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

lie himself, on returning home from n
of those mysterious and prolonged absences
that gave rise TO such strange conjecture
among those who were his friends. or
thought that they were so, would creep up
stairs to the locked room, open the door with
the key that had never left him, and stand
with a mirror in front Of the portrait that
Basil Haliward had painted of him, looking
aow at the evil and aged face on the can
vas, and now at the fair young face that
aughod back at him from the polished
gl>s. The very sharpness OF the contrast
lsed TO quicken his sense Of pleasure. He
rev more and more cnamored OF his own
beauty. more and more interested in the
corruption Of his own soul. He would ex-
anime with minute care, and often with a
nonstrous and terrible delight, the hideous
ines that scared the wrinkling forehead or
;rawled around the heavy sensual mouth,
wondering sometimes which were the more
horrible, the signs Of sin or the signs of age.
lie would place his white hands beside the
.Oarse bloated hands Of the picture. and
mile. He Knocked the misshapen body and
he failing limbs.
There were moments. indeed. at night,
when. lying sleepless in his own d~elicately
HtifbTb tlidilDtt. OE III inc SOinln lOCIn Oh
he little ill-famed tavern near the Docks,
which, under an assumed name, and in dis
yuise, it was his habit to frequent. he would
hink of the ruin he had brought upon his
soul, with a pity that was all the more
poignant because 1t was purely selfish.
But moments such as these were rare. That
curiosity about life that, many years be-
ore. Lord Henry had stirred in him. as
hey sat together in the garden of their
rieud, seemed to Increase with qualification.
The more he knew, the more he desired 10
now. He had mad hungers that grew more
uvenous as he fed them.
Yet he was not really reckless, at any rate
II his relations to society. Once or twice
very month during the winter, and on each
Wednesday evening, while the season
asted, he would throw open 10 the word
lis beautiful house and have the most cele-
)rated musicians Of the day to charm his
quests with the wonders of their art. His
title dinners, in the settling Of which Lord
Henry always assisted him. were noted as
much for the careful selection and placing
If those invited, as for the exquisite taste
shown in the decoration Of the table, with
IS subtle symphonic arrangements Of exotic
overs and embroidered cloths, and
,ntique plate Of gold and silver. Indeed.
here were many, especially among the
,oung men, who saw or fancied they saw, ia
Dorian Gray the true realization Of q type
4 which they had often dreamed in Eton
IT Oxford days, a type that was to combine
something Of the real culture of the scholar
With all the grace and distinction and per-
'ect manner of a citizen Of the world. To
ham no caapnn1 m haipnn 10 those Union,
Dante describes as having sought TO make
themselves perfect by the worship OF
Jeauty." Like Gautier, he was one for
Shom 1.-The visible world existed"
And. certainly, TO him life itself was the
irst. the greatest, Of the arts. and for il all
he other arts seemed 10 be but a prepare
ion. Fashion, by which what is really fan.
.lstic becomes for a moment universal, and
andyism, which, in its own way. is an at
empt to assert the absolute m~odernity of
eauty, had, of course, their fascination for
i'm. His mode of dressing, and the par
ocular styles that he affected from time 10
ime, had their marked influence on the
Dung exquisites of the Mayfair balls and
ALI Mail club windows. who copied him IL
.erything that he did, and tried 10 repro
luce the accidental charm Of his graceful,
hough TO him half-serious. fopperies.
For, while he was but too ready TO accep,
he position that was almost Immediately
Iffered TO him on his coming of age, ant
ound, indeed, a subtle pleasure in the
.hought that he might really become TO the
London Of his own day what to imperial
Neronian Rome the author of the "Satyri-
con" had once been, yet in his inmost heart
he desired to be something more than d
mere drbttcr sle9dnttdrum, TO be consulted on
The wearing of a jewel, or the knotting Of a
neck-tie. or the conduct of "a cane. He
sought 10 elaborate some new scheme of
life that would have its reasoned philosophy
and its ordered principles and find in the
spiritualizing of the senses its highest real
ization.
The worship of the senses has often, and
will much justice, been decried, men feel
ing "A natural instinct of terror about pass
ions and sensations that seem stronger than
ourselves, and that we are conscious Of
sharing with the less highly organized
forms of existence. But it appeared TO
Dorian Gray that the true nature Of the
senses had never been understood, and that
they had remained savage and animal mere
~ a tlt NOiAo IA ONEhI " aiN
them into submission or to kill them by pain,
instead of aiming at making them elements
of "a new spirituality, Of which a fine in
stinct for beauty was TO be the dominant
characteristic As he looked back upon man
moving through history. he was haunted by
a feeling of loss. So much had been sur
rendered! and to such little purpose! There
had been mad, willful reflections, monstrous
forms Of self-torture and self-denial, whose
origin was fear, and whose result was "a
degradation infinitely more terrible than the
fancied degradation from which, in their
ignorance, they had sought to escape.
Nature in her wonderful irony driving the
anchorite out to herd with the wild animals
of the desert and giving to the hermit the
beasts of the field as his companions.
Yes, there was To be, as Lord Henry had
prophesied, a new hedonism that was to re-
create life, and to save ii from that harsh,
uncomely puritanism that is having in our
own day, its curious revival. 1t was TO have
its service Of the intellect, certainly; yet il
was never TO accept any theory or system
that would involve the sacrifice Of any mode
Of passionate experience. Its aim, indeed,
was to be experienced itself, and not the
fruits Of experience, sweet or bitter as they
might be. or the ascetism that deadens the
senses. as of the vulgar profigacy that dulls
them, it was to know nothing. But 1t was
to teach man TO concentrate himself upon
| the moments of a life that is itself but y
moment.
w.. 49, fa,.. ~ ne t,-hA haxa ,A n,.-