St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-08-14
A LOVER IN STONE.

In Yellowstone National park are in
Vulnerable geysers the waters of which
are strongly impregnated with calcareous
and silicious sinter, white substance
which instantaneously incrustates what
ever it falls upon. Big mounds and
craters are formed by it. Travellers place
under the streams bottles and other OBJ
jects they desire turned to stone" as
they term it, and as soon as the sinter
hardens carry away their trophies in
triumph.
Mr.. Cyril Jacques was a morbid,
dreamy and downcast young man. With
form, fine face and even wealth at his
command, he constantly meditated sui
eide and determined to become a felo
de Sc. He wandered over the world to
discover some artistic method of depart
ing this life. He paled at the thought
of an inquest over his mortal remains,
of accounts in the press and of specula-
ton by his fellow man. He climbed
Vesuvius and for hours contemplated a
plunge into the awful fires below, where
his body would never be revealed. He
did not fear instantaneous incarceration
not that He conceived that in the
invisible world in which he was bound
he might desire to gather his mortal
elements somewhere, some time, in the
cycles of eternity; hence, why SO utterly
annihilate them?
Mr.. jacques sailed to the borders Of
the great maelstrom off Norway and
considered plunge therein heavily
plated in a metallic armor Here again
he paused and foresaw the decay of the
metal and the possibility and absorption
of animal life.
He studied aeronautics intently and
consulted the worlds aerostatic engi-
neers NJ Gabriel Yon and Captains Rem
ard and Krebs as to the possibility of an
airship which would bear him beyond
the earth's atmosphere out into homo
loidal space, Again defeat These great
men assured him that, for all his wealth,
finite power could not achieve the in
finite.
In the year 1870 he read of the first
expeditions of DR.. f. V. Hayden into
the unknown wilds of the Rockies, of
the initiation of the then worldwide
respected United States geological sur
vey, of the wonderful geyser regions of
Wyoming Into the northwest corner
of this territory he FASTENED his flight.
August was waning when he mounted
the telsaces of Mammoth hot springs
and saw the clear blue waters gush from
the highest plaza and fall evenly in
veillike sheets over the sides, which
constantly increased in size. He saw
that he had only to sit there to be
pushed higher and higher, while a
mountain of incrustation broadened be.
low him and reared him about.
But as he watched the transformation
of liquids into solids he saw that certain
objects at the base of the mound, as fast
as they became incased with sinter,
were pushed down hill, down toward
she valley below. He speculated. He
concluded that some time a conclusion
of steam might explode the mound, and
if body were thrown therein it would
become exposed to beasts, men Or sun.
So he determined to be incased sepa-
rately and allow his body to be pushed
down hill, to become one of the rapidly
forming, immense mass of incrustated
objects.
While the strange young man was ex-
hausting his life devising aesthetic
meaps of death Miss Mignonette Favre
was leading a dissimilar career of in
venting fancies and searching the world
for man who should be synonym Of
her ideals so created. In her flights Of
romanticism she had investigated the
unfrequented deeps, but ascertained
that his value set on a woman was less
than that of horse She studied a
widower president, but, if he fulfilled
her dream, he did not take kindly to
her advances. She went abroad deter.
mined to fascinate great prince, but
all the princes she met spoke not of
love, but of an annual stipend to be-
come her husband.
In 1890 Miss Favre decided to enjoy
the summer in the Yellowstone National
park, tract solely under the jurisdic-
ton of the government, but formerly
part of the then territories Of Wyoming
and Montana. The Mammoth Hot
Springs hotel suited her romantic ideas
While here she often climbed the plazas
of the great spring She placed bottle,
combs, horseshoes and other objects I'M
der the trickling streams and saw them
"turned to stone'' to her hearts con-
tent. While she filled big boxes with a
varied collection of these and kindred
objects her ideal in this repect' as IN
the case of q man. was unfulhlled.
She saw the big heaps OF objects IN,
crustated, which seemed to have sild
down into the valley, and she was IN
dignant at the government for enactlng
laws to protect this "ayalanche" ana