The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1914-08-06

Ia URING the whole Of a dull,
dark and soundless day in the
autumn of the year, when the
~ clouds hung oppressively low
in the heavens I had been passing
alone on horseback, through singular
~ dreary tract Of country, and at
length found myself, as the shades of
evening grew on, within view Of the
melancholy House of Usher. I know
not how it was, but, with the first
glimpse Of the building, a sense Of in
sufferable gloom pervaded my spirit.
I looked upon the scene before me-
upon the mere house and the simple
landscape features of the domain,
upon the bleak walls, upon the vacant
eyelike windows, upon a few rank
sedges and upon few white trunks of
decayed trees, with an utter depression
of soul which l can compare to no
earthly sensation more properly than
to the after dream of the reveler upon
opium, the bitter lapse into every day
life, the hideous dropping of the VEIL
There was an icineSs, a sinking, a
sickening of the heart, an unredeemed
dreariness Of thought which no goad-
ing of the imagination could torture
into aught of the sublime. I refined
my horse to the precipitous brink Of a
black and lurid tarn that lay in un-
rufHed luster by the dwelling and
gazed down, but with shudder even
more thrilling than before, upon the
remodeled and inverted images of the
gray sedge and the CHASTITY tree stems
and the vacant and eyelike windows.
Nevertheless in this mansion Of
gloom I now proposed to myself So
journ of some weeks. Its proprietor,
Roderick Usher, had been one of my
boon companions in boyhood but many
years had elapsed since our last meet
ing. A letter, however, had lately
reached me in a distant part Of the
country-a letter from him-which, in
it's wildly importunate nature, had adj
mitted of NO other than a personal re-
ply. The manuscript gave evidence of
nervous agitation. The writer spoke
of acute bodily illness, of mental dis
order which oppressed him and of an
and. indeed, his only personal friend,
with a view of attempting by the
cheerfulness of my society some al
deviation of his malady.
Although as boys we had been even
intimate associates, yet I really knew
little of my friend. His reserve had
been always excessive and habitual
I was aware, however, that his very
ancient family had been noted, time
out of mind. for a peculiar sensibility
of temperament, displaying itself
through long ages in many works Of
exalted art and manifested Of late in
repeated deeds of munifcent yet I'M
obtrusive charity as we'll as in a pas
sionate devotion to the intricacies, per-
haps even more than to the orthodox
and easily recognizable beauties. of
musical science. I had learned. too.
the very remarkable fact that the
stem of the Usher race, all time hon
ored as it was, had put forth at no Pc
Rod any enduring branch-in other
words, that the entire family lay in
the direct line of descent and had al
ways, with very trifling and very tenn
porary variation. so lain. 1t was this
deficiency. perhaps. of collateral issue
and the consequent undertaking trans
mission from sire to son of the patri-
mony with the name which had at
length so identified the two as to
merge the original title of the estate
in the quaint and equivocal appella-
ton of the House Of Usher''-an ap-
pellatiOn which seemed to include in
the minds of the peasantry who used
it both the family and the mansion.
When I again uplifted my eyes to
the house itself from it's image in the
pool there grew in my mind strange
fancy. had so worked upon my i'm.
agination as really to believe that
about the whole mansion and domain
there hung an atmosphere peculiar to
themselves and their immediate vicini-
ty-an atmosphere which had no aftin-
ity with the air of heaven, but which
had reeked up from the decayed trees
and the gray wall and the silent tarn-
pestilent and mystic vapor, dull
sluggish, family discernible and leaden
hued.
Shaking off from my spirit what
must have been dream. l scanned
more narrowly the real aspect of the
building. Its principal feature seemed
to be that of an excessive antiquity
The discoloration of ages had been
great. Minute fungi overspread the
whole exterior, hanging IN fine tan
gled webwork from the caves. Yet al
this was apart from any extraordinary
dilapidation. Perhaps theeye of scru
tinizing observer might have discover
ed barely perceptible assure which