The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-06

| and challenged the old. Faust returned to court. He aroused the timid and put heart into the despairing. To the army, wasted by cowardly flight, treachery and weak counsels, he drew the spirits of greed, of lust, of blood. He awoke again the great heroisms of past days. But when the day was won, when through smoke and ruin and death the emperor came once more into his own, Faust saw the emptiness of his efforts still.
 'Doer nothing please your" demanded Mephistopheles. q have shown you in immeasurable vastness the riches of the world and all its splendor. Would you rule nation and have 1t low before you7'
 No" said Faust. That will not con- tent me-"
 Shall build you palaces in the clouds, forests and field and seas, cascades and stroalls and fill the glades with beauty?" asked Mephistopheles.
 'It would be a stale thing, a mere Sar- danapalus," replied Faust
 Perhaps you would soar to the moon" sneered Mephistopheles. angrily.
 Mop cried Faust. towering tall and commanding, "Noi' This earth Is great enough for great attempts! l feel the power at last for brave achievement I want not fame The deed is everything the fame is nothing I shall press back yOnu6f sea ana 69L US pOuudS ana on the new domain that I shall win a new free people shall work out new and better destiny"
 Gladly the Emperor granted the absurd wish for land under the sea to the man who had saved his crown.
 Faust gathered men from near and far. By day the blow of spade and pick an- swered the thunder of the waves. By night flames shone upon a hundred miles of strand and when the dawns cams dams stood there holding the land that men had gained while the ocean's power was withdrawn by ebb. Canals and dikes grew by sorcery; but 1t was the sorcery of the guiding, purposeful human mind controlling human sinews and hands. Willingly thousands toiled to give form to the creation of the one. Breakwaters and quays thrust themselves dauntlessly into the depths. Harbors banned the de- stroying surf. Cities upreared their crowns of towers. Ships raised their spars where breakers had controlled.
 And now as Faust gazed with a full heart on the work of his brain and hands he was stricken suddenly with old age and blindness That which he had done he could see never more. That which he had achieved he could not enjoy.
 "Nightl Night said he. '"rhe deepest deep of nightl Yet in my soul I see tn brightest lighti Now. hasten. hastenl Le me finish my designs! There is swamp that, drained will give new land to thous- ands where they may dwell and in daily battle wrest fruit and riches from an unwilling soil. Now do I know! This is the ultimate knowledge-that only he deserves freedom and life who daily con- quers it anew, and so, surrendered by antagonistic forces. lights dauntlessly through childhood, youth and agel This I would see! On a free soil with free people do I long to stand and in the would cry to the moment: ''Oh, say Re- main Thou art so fairl''
 Instantly he sank to the ground dead.
 He falls and it is donei' said Me phistopheles, stepping to his side No lust pleased him, no fortune satisfied and now, poor fool, this last. poor, empty moment he longed to hold 1t fast. BuL now the clock stands still. The hour hand drops"
 Even as he exulted there sounded 8 chorus from the sky in strains so mild, so pure, so victorious that he covered and shrank away from the body
 Thrilling the hushed air the angels sang:
 Purify, purify him.
 He who sought truth
 Truth shall not deny him.
 From dark evil
 He shall uprisel
 Savedl He is savedt
 For Paradise"
 Next Sundays one-page classic will be ''The Haunted Man." Christmas story by Charles Dickens.