The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-09-20
The Strange Case of
DR.. JEKYLL and MR.. HYDE
By r. L. Stevenson
By r. L. Stevenson

ties had cast hitherto the sole
shadow on my contentment. Now,
however, and in the light Of that
mornings accident, / was led to
remark that whereas, in the begin
ming, the difficulty had been to
throw off the body of Jekyll, it had
of late, gradually but decidedly,
transferred itself to the other side.
All things therefore seemed TO
point to this: that l was slowly
losing hold of my original and bet
ter self, and becoming slowly in
corporated with my second and
worse.
Between these two, l now felt ]
had to choose. My two natures
had memory in common, but all
othere faculties were most unequal
~ shared between them. Jekyl
(who was composite) now with the
most sensitive apprehensions, now
with greedy gusto, projected and
share in the pleasures and adven-
lures of Hyde; but Hyde was in
different to Jekyll, or but remem
bered him as the mountain bandit
/ remembers the cavern in which he
/ conceals himself from pursuit.
yJekyll had more than a fathers in
terest; Hyde had more than a sons
indifference. To cast in my lot
with Jekyll was to die to those ap.
petities which I had long secretly
INDUCED and had of late begun to
pamper. To cast it in with Hyde
was to die to a thousand interests
and aspirations, and to become, at
a blow and forever, despised and
] friendless. The bargain might APP
pear unequal; but there was still
another consideration in the scales;
fer while Jekvll would suffer
smartly in the fires of abstinence,
: HYDE would not be even conscious
Of al that he had lost. Strange
as my circumstances were, the
circumstances were, the terms of
this debate are as old and common
place as man: much the same in
/ ducements and alarms cast the die
/ for any tempted and trembling sin
ner; and it fell out with me, as it
falls with so vast a majority of my
fellows, that I chose the better part
and was found wanting in the
strength 10 keep it up.
Yes, preferred the elderly and
disappointed doctor, surrounded by
friends and cherishing honest
/ hopes; and babe a resolute fare
well to the liberty, the comparative
youth, the light step, leaping I'M
I pulses and secret pleasures, that I
had enjoyed in the disguise of
Hyde L made this choice perhaps
with some unconscious reservation,
for | neither gave up the house in
Soho, nor destroyed the clothes of
Edward Hyde, which still lay ready
/ in my cabinet. For two months,
however, / was true to my deter
mination; for two months l led a
life of such severity as / had never
before attained to, and enjoyed the
compensation of an approving con.
science. But time began at las
to obliterate the freshness of M
alarm; the praises of cOnscienc,
began to grow into a thing O
course; | began 30 be tortured witt
throes and longings, as of Hyde
struggling after freedom; and a
last, in an hour of moral weakness
once again compounded and swal
! lowed the Transforming draught.
l do not suppose that, when 8
drunkard reasons with himself up
on his vice, he is once out of five
hundred times affected by the dan
gers that he runs through his brut
ish, physical insensibility; neither
had |, long as l had considered MI
position, made enough allowanc,
for the complete moral insensibili
ty and insensate readiness to evil
which were the leading character
of Edward Hyde. Yet it was b,
these that l was punished. M,
I devil had been long Gagged, he cam
out roaring. was conscious, eve
when | took the draught, of a NOR
unbridled, more furious propen
sity to i'll. 1t must have been thi.
l suppose that stirred in my sou
that tempest of impotence wit
which listened to the civilities O
: my unhappy victim; l declare, a
least, before God, no man moral
: sane could have been guilty of ths
J crime upon so pitiful a provocs
ton; and that / struck in no NOR
reasonable spirit than that
which a sick child may break
4 plaything. But / had voluntaril
: stripped myself of all those ba
ancing instincts, by which even til
worst of US continues to walk wit
some degree of steadiness anon
temptations; and in my case, to
tempted, however slightly, was
fall.
= Instantly the spirit of hell awok
= in me and ragged. With a tran,
port of glee, l mauled the unresis
ing body, tasting delight from e,
cry blow; and it was not till wear
ness had begun to succeed that
was suddenly, in the top fit of m
delirium, struck through the hear
: by cold thrill of terror. A mi.
> dispersed; | saw my life to be I'll
| forfeit, and fled from the seer
Of these excuses, at once gloryin
and trembling, my lust of ev
gratified and stimulated, nay Low
of life screwed to the topmost pc,
/ ran to the house in Soho and II
J make assurance doubly sure) d,
stroyed my papers; thence / S,
/ out through the lamplit streets,
the same divided ecstacy of min,
| gloating on my crime, light-hea,
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