Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-10-17
THE
PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY,
bY OSCAR wILpa

Inn that Is but suitable FOR "a sOiourn of {
night, or for a few hours Of a night in which
there are no stars and no moon is in travail.
Mysticism. with its marvellous power OF
making common things strange TO us, and
the subtle antinomianism that always seems
to accompany it, moved him for q reason
and for a season he inclined TO the ma
terialistic doctrines of the "Darwinismusr
movement in Germany, and found a curious
pleasure in tracing the thoughts and
passions OF men to some pearly cell In the
brain, or some white nerve in the body, de-
lighting in the conception of the absolute
dependence Of the spirit on certain physical
conditions, morbid or healthy, normal or
diseased. Yet, rs has been said of him be-
fore, no theory Of life seemed 10 him 10 be
of any Importance compared with life
itself. He felt keenly conscious of
how barren all intellectual speculation is
when separated from actionand experiment.
He knew that the senses, nc less than the
soul, have their mysteries to reveal.
And so he would now study perfumes,
and the secrets of their manufacture, dis
tilling heavily scented oils, and burning
odorous gums from the East. He saw that
there was no mood of the mind that had not
10 SOulNCl IdIb III lHt stUSuOuS lie, anu SET
himself TO discover their true relations.
wondering what there was in f~rankincense
that made one mystical, and in ambcrgris
that stirred ones passions, and in violets
that woke the memory Of dead romances.
and in musk that troubled the brain, and in
rhamdak that stained the Imagination; and
seeking often TO elaborate 4 real psychology
Of perfumes, and to estimate tho several in
tiuenccs of sweet-smelling roots, and scent
ed pollenladen flowers, of aromatic balms.
and OF dark and fragrant woods, of spiken-
ard that sickens, of hovcna that makes men
mad, and of aloes that are said TO be able to
expel melancholy from the soul.
AT another time he devoted himself en-
tirely TO music, and in a long, latticed room,
with a vermilion-and-go ceiling and walls
OF olive-green lacquer, he used TO give
curious concerts in which mad gypsies tore
wild music from little zithcrs, or gave
yellow-shawled Tunisians pluckcd at the
strained strings Of monstrous lutcs, while
grinning negroes beat m~onotonously upon
copper drums, or turbaned Indians, crouch
ing upon scarlet mats, blew through long
pipes of reed or brass, and charmed, or
feigned to charm great hooded snakes and
horrible horned adders. The harsh inter
walls and shrill discords Of barbaric music
stirred him at times when Schubert's grace,
and Chopin's beautiful SORROWS, and the
mighty harmonies Of Beethoven himself fell
UNDECIDED on his ear. He collected together
from all parts of the world the %strangest in
struments that could be found, either in the
tombs of dead nations or among the few
savage tribes that have survived contact
with Western civilizations, and loved TO
touch and try them. He had the mysterious
%fur1tpdrts of the Rio Negro Indians, that
women are not allowed to look at, and that
even youths may not see till they have been
subjected TO fasting and scourging, and the
earthen jars of the Peruvians that have the
shrill cries of birds, and flutes Of human
bones such as Alfonso dc Ovalle heard in
Chill, and the sonorous green stones that
are found near Cuzco and give forth a note
Of singular sweetness. He had painted
gourds filed with pebbles that ratified when
they We're shaken; the long cIarin of the
Mexicans, into which the performer does
not blow, but through which he inhales the
air; the harsh tiue of the Amazon tribes.
that is sounded by the scntinCls who sit all
day long in trees, and that can be heard, it
is said, at a distance of three leagues; the
tepOndztli, that has two vibrating tongues Of
wood, and is beaten with sticks that are
smeared with an elastic gum obtained from
the milky juice of plants; the potl-bclls of
the Aztccs, that are hung in clusters like
grapes; and "A huge cylindrical drum, covered
with the skins of great serpents, like the
one that Bernal Diaz saw when he went
with Cortes into the Mexican temple, and
of whose doleful sound he has left us so
vivid a description. The fantastic character
of these instruments fascinated him. and he
felt IA curious delight in the thought that
Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things
of bcstial shape and with hideous voices.
Yet, after some time, he wcaried of them,
and would sit in his box at the opera, either
alone or with Lord Henry, listening in
rapt pleasure to "Tannhauscr," and seeing
in the great work Of art IA presentation of
the tragedy Of his own soul.
On another occasion he took up the study
of jewels, and appeared at a costume ball as
Anne de Joyeusc, Admiral of France, i'm a
dress covered with five hundred and sixty
pearls. He would often spend a whole day
settling and resettling in their cases the
various stones that he had collected, such
80 N'S ~ thS'i WI JOYFUL 4 ihhb luIlS
red by lamp-light, the c%ymophane with its
wire-like line of silver, the pistachio-colored
peridot, rose-pink and w~ine-ycllow topaZcs,
~carbuncles Of fiery scarlet with tremulous
~four-rayed stars, fiame-red cinnamon
stones, orange and violet spinels, and
amethysts with their alternate layers of
ruby and sapphire. He loved tho red gold
Of the sunstone, and the moonstone's pearly
Wilderness, and the broken rainbow of the
milky opal. He procured from Amsterdam
three emeralds OF extraordinary size and
richness Of color, and had a turquoise de Ia
rietlle roche that was the envy Of all the con.
noisseurs.
He discovered wonderful stories, also
about Jewels. In Alphonso's 'Clericalis
Discipline" a serpent was mentioned with
eyes of real iacinth, and in the romantic his.
tory Of Alexander he was said TO have
found snakes in the vale of Jordan with
collars of real emeralds growing OF
their backs There was a gem in the brain
Of :ae dragon, Philostratus told us, and "by
the exhibition Of golden letters and Il scarle,
robo" the monster would be thrown into q
magical sleep, and slain. According to the
great alchemist Pierre dc Boniface, the dia.
Alolo iiuSl - man III lSlDit, anu llt
agate Of India made him eloquent. The
comedian appeased anger, and the hyacinth
provoked sleep, and the amethyst drove
away the fumes Of wine. The garnet cast
out demons, and the hydropicus deprived
the moon of her color. The s~elenite waxeS
and waned with the moon, and the meloceus
that discovers thieves, could be affected
only by the blood OF kids. Leonardo.
Camillus had seen a white stone taken from
the brain of a newly killed toad that was {
certain antidote against poison. The bezoar
that was found in the heart Of the Arabian
deer, was a charm that could cure tn,
plague. In the nests Of Arabian birds wa.
the aspilates, that, according to Democritus
kept the wearer from any danger by fire.
The King Of Ceilan rode through his cit,
with q large ruby in his hand, as the cere
mony Of his coronation. The gates Of tn,
palace Of John the Priest were ''made Of
sardius, with tho horn of the horned snak,
inwrought, so that no man might brinl
poison within" Over the gable wero 'tw,
golden apples, in which were two car
buncles," 80 that the gold might shine b,
day and the ~carbuncles by night. In Lodge
strange romance "a Margarito Of America
1t was stated that in the chamber of Mar
CARTE were seen 'all the chaste ladies O
the world, inchascd out Of silver, lookint
through fair mirrours of chrysolites, car
buncles, ~sapphircs, and greene emeraults.
.Mar0n pnlA had xruotahnA tho s.loI.A-A -