Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1903-02-26
q Woman' S F ace
FLORENCE WARDEN
Continued.

| gained his confidence, and he
told me, bit by bit, as it occurred to
him, in his own wild, erartic fashion,
all of his life that he considered worth
the telling; that is to say, very few OF
the outward incidents which most men
count as the Waymarks of their lives,
but his feelings, his researches, his
discoveries in the regions of thought
and emotion. The last study he had
taken up, and to which he devoted
himself with his usual fervour, was
mesmerism He looked upon it as
the yet unrecogniZed power which
would, in a score or two OF years, re-
generate the world. AS he held forth
on this subject to me, however, tossing
back his long hair, looking out with
glowing, enthusiasts eyes to the sky,
| confess he seemed to me to talk no
wilder nonsense than | have heard
from many pulpit and many a plat
form, while his kindly eyes shone with
a faith in humanity and in his own
pure wishes which would have ex-
cused man a futile harangue. Mes
late voice of the soul, by which one
spirit called to another with irresist-
ible power, the strong spirit stimulated
and upheld the weak, and by which,
when it became recognized and de-
veloped, the whole world, rejoicing in
its new awakening, should be per-
manently raised out of the slough Of
mere bodily desires and mind-knowl-
edge through the cultivation of that
nobler part which each new religion
as it sprang up could only stimulate
for time.
1T was at this point of his communi-
cation" continued the doctor, that |
asked my friend, the head of the estab-
lishment, the reason of the musicians
detention in this place, since his fan
cies were of so harmless a kind. But
then | learned that these fancies had
resulted ID experiments upon his wife,
whom he had subjected to mesmeric
influence until she lost all control
over her own will: and her parents,
who had regarded the marriage with
distaste from the first, had never rest
ed until they got the imprudent mu-
stefan put under the mild restraint of
my friends establishment. The
astonishing part of the whole affair
was his entire comprehension of the
situation, and his happy acquiescence
in the arrangement.
They think am mad" he would
say, Struggling his shoulders with the
easiest good-temper, so they put me-
away in this nice house, full of fresh,
sweet air, where | can play-play and
read-read from morning till night
with nobody to disturb me. | have
known want, | have been without
bread; here | live like prince. Il
have been turned out of two stuffy
roms in London for playing my violin
till four o'clock in the morning; here
play all night. They look in and
say, smiling, He plays all night. It'll
will keep him from a paroXysm.' I'M
the meantime | write my OPERA and /
am not bothered by. the people they
call sane Oh, oh, they may keep mel
here as long as they like. l shall
not complain
This opera was to he the great
work of his life He had had it in his
mind for years; had written the libret-
to, and was now busy with the music.
| heard many portions Of it. | used tot
sit with him in a little front room on
the first floor, where the ivy peeped
IN at the window, "-ArmathWaiteI
started, remembering Alma Crosmont
and her dream music-''while he play
ed me his beloved melodies on his
violin or on an American organ which
had been put up in this room specially
for his use. Then he would tell me-
the story, dwelling lovingly on theI
charcter of his heroine the most flaw
less creature that ever poet raved
about. pure 10 unearthliness sweet asI
morning on the mountain, fair with a
soul-fairness that shone in her eyes
and cast a veil of reverence between
her beholder and her own loneliness,
attractive with the attraction of a
spirit that repealed creatures who had
willfully degraded their own souls
These words, or something like them,
are moi mine, I need scarcely say;
they are his"
Armathwaite was listening almost
breathlessly; he began to see the out
come Of the story.
The ibretto OF this famous opera,
continued DR.. PeeIe, was founded on
q classical story, and was to be called
Psyche. The work was to be a reve-
lat;on in art, musical and dramatic.
The strains sung by the heroine while
prosecuted and forlorn. she roamed
the earth in search of Love, were to
show the divine gift of harmony
emancipated at last from the sensuous
thraldom in which for ages it had been
bound: While the heroine herself, in
stead of being the conventional vie
tim Of commonplace passion and in
trigue. was a type of ideal purity and
innocence, in her sorrows unmarried
by bitterness. always mercifui, always
holy. Men looking into her chaste
eyes. were attracted by something
higher than themselves: but if, by
mean. scrdid lives. by dishonour or by
vice, they had stified their own souls,
and fallen far below themselves. then
the attraction of the pure Psyche
changed into fear and even into loath-
ms. until their eyes would drop at her
approach. and they would avoid meet
ing hers. as men avoid the piercing
beans of the sun. And so she wan
5orrT yvnr tho world 1poIzino O. for T nyLa