. It's supports were
of silver gilt, beautifully chased and pro-
fusely set with cnamelcd and ieweled me-
dallions. It had been taken from the Turk
ish camp before Vienna, and the standard
of Mohammed had stood under il.
And so. for a whole year, he sought TO ac-
cumulate the most exquisite specimens that
he could find Of textile and embroidered
work, getting the dainty Delhi muslins,
finely wrought, with gold-thread palmates,
and stitched over with iridescent beetles
wings; the Dacca eauZes, that from their
transparency are known in the East as
"woysx1kEr" and running water and
fromfJaya; elaborate yellow Chinese hang
ing; books bound in tawny satins of fair
blue silks and wrought with rcurs de lys.
birds, and images; wells Of lacis worked in
Hungary paint; Siciiiar brocades. and stifr
Spanish v~elvets; Georgian work with its
gilt coins, and Japanese Fo,Jousqs with
their green-toned Colds and their marvel
ously -plumagcd birds.
The hero of the dangerous novel that had
so influenced his life had himself had this
curious fancy. In a chapter of the book he
tells how, crowned with laurel, lest light
ming might strike him, be had sat, as Tiber-
ius, in a garden at Capri. reading the shame
full books Of Elephants, while dwarfs and
peacocks strutted round him and the flute
player Knocked the swinger Of the censor;
and, as Caligula, had caroused with the
green-shirted jockeys in their stables. and
supped in an ivory Manager with a jewell
frontleted horse; and. as Domitian, had
80 1891 4-.t1 -. Ill .-..L
marble mirrors. looking round with haggard
eyes for the reflection Of the dagger that
was to end his days, and sick with that
ennui, that tGdiDn rite, that comes on those
TO whom life denies nothing; and had peer
ed through a clear emerald at the red
shambles Of the circus. and then. In a litter
of pearl and purple drawn by silver-shod
mules, been carried through the Street of
Pomegranites to "A House Of Gold, and heard
men cry on Nero Caesar as he passed by;
and. as Elagabalus, had painted his face
with c%olors, and piled the distaff among the
women. and brought the moon from Garth
age, and given her a mystic marriage to the
Sun.
Over and over again Dorian used TO read
this fantastic chapter, and the chapter inn
mediately following in which the hero de-
scribes the curious tapestries that he had
woven for him from Gustave Moreau's de-
signs, and on which were pictured the aw-
full and beautiful forms Of those whom Vice
:nd Blood and WEAKNESS had made mon
strous or mad; Filippo. Duke of Milan, who
slew his wife, and painted her lips with q
scarlet poison; Pietro Barbi, the Venetian,
known as Paul the Second, who sought in