Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1896-07-31

IOseS III tnb CoStle walls ana railing
through the windows on marble forms
and crystal fountains. The lord Of the
castle was brave and strong and calm
and drew all men toward him.
It was morning.
The lord left his castle and wandered
through the forest, his arms folded upon
his breast and his face raised to watch
the pale sunbcams come pickering
through the trees. Each football crushed
perfume from tho ground-the odors of
moist earth, of fallen leaves, violets and
spicy fennel. There came a slight open
ing in the tree tops, a golden shaft of
sunlight came down, and seemingly
borne upon it came u strain Of melody
so sweet the lord stopped and gazed up
ward through the trees, thinking it the
voice Of angels. But the air brought
again and again the sound Of sweet
voices, and they came always from the
sea. The air was filled, and the echoes
seemed other voices answering. The
thorns pierced his feet, but he did not
feel them. he reached the edge Of the
forest, where the grass was soft like
velvet and green down to tho waters
edge.
Tho ocean lay calm and clear as a
sheet Of glass as far as the eye could
reach, save only near the shore was q
great white rock, and upon it stood the
queen of the Lorelei. She was clad in a
single robe of palo green, combing her
golden hair and singing to her maidens,
who held carnival in the waters around
her. They glided and glanced hither and
thither through the waters, under Il
wave, borne back ON another, and the
flash Of gold was in the water, or
the CLEAN of an arm or a shell tint
ed face. The sun shCne full upon it
all, and the waves gave back tho reflec-
ton in simmer and gleam. The lord
stood still in ecstasy, then moved for
ward. Each murmur and culver and
call of the Lcrelei's voice drew him on;
each echo, answer and trill enrapturod,
bewildered and enthralled him. He
moved to the waters edge, then stood
as a man turned to stone until the
Lorelei saw his image in the water, and
turned and saw him standing. Then the
queen of the Lorelei flung her arms
above her head and dashed beneath the
waters, and the waves beat III music ON
the shore.
The lord stood still.
Then the queen of the Lorelei came
back to look on him for very wonder,
for never before had man stopped to
look Oh her, but had fastened through
the water toward her to his death. The
lord saw her face in the water, reached
forth his arms, then turned and went to
his castle. The shadows were dark, the
clouds wept, aud the wind sighed the
livelong night. With the morning the
sun came and the lord went again to the
seashore.
The queen of the Lorelei came forth
and sang, and came nearer the shore
than the day before. The lord again
reached forth his arms, and she came SO
near her feet shone white upon the sand.
Then she turned and fled down, alright
ed, through the water.
The lord came yet another day, and
the sun shone brighter, but the shadows
were purple, and there was muttering
of thunder from behind great, white,
gold capped clouds. The lord stood back
from the shore; the queen Of the Lorelei
sang more sweetly and drew still more
near to him. The lord reached forth his
arms, and the queen stepped one pearly
foot from out the water ON the seashore.
The lord spranR forward, caught her in
his arms. and bore her through the for
est to the castle. The Lorelei maidens
followed in alright, wandering in and
out among the trees. The ocean was
dashed into a white foam, and great
waves chased one another with sullen
roar upon the beach. The sky grew
black and the wind hOwled through tho
tree tops, while their trunks writhed
like serpents. The wind came swifter
and mightier. The trunks of the trees
were twisted and the ground upturned
along the seashore, and the whitened
bones laid bare. The black sky parted
and Jove hurled a thunderbolt. The for
est was leveled md the castle riven
asunder-not one stone remaining upon
another.
The bodies Of the lord of the castle
and the queen of the Lorelei, and also
the Lorelei maidens were destroyed
but above all the sound Of the tempest
could be heard the voices of the Lorelei,
for they were immortal.
Then Jove made violins of the wood
of the forest, and imprisoned therein the
voices of the Lorelei, since their bodies
were destroyed.
Here the letters ON the back wall
ceased to flicker. l saw forms around
me and anxious faces, and was told
there had been a thunderstorm, and l
shocked by lightning. When the violin
was wanted, and l told the story that
came from its ashes, l was laughed at
and told "the imagination plays us
wonderful tricks" But that it was not
imagination l know, and when 1 hear a
violin shrek as it does in the hands of
the unskilled, / know that the Lorelei
soul imprisoned within is being tortured
aud orfac In main aud xuban tho coundc