The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-13

cover was screwed on. Then by
direction of the Syrian the jar was
placed where it could be in the di-
rect rays of the sun all day long. The
place selected was the roof of lean
to, on the south side of the stable,
which could be reached only by ladder
and he directed that the jar should
remain undisturbed for twenty-one
days.
Then I will come and give the de-
monstration that will astonish you he
said. You have at your laboratory the
other things we need-a crucibe, al
cohol. and shutters that will darken the
ROOM
I'm the afternoon of the twenty first
day from this time the Syrian came
over to the house and we went together
to examine the jar on the roof. 1t had
been undisturbed, and in the oil, now
slightly turbid, the reptiles and insects
lay on the bottom or partly atloat. We
took the jar to my laboratory room
where in the summer leisure l carried
on some Investigations in chemistry and
mineralogy. Into a crucible, a cylindri-
cal pot of fireclay holding two-thirds of
a quart. the Syrian turned small por-
ton of oil from the jar and upon this
poured as much alcohol. By closing the
shutters and lowering the heavy green
curtains the room was darkened to the
blackness of night. The crucible was
set on the floor, and, with a friend
whom I had invited to witness the eX-
pertinent, though giving him no hint of
its nature, I look my place at the other
end. With match the Syrian set on
fire the alcohol. The fame sent pale
light from the crucible to the ceiling
and dimlv showed the form of the Sy-
rian standing to one side. For several
minutes-five, perhapS-this was all l
saw. Then my friend clutched my arm.
What kind of delirum tremens show
are you giving. anyway he demanded.
It's lifelike. but I don't like the cast of
your performance
why, what is it you've found?' I
asked. for I could see nothing that call
ed for his remark.
Great Scott! Can't you see? Or
have got 'em in the head? he exclaim-
ed. Snakes and bugs and all manner of
creepy, squirming things-all going sky
ward out of your old fire pot.
Then through some enlargement of
vision CT perception l saw what before
had been. invisible to my sight the
forms that tloated upward in the shaft
of light from the flame in the crucible.
Forms of snakes, lizards, worms, at
first family outlined in the pale, blush
light, became more distinct and life
like as I looked until every tint and
marking and motion was plainly appar-
ent. 1t was an endless throng of APP
partitions passing upward in the light.
with a smooth motion which turned and
varied with the undulations of the al
cohol flame beneath Among the float
ing forms l marked the figure of the
butterfly, with brilliant wings out
spread, soaring and circling to the CELL
ing, where the procession seemed not to
stop but to vanish. Just beyond the di
rect light the Syrian stood, like a
pickering shadow, except for the reality
of his cleaning eyes, looking at us
through the darkness to mark the eff
feet of his experiment.
''Of a sudden the sensation came to
me of being part of the procession,
going along with the snakes and but
tert1y and it was with start and sense
of recovery that I came to the realiza-
tion that l was myself and standing
where I had been all the time. There
was a warning exclamation from the
Syrian, as something passed between
me and the light. 1t was my friend, his
head held forward in an attitude of rapt
attention, advancing as if drawn by an
invisible cord toward the crucble. I
caught him round the body with both
arms: the Syrian, STOPPING, covered the
crucible with the stone slab which
seINtu DIS llu, eA LlilS ultoLlilS bnt Hdlilc,
and my friend was struggling and re-
monstrating in the incoherent words of
one roughly aroused from sleep
Let me out of this he exclaimed,
coming fully to himself. Open the
door-the window-any way that's the
quickest.
"'Ah. that's better he said. with a
sigh of great relief, as I rolled up the
curtains, threw the shutters open and
raised window. You grabbed me
lust in time If I'd been left to myself
I'd have Joined the procession up
through the ceiling and been l don't
known where by this time. l think I'll
take drink if you've got the stuff
handy Then I'll know I'm on earth
again.
Il had promised my wife and young
lady. our guest, that the experiment. if
successful, should be repeated for their
benefit. My wife pleased me by back
ing out after hearing my account of
the performance.
:" It's too creepy for me- she said. I
can be made uncomfortable enough
without going to quite SO much trou-
BILE.
But our visitor who had been grad
uated from Vassar the summer before,
held me to my promise, and the Syrian
came over in the evening and started
the procession again with a fresh lot of
the oil and alcohol. 1t worked the same
as before, but the effect on the obser-
vers was different. I had become i'm
mune. so to speak, and loked at the
strange apparition with a feeling as
free from any occult influences as if
the thing had been the panorama OF a
vitascope. With the young lady it may
have been natural temperament, or a
case of forewarned, forearmed; at any
rate she went through the ordeal with
perfect colness. But she was satisfied
with very little of it, and afterward
confessed to having kept her eyes shut
or turned away for a good part of the
time. She described the phenomena,
which had greatly amazed her, coolly
enough to my wife, but in the night she
aWoke the household by screaming in
her sleep. and it was no better than an
even chance for an hour that she could
win clear of an attack of mysteries.
Next day. under domestic pressure,
and to crafty my own feeling as we'll,
| took my gun and the jar of reptiles
to a woodland hack of the house, set
the jar on a tree stump and blew jar
and its contents to smithereens with
ave nf hot frn,,