The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-05

the common. not at all wonderful fad of Mystictsf. Hawthorne's imagins- ton. so singularly free from earthly clogs. has shown now imperial roads of air to countless imitstors--but they lack the wings.
 .The Marble Faun'' Ia . palace built of cloud and hung in tho clear ether. 1t Is as something started into being by touch. A touch has made tt--a touch might have narrsd it. untfi tesEs iaF liks SSmsI s into sh. su that surges souudiessly at our little island refuge of life. and catch the formless, dim shapes that peer at us without distortinE them and ao,s witSos. sias iyeness, 'The Marble Faun" will re. main unique in literature.
 Only sciuptor who dreamed poems as he wrought at his marble. could have conceived the Faun of Praxiteles. In this wonderful statue there is none of the coarsenese. the animal Inst. that others have given to the mythical creature. It Is the true Faun of the iong-vanished groves of old--ali tho innocence and unspoiled joy of the creatures of wood and held mingled. with the greater attributes of the hu- man soul in it's first childhood. before sin or morality, and sorrow were
 This beautiful creature convinces one that he must really have existed m a long, past golden age. Nature neeaea such happy being, standing oetw,xs rnan and animal, sympathizing with each. comprehending the speech os
 xthriu with the glory of life and un- :. nonsotous of it's tndignities, he stands snnilinx with his full yet delicate lips. Fhe riddle of his animal nature per- yades the figure with mute mystery Ao TnnrA | onix one aign visible to the gross say,ses. this is in the ears of the Faun. vhich are leaf af-shaped. terminating in little peaks like those of some ani- rnals. , prisoned yision one day in that tins halt a century ago, when our artists ate an American art far away from
 .sKenycnr' cried one, dark-eyed hAautv. pointing to the other male osurbers of the party. gee! Our friend Donatelio is the very Faun him. selfP'
 aurned tha same position as the statue. gtanding thus, he needed only the Hons akin and the rustic pipe, instead of his oleeant modern costume. to be. indeed inc Faun of Praxiteies. miracuiously softenea Into flesh and blood.
 s'ponatelio." cried the dark-eyea heauty. shake aside those dark curis and iet us see whether this marvellous rasemblance extends to the very tips q the ears. If 50. we shall Ike son-ehs
 ..No' no dearest signorina," answer. cd Donatsllo. laughing, but witn
 certain earnestness. T entreaL you '" take thc tips of my ears for Granfae He teal,ed aside as lightly aea as KsEit. sh,s faun. q shall be like aa wolf ot lhn Anennines," he continued, Ntssyou ,nuch my ears ever so lightly. None nf nv race could endure 1t. It has .lways been tender point with my line" .,n .o 1ha girls. side and gazed at ner S,th an appealing air as if soliciting snrrivaneea, He caught her hand, kiss- "a tt and looked into her seyss sithout saying a word, She smiled ana Hastowsd on him little careless, cS ress that appeared to anora DSna S a,its .Sr,,,slts pleasure. He danced -qu.ls s~e,,nd the nearby statue of The Dyins
 .sTt Ss the very step of the Dancing w,,r " cried the others, laugnlns rnsss friends instinctively allowed .o. h;r, asf for a child or some othSI
 ieas thing, and hardly n~ouco ~ .nnve,,. ss~naiStv were the more readily over ssa.~a s,rce he had fallen into the un. tns, ,tioral art world of Rome WhSa ssv cared about any of the priih
 of society. rN,.eany. who had spent most of his life m tne Movntains. S s,id nasses of the Apennlne ~ ..A .hcree he met the three artists, anu @
 anra feli under the charm or lne SsrS Beauty. Miriam. From the tIne oS the first meeting he became hsi shadow. onn ~raw. She had Appeared suddenly In Rome anu .hS~s6 very considerable talent az
 rainfar. ghe was not at all re- ISs,aH annarently, and made acQualnt- snnas freely; but by some subtle quaI- itv she stiii kept every one at q ois. tance without letting them realize u
 rhere were only three exceptions to 4his rslA. They were Donatello, Ken von inc American sculptor, ana hlIoa, gentle, lovely New England girl who wss copying old masters. These rour soon became bound togetner oS friandship far deeper than usual.
 Even these friends. however, did not knew anything of her past. They were ae Ignorant of it as the rest Of the ho- man art world, which tried to account for her in many romantic ways tne most popular Of Wnlch was tha1 sno was a foreign princess who had ned 10 avoid a marriage of state. that was about to be forced on her.
 That the mystery surrounding ner was more or less tragic could be in- ferred by her friends from her fre- ouent black moods and the glimpses that they obtained of her hopeless at titude toward the future. That 1t still enveloped her and shadowed her hfe' even in her self-sought obscurity, was made evident one day In a singular way.
 The four had descended to the cata- comb of Saint Calixtus. After pene- tratinE some distance they had been startled by missing Miriam. The guide hurst into exclamatlons of alarm. re- calling the fate of a stranger who had strayed only a few months before and had been found starved. Fortunately their fear was short, for Miriam Ap- peared suddenly. Behind her came a strange figure. clad in an enormous cloak of buffalo hide and the goat skin brooches with the hair outward that were commonly worn by the peasants of the Campagna in those days.
 Cnder nis proad-brimmed hat was seen a wild visage half hidden in a wilderness of mustache and beard. His eyes wtnked uneaslly in the light of the torches. aa if they had been un- accustomed to anything except the eternal darkness of the gloomy under ground passages from which he had