Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-09-15
THE SONG OF A SOUL.
A LEGEND OF THE STRING lNSTRU-
 MeNT POUNDED ON ERROR.

the Tragedy That Resulted Therefron.
 Under the Musician's Touch.
 It is known to only 8 few people that the devil once had daughter-that was many years ago The Lord be praised, she lived only short time. She was cut off ill her youth. She came to this world in the guise of graceful kitten, and l, Mir Thomas Katgut was destined to have my fate intermingled with hers.
 While strolling along the banks of a pleasant little stream 1 first met Miss Pussy Carmine, and well was she named. When I gazed into her eyes, they seemed to glow with fire, and when I drew my eyes away they were so dazzled that all around and about me seemed fer 6 moment to be red, and the soft gray fur with which she was eoy cred seemed to be tipped with scarlet.
 Despite the fact that my entire heart went out 10 her in adoration at first sight, I could not but be conscious of q strange and unusual feeling which l could not localize. It seemed to draw and strain until it fairly ached, but l could not place it. It was not my heart, nor yet my liver, and it seemed to be far from my head. This meeting was but the first of many. Night after night we met, but in the midst of transports of toy and ecstasies of bliss which these meetings brought to me l always con- tinned to experience the indescribable feeling, vague, unapproachable, yet al ways there when i'll her presence. One night felt that 1 could no longer contain my feelings, so, en the banks of the river, OH the very spot where first we met, told her of my love. And, oh, the effect Fire seemed to flash from her eyes and mouth and each l undivided hair on her body was afiame. All the devil in her seemed to be let loose Before my astonishment gave me chance to act she leaped upon me and began to scratch and tear and gnaw and bite And in the midst of all the horror and pain of it came that same indescribable feeling in the nndiscoY- cred place
 was perfectly powerless to resist her murderous attacks, and any efforts on my part would have been useless. for felt that my hour had come. With out pausing, she continued to scratch and tear at me until finally, feeling that I was in the act of taking my last breath, l opened my eyes to cast a l last look upon this sad but beautiful world Just then Miss Pussy seemed to have exhausted her vitality, for she fell back dying even as my last fiut- tering breath issued from my lips. And then my soul left it's earthly dwelling 1 place, and, lowering above, looked down on the scene of the late tragedy.
 "Horribile dictu" My own body lay there laeerated and torn but the body of the devils daughter had vanished into space
 Eager as l was to soar away to bet ter land, I could not tear myself from the spot, but fingered around my poor body in the hope that some kind mor- tai would find it and give 1t decent bur ial But alas for all my hopesl At early dawn strange looking man, tall and lean, with long hair and bony. slender fingers, came wandering toward our late trysting place. Suddenly he saw my body, and trembling took posses sion of him, which he soon controlled, and lifting me gently by the tail, car ried me for some distance until we came to a little house in the woods which seemed to be his own. My soul followed through space, eager to see what was to become of my body. This awful man, who, it seemed, was the ] commander i'll chief of an army organ ized for the advancement of music, took up murderous looking knife and de- liperately cut my poor body into bits He cut i'll deep until he reached my very yitals, and as the knife touched these my soul gave long, quiVering but satisfied sigh, for he had touched the spot which had always responded to Miss Pussy s presence and which, while 1 had lived, had always eluded my de. lection. He took up my yitals and cut them into narrow strips and strung them across the window to dry. Though my body and soul were really separated, | SC SNi49RtAfO NNS S00t tO any tONNi II l to these parts that each time breeze swept across them my soul could not resist cry.
 These cries seemed to please the mu- sieian so much that he nearly went wild with excess of feeling. He manipu- lated the strings-whieh were my vitals in all sorts of ways, and finally drew them taut over peculiar piece of glazed wood and over this drew rod in meas ured time. My soul moaned and sighed at each tonoh but the musician seemed to know how to modulate and moderate my cries and at the same time 10 mingle with my tenes others of such sweetness and pathos that the combined effect was heavenly and grai d.
 And thus 1t is that my soul has never found final resting place, for mingled with my sad tones are ever those sweet and glorious ones, harmoniously inter- | II