Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1901-08-29
: THE :
BARON'S STORY

we called him "Mr. Smith" but we
ell knew that he was baron. When
he was Ill, his thirst for sympathy
made him unusually ELUSIVE. called
on him every evening. Once, a few
days before his death, he detained me
until daybreak. He was full of pathos
and sad humor, and he told me much
Of his past life He was apparently
ashamed of this mood Of his and vainly
struggling against It At last he raised
himself from his pillow. with a gesture
of despair, saying:
'It's no use trying TO be strong and
manly and so forth and so on when the
machine is all out of gear. We old folk
are like babies. We want people to cud-
die us, to sigh over US. We are hungry
for attention"
l must add that with all his talkative-
ness and sentimentality and In spite Of
his sincere aversion to being addressed
as baron there was something In his
bearing and manner of speaking which
kept reminding one that he was a
baron after all
The story of Countess NJ. who
brought him to New York, where he
was to "cease being a German without
becoming an American" as he put it, is
one Of the episodes I heard from him
that night
Her father, Polish nobleman In re-
duced circumstances, settled in Ger
many when Herr Schmidt" was a
sublicutenant. The young mans regi-
ment was stationed In a humdrum,
out of the way town, and the advent Of
the countess (she was young widow
made stir.
"she was pretty. That goes without
saying" he said, with the wistful look
which scarcely ever left his peaked
sallow face during that week. But by
telling you this 1 tell you nothing, for
her real power over me was something
which marred her good looks rather
than enhanced them. She had queer
way of avoiding to meet your glance
when she spoke to you which did not
become her. At first. made up my
mind that she was I'm affected, disin-
genuous creature. I prided myself up
| on my insight into human nature In
those days. 1t was my mother who had
put that notion into my head. / was
her pet, don't you know; so she was
forever discovering some new sort of
genius in ure. was a prophet Of the
human soii' among lot Of other good
things, and for some reason this tito
| pleased me more than anything else.
In other words, heartily agreed with
her that was prophet and SO forth
and so on. Well, when met the count
ess for the first time and found that
she could not look me full in the face
said to myself, Liars look like that
II was rather elated by this manife$-
| tation of my wisdom, l can tell You
that, but soon had to change my mind
about the young woman. / saw ber
again and again, and two months had
| scarcely passed before 1 knew her as
well as did my sister. Well, she turn
| ed out TO be the most truthful and sin
cere person l had ever seen. AS to her
habit Of looking away from her inter
locutor, II was IN Unborn trick. due to
some sort OF kink in her nervous sys-
TEN. suppose. However 1t may have
been, those unsteady. bashful eyes OF
| hSLb my pSuSe VI uAio
| were thelsource OF the whole trouble
why doesn't she look upp Dashed II
/ don't get her TO stare me straight In
the eyes for ten minutes together and
so forth and 30 on. She was candor It.
self, and II any one was bashful 1t was
rather than the countess, yet 1 was
crazy to put her at her ease, to gain her
full confidence. The prophet OF the
human soul was simply hopeless fool.
| That was the long and short of II. OF
course did net give up the struggle, as
some ordinary mortal might have done.
Prophetllke. l took to philosophlzing,
generalizIng, calling into play my IN
sight
"With flourish OF trumpets made
the discovery that It was the mystery
of those eyes Of hers which was trou-
bling my brain and my heart The re-
suit was the same as when q doctor
puts on learned airs and makes n men,
tai note OF the diagnosis In his pa
tents case. Look herel If Shakespeare
really thought there was nothing In a
name he was grievously mistaken. A
name is either worse than nothing or
everything. When the doctor does not
know what ails me. he knows at least
that he docs not know. Let him ar
| rive at the conclusion that / am suf-
fering from something with u certain
double breasted Latin name 10 1t. and
be will think he has seized the devil by
his tail. Yet all lac has actually caught
II some big Latin word. That's all.
Mysterious look indeed! Phrases OF
this kind are invented by story writer's
10 bamboozle their readers, and / in
vented mine to bamboozle my own self.
All ! did know was that | was In love
with the young countess love liko q
ninny. like an idiot"
| The countess brought with her some
money. but her father went through 1t
In less than six months. He was
good nnturcd, pompous old spendthrift,
and when he was not boasting Of his
ancestry he was lamenting the defunct
glory OF Poland. or else he would bore
the lovelorn young officer with verse
In his native tongue.
Pardon me. sir" the other would
plead, but / have not the honor OF an
Acquaintance with the Polish Ian
guage."
"Ah, but the music OF the words,
sir! the old man would return. "Mu-
sic IL the language OF the angels, as one
Of our writers says. and the angels
lought to be able to make themselves
understood to a good man like yourself.