Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1909-09-30
| THE DEAD
MUSICIAN

Was just going pack TO my state
room when / was approached by one
of the passengers, a man of melan-
choly appearance, whom / had al
ready noticed at dinner.
Beautiful evening"" he said.
Eyes" / replied, very beautiful, in
deed" Z
DO you intend to land in Alexan-
dria?"
"Yes."
1--WE shall arrive there tomorrow
at daybreak," he continued. "The
Egyptian city," he added, clocks real
ly wonderfully handsome from the
sea. l have travelled all over the
world and have never seen such
beautiful spectacle in my life as that
offered by Alexandria as seen from
the deck of steamship. There is
only one thing on earth superior to
Alexandria-Paris. Do you know
PARISH"
"Yes," / replied, 81 am coming
from Paris now, and am Partisan
myself"
Really? How glad am. 1 adore
Paris. The great capital is always
before my eyes, and yeti will never
see it again. Isn't that terrible?"
"Are you an exile?" l ventured.
Something worse" he answered,
81 am dead"
looked at him in astonishment.
He added:
do not fear, my friend, for I am
not insane. / am the best mentally
balanced man on earth. My history
will demonstrate it to you at once.
Can you spare five minutes?''
II can give you all my time," an
swered
Well" said he, leaning leisurely
on the rail, have you ever heard
anything about Saint-Me?"
what Saint-Me?" 1 replied. do
you mean the famous composer, the
author of such operas as 'Salome,'
Marie 'Patrie,' ,etc.?"
YES"
why, sure, have heard of him.
He was one of our most illustrious
musicians and it is too bad he died
so young and without being granted
the privilege of witnessing his own
triumph"
The mysterious passenger looked
at me smiling, and said:
I'm that case, my friend, you are
mistaken, for Saint-Me is not dead"
"How's that?"
Very simple" he said. "Saint-Me
and l are the same person. Do you
understand now?"
/
"Really?"
Upon my word"
He lit cigar and sat comfortably
on an armchair and related the fol-
lowing history of his DEATH"
"Ten years ago was in misery.
All my musical productions had been
failure, and l commenced to enter
| tain very serious fears about the
future, when one day-while in Bre-
tagne, where had retired owing to
my lack of resources-I read in a
Paris paper a telegram from the Ha-
vas news agency, giving details about
my death. This dispatch said that /
had persisted in a shipwreck near
Oussant. / have never been able to
find out the name of the corresponds
ent of the Havas agency who sent
the telegram, but the fact is that this
dispatch about my death decided my
future in favorable way"
"How's that?'
Listen and you will easily under.
stand
1t was my first intention to tele-
graph to the newspapers denial of
Int 4 +1lo
represented price too high for me
to pay, and then, besides, felt
great curiosity to know what people
| would say of me after my death. I
| must admit that the newspapers ia
| vored me more than l had expected.
Some of my friends published the
most sensational articles about my
| private life, in which the most ex-
traordinary things were said l be-
| came popular here. Someone went
as far as to say that l had been
| musical genius and that my operas
| (the same that had oeen rejected dur
ing my life) were simply wonderful
Marie was again produced at the
opera. and this time it met with ex-
traordinary success. 'Salome,' which
had been refused, vas accepted and
applauded to the echo
Il continued in Eretagne and fully
realized that, in view of my post
nfortem success, it was not wise to
resuscitate, so l decided to remain
dead.
Protected by disguise, visited
in Paris a nephew of mine-my only
living relative and heir-and author
lied him to manage my interest,
keeping for himself one-fourth of the
income and handing three-fourths to
me. l warned him, of course, of my
decision to resuscitate the moment
he would try to cheat me out of any
money.
Under this agreement, which he
had faithfully kept. l have made mil
lions after my death. My only regret
is that l will never be able to see
Paris again" -Henry Kistemaecker,
in Hartford Post.