The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1929-09-13
The Strange Case of
DR.. JEKYLL and MIR. HYDE
By e. L. Stevenson

I
independent denizens. l, for my
part, from the nature OF my life,
advanced infallibly in one direc-
ton, and in one direction only. 1t
was on the moral side, and in my
own person, that l learned to rec
ogn-ze the thorough and primitive
duality of man; saw that, of the
two natures that contended in the
field of my consciousness, even if
could rightly be said to be eth
er, it was only because l was radi-
cally both; and from an early date,
even before the course of my sci
entific discoveries had begun to
suggest the most naked possibility
of such a miracle, l had learned to
dwell with pleasure, as a beloved
day-dream, on the thought of the
separation of these elements. II
each, | told myself, could but be
> housed in separate identities, life
would be relieved of all that was
| unbearable; the unjust might go
!, his way, delivered from the as
pirations and remorse of his more
upright twin; and the just could
walk steadfastly and securely On
, his upward path, doing the good
things in which he found his pleas
ure, and no longer exposed to dis
grace and penitence by the hands
! of this extraneOus evil. 1t was
the curse of mankind that these in
congruous fagots were thus bound
: tOgether-that in the agonized
) womb of consciousness, these polar
/ twins should be continuously strug-
: Cling. How, then, were they dis
. ISOLATED?
l was SO far in my reflections
) when, as | have said, a side light
5 began to shine upon the subject
: from the laboratory table. l be-
: gan to perceive more deeply than
| it has ever yet been stated, the
trembling immateriality, the mist
} like transience, of this seemingly
| so solid body in which we walk at
5 tired. Certain agents | found to
5 have the power to shake and to
pluck back that fleshy vestmenv
even as a wind might toss the cur
: tains of a pavilion. For two good
reasons, l will not ener deeply in
' to this scientific braich of my con-
fession. First, because l have
c been made to learn that the doom
! and burden of our life is bound
!, foreer on mans shoulder, and when
\ the attempt is made to cast it of
| it but returns upon us with more
] unfamiliar and more awful pres
sure. Second, because as my mar
raie will make, alas! too evident
my discoveries were incomplete
/, Enough then, that l not only rec.
! ognized my natural body for the
mere aura and effulgence of Gel.
tain of the powers that made VI
e my spirit, but managed to com
I pound a drug by which these pow
S ers should be dethroned from thei
e supremacy, and second form an
"a countenance substituted none tn
L less natural to me because the
" were the expression, and bore tn
- stamp, of lower elements in m
,S soul.
+ hesitated long before l put thi
theory to the test of practice.
knew well that l risked death; fo
any drug so potently controlle
and shook the very fortress of ider
tity might, by the least scruple G
an overdose or at the least inoI
| portunity in the moment of exh.
( bition, utterly blot out that imms
e terial tabernacle which l looked I
it to change. But the temptatio
! of discovery so singular and pre-
found at last overcame the sus
gestions of alarm. l had Ion
since prepared my tincture; / pu
chased at once, from a firm
wholesale chemists, a large qua
tity Of a particular salt which
. knew, from my experiments, to
= the last ingredient required; al
late one accursed night I col
pounded the elements, watch the
boil and smoke together in t
glass, and when the ebullition HI
subsidized, with a strong glow
d courage, drank off the potion.
. The most racking pangs succee
=. ed: grinding in the bones, dea
dly nausea, and a horror of t
G spirit that cannot be exceeded
y the hour of birth or death. TIL
these agonies began swiftly to su
side, and / came to myself as
out of a great sickness. The
.ss was something strange in my sc
= sations, something indescribaL
new, and, from its novelty, incre'
bly, sweet. / felt younger, light
happier in body; within l was &C
scious of a heady recklessness,
current of disordered sensual j
ages running like mill race
my fancy, solution of the bon
of obligation, an unknown but I
an innocent freedom of the so
| knew myself, at the first brea
of this new life, to be more wick
tenfold more wicked, sold a sla
to my original evil; and the tn
a in that moment, braced and {
" lighted me like wine. l stretch
out my hands, exulting in t
- freshness of these sensations; a
m in the act, / was suddenly ava
that l had lost in stature.
There was no mirror at Il
date in my room; that VIII
lie stands beside me as l write "
brought there later on and for [
. very purpose of these transform
tions. The night, however, v
y far gone into the morning.
: morning, black as it was, was ne
ly ripe for the reception of
day-the inmates of my house W,
locked in the most rigorous hol
of slumber; and / determin
=. flushed as was with hope &
triumph, to venture in my n
chn,.o - e. -. - - 4 l.