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XISBY & REID, Proprietors.
The Family Journal.—-News—Politics—Literaturb—A grigulture—Domestic Affairs .
GEORGIA TELEGRAPH BUILDING.
STABLISHED 1826.}
MACON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1868.
YOU XLII.--N0. 53.
PRISONER AMONG CANNIBALS.
BY C. F. FOSTER.
Between the Eastern and the China
a is the Island of Formosa, which is
er two hundred miles in length, arid
me sixty in breadth. It is at present
Jabited by two distinct races—Chinese
J Indians—the former occupying the
prthern and western coast, and the lat-
the southern and eastern. These two
*s are separated by a range of moun-
D < running lengthwise of the island,
1 the two divisions are as different as
i people—the lands of the Chinese be-
jg low, undulating, and arable, and
jose of the Indians rugged, mountain-
m aud in some degree sterile. The Chi-
efc are diminutive, timid, and industri-
as; the Indians athletic, fierce and war-
le. The former live by their herds, til-
jto, and peaceful arts; the latter by
pbbing, plundering, capturing, and mak-
ig slaves of their more honest neighbors.
Utateof constant hostility exists between
ie two nations. The Indians cross the
lountains in formidable bands, swoop
Aim upon the Chinese, pillage and burn
ieir houses, carry off their grain, drive
ff their herds, and make prisoners of as
aauy men, women and children, as they
an lay their hands on. These human
jptivea serve the red men in a double
ipacity—first a3 slaves, and then as
(1; for the Indians are cannibals, and
en feast on human flesh.
Some years ago, the writer of this
teinent being in an English vessel was
ecked on the eastern coast of the Is
land ; and four of us half drowned, and
onsiderably bruised, found ourselves
linging to the rocks, and imploring
eaven for succor.
As our vessel went to pieces upon a
mining reef, within about a hundred
mis of the rocky shore of the Island of
:onnosa, I managed to get hold of a
-ar, to which I clung with the tenacity
:a drowning man. Three others got
aid 6f the same support simultaneously
ith myself, and for a few moments we
hirled about with terrible velocity, and
:ea a huge wave suddenly landed us
pon a low ledge of rocks, a few feet
iove the level of the seething, roaring
raters that madly broke against them,
bough half dead from exhaustion, and
riously bruised, yet the hope of life
rought every faculty into active play,
ad in less than a few minutes we were all
vond the danger of being swept back
to the boiling and foaming surf.
This happened not far from mid-day—
e wind blowing a gale, and the rain
ating against us in driving sheets,
'e could only see a short distance out
>on the angry sea, though clearly be
nd the point where our vessel had gone
pieces. We now and then detected
me portions of the wreck whirling about
the surf, but nowhere could we per-
ive a sign of human life. Of the twen-
-two passengers composing the officers
id crew of the ill-fated ship, we were
1 that were now left alive; and as we
oked at the frowning rocks above us,
e awful destruction below, listened to
:e wild bowlings of the storm, and eon-
lered our almost helpless condition, on
a island said to be inhabited by a fierce
ice of cannibals, we almost envied those
ho were sleeping their last sleep. Their
irthly troubles, at least, _ were over,
■idle the unknown future might hold for
i such* terrors and sufferings as would
.ake us pray for death as a relief.
But still the proverb “while there is
Je there is hope,” gave a little cheer,
ad thanking heaven for our present
reservation, we began to toil up the
ocks to sec what laid beyond. We
'ere so exhausted and bruised as to make
ar ascent very slow and painful, and
early every step was attended with a
roau of both physical and mental suffer-
ng.
At length we reached the summit of
he clifi) and found ourselves on the edge
fa heavy wood. We stopped to rest
few minutes, and then pushed forward
r about a quarter of a mile, through a
hicket of undergrowth. To our surprise,
e suddenly came in sight of a small neat
illage^ of stone houses, scattered upward
long the slope of the neighboring hill,
roni the bed of a romantic valley, through
hick flowed a babbling stream. We
iuld see what looked like gardens,
hade-trees, orchards, green lawns, and,
»r back, fields of pasture and grain, the
'hole having the appearance of a high
’•ate of civilization. Could this be the
bode of savages and cannibals ? No—
ever—impossible, and we shouted for
y at the thought that Providence had
irown us among a people who would
ot deny us the right of hospitality.
As we were about to again set forward,
ith brightened spirits, a sad event took
lace among us. One of our companions,
ho had seemed the most delighted at
•■o discovery of the village, suddenly
topped, sat* down, pressed his hands
gainst his breast, and complained of a
reling of suffocation. About the same
•oraent he fell over on his backhand an
lamination disclosed the startling fact
bat he was dead. The fatigue and ex-
itement had proved too much for the
ction of a diseased heart, and he had
one to join the spirits of those who had
crished in the deep. As we had no
'fans of burying him, we placed his
-ody upon a high rock, took away the
trifling things we found in his pock-
*3. and in a more sad, dejected mood,
ft forward towards the village, with the
Relation of getting assistance from the
'Wives, and return to perform the last
»d office of humanity. But we never
turned. We called him “poor fellow”
ben—we envied his fate afterwards.
As we approached the village, we came
Pon a few Chinese laborers, at work in
3 c Btorm in an open field. On seeing
' they fled with cries of terror, and in a
e w moments the whole town was in a
•ste of the wildest alarm—horns blow-
tom toms beating, and men, women
a d children running to and fro in great
^fusion. We stopped to let the excite-
^nt calm down, and were soon cautions-
} approached by a band ofsome twenty-
Ve or thirty warriors, armed with bows
‘■0(1
arrows, spears, matchlocks, and
knives. As they warily drew near us,
we held up our open hands, and watched
them with breathless interest and sinking
hearts, for we could see they were the
dreaded men of whom we had heard such
terrible accounts. ** •*]
Physically considered, they were not
an ill-looking set of men, being of good
stature, with well-developed limbs and
bodies. Their skins were a bright copper
color, and their hair black and long,
sweeping down in large masses around
their necks and shoulders. Their features
I did not like, the general expression be
ing too fierce and sensual. Their fore
heads were narrow, their eyes black and
snaky, their cheek-bones high and sharp,
their noses large and arched, and their
mouths and jaws huge and massive.
They wore a sort of turban around the
head, and a strip of cotton cloth about
the body. These two articles formed
their entire costume, and their only or
naments were large rings depending from
their ears.
As soon as they had satisfied them
selves that we were not armed and hos
tile, they came up boldly, and one, who
seemed to be a leader or chief, and
whose only distinctive mark was a crim
son sash around the waist, made signs
to kpow from whence we came. I replied
to him as well as I could, and when I
made him understand we were wrecked,
he seemed highly pleased, and hurried
us off to the village. There, after under
going a close and troublesome examina
tion from a crowd of women arid children,
we were locked up in a small stone house,
which had hut one apartment, and no
outlet save the door,
Here we remained a prey to conjecture
till dark, when the chief and several war
riors came in with a torch, and showed
us some things that proved they had
found the wreck. They then proceeded
to strip us, and feel of our limbs and bod
ies, after the manner of so many butchers
examining the animals they intended to
slay. We remembered we were among
cannibals,trembled with terror,and regret-
ed we had not perished with the vessel.
Both of my companions were larger and
stouter than myself, and one was quite
fleshy. With him the savages seemed
much pleased. They pinched and patted
him, and nodded to each other with
smiles—while, he, poor fellow, with ash
en, trembling lips, and eyes half starting
from their sockets, looked thehorror we all
felt, but which no language could speak.
Next in their approval was my other
companion, but for myself they cared
little, and for once in my life I thanked
heaven for being small, thin, bony, and
muscular. After this examination they
went out, carrying all our clothes with
them. In the course of an hour they
brought us a large dish of boiled rice,
and about a gallon of water, and then left
us for the night. We had little appetite
for eating, as may readily be believed,
and our feverish sleep on the moist, hare
pound was filled with the most horrid
reams. The storm abated about mid
night, and the morning broke fair. At
daylight, six savages came into our
prison with ropes, and proceeded to bind
our arms behind our backs. They then
led us out to a sort of common in the cen
tre of the village, where most of the in
habitants were collected—nearly every
Indian, male and female, being attended
by a Chinese slave of the same sex. In
the middle of the area was a circular
wall of masonry, about five feet high,
and sixty in circumference, and around
the inner circle of the wall was a row of
faggots. The largest of my companions
was now separated from us, aud bound
back to back with a Chinaman. of near
his own size, and then, amid cries of ter
ror from the two victims, and shouts of
delight from lie savage spectators, they
were lifted over into the arena, and the
faggots set on fire. The spectacle which
followed was horrid beyond description,
and the shrieks, moans, and groans of the
poor fellows, as the flames encompassed
and blistered their flesh, and then liter
ally roasted them alive, are ringing in
my ears yet. Being lashed back to back,
each one, as he retreated from the circu
lar fire, pushed the other nearer to it;
and their struggles in this way made a
fiendish sport for their tormenters, who
almost drowned their screams of agony
with yells of laughter. When at last
they fell down exhausted, they were left
upon the ground to bake till the fire
burnt out, after which their dead and
roasted bodies were removed and eaten,
each one cutting off a slice to hia or her
liking, and devouring it greedily. When
all was over my companion and myself
were taken back to our prisons more
dead than alive—in fact, wishing our
selves dead.
We were kept shut up there for a week,
and then he was taken out and roasted
in the same manner, and I was left alone,
the last surviver of the ill-fated crew. I
starved myself as much as I could, for
fear I should get into a good condition for
their horrid purpose; and after keeping
me a week longer, my captors signified
that I might take one of the squaws to
wife and have my liberty. The female
selected for my partner was old and ugly,
but the hope of escape made me seem
pleased witn the revolting alternative,
and thus I became a member of the in
fernal .tribe.
For a month I was closely watched
and guarded; but I affected to be so well
contented with my new life, that by the
end of that time their vigilance began to
relax, and then I felt almost certain of
being able to effect my escape to the
other side of the island, and there find
refuge among another race. Meantime
I had to be a witness to several other hu
man roastings.
Of the cannibals of Formosa, I have
little knowledge beyond those of the vil
lage in which I was for three months a
prisoner; but from what I saw, I am in
clined to believe the whole race are com
plete savages, without industry or art, and
not a whit removed from the barbarism
of their ancestors. It is true their houses
and lands have a look of civilization,
but these they owe to the skill and la
bor of their captives, whom they employ
and destroy as suits their pleasure or ca
price. Like the North American Indians,
they are fond of athletic sports, and
spend much of their time in hunting,
fishing, fighting and marauding. They
have war-songs and war-dances, and be
lieve in some sort of religion, which prin
cipally consists in propitiating the evil
spirit by the most diabolical human sac
rifices. Some of the women are rather
comely in appearance, but their natures
are fierce and intractable, and their mor
al qualities are of the lowest order. The
three months I was compelled to remain
with these savages was an age of horror,
and did more to break down my consti
tution than previous years of hardships,
exposures and privations.
At last I managed to escape in the
night, and after concealing myself two
days in a hollow tree, I pursued my way
with perilous adventure, and reached a
large Chinese settlement in an exhausted
condition. Here, at least, I was kindly
treated and cared for; and at length suc
ceeded in getting passage to Canton, and-
then to my native land. But since my
return I find I am not the same man I
was before, and the recollection of the
horrid scenes I witnessed often makes
me shudder in my waking moments, and
shriek out with terror in my sleep.
LOVE IN THE CLOUDS.
BY D. IVAN DOWNES.
From the Neu> York Sunday Mercury.]
[CONCLUDES.]
Captain Alden Raynor, whilom of the
good ship Ajax, a craft which was ac
counted in its day a real floating palace,
but which long ago became of the list of
things that were and are not, is a jolly
old fellow yet, and as sensible of enjoy
ment as ever he was. His hold on life
is quite as strong now, at eighty, as I feel
my own to be, at less than half that num
ber of years. And, as he is just as apt at
story-telling now, as many a younger man
with pretensions running that way, I am
in the habit of going over to his house of
an evening, for the express purpose of
taking sundry whiffs at the meerschaum
with Him, and of listening to the thousand
aud one stories he has to tell. It is true
that the Captain’s memory is the little
worse for wear, so that there are not a
few of his anecdotes that I have heard
him recount a score of times each; but
then, the hale old man has such an inim
itable way of getting off these things, that
they are ever new, or, at least, I always
cheat myself into the belief that they are,
and listen with nearly as much interest
as I should under different circumstances.
It is not to every one, however, that he
will unlock the coffers of his memory,
and scatter abroad the treasures thereof,
as he generally will to me; nor is it on
all occasions that he can he drawn out,
even to gratify his boy, as he calls me,
for he has his point which is vulnerable
to the enemies of high spirits, as when
the recollection of the stiring days of his
manhood’s prime, when, he trod the deck
of his proud vessel, supreme lord of it all,
and images of those dear ones who sick
ened upon the sea, and whom, after their
eyes were closed forever, he consigned to
the embrace of the briny surge, in the
gone years, come back to remind him
that the things of earth are vain, and
that his part in life is nearly acted out,
and the curtain about to finally fall;
then he is sad, and will sit for hours, his
eyes unwontedly moist, and his lips in si
lent motion, as if talking with the unseen.
At times like these I have looked upon
that old man, and felt that I was in the
presence of something more than the gen
eration of men now superintending the
machinerv of life, can furnish for con
templation. There is at such times a
something which says to me: “Mark him
well; the Arctic seas could not chill, nor
the torrid beams burn him; he it is that
held old ocean by the beard!” There is that
sort of weirdness about him, then, that
clings about our ideal of Neptune, and I
catch in his eye a glimpse of the rolling
surge, and in his voice I hear, alternately,
the boom of the breakers and the mur
muring of the shell, so that I forget that
he is “of the earth earthy,” and imagine
that he tarries here for a season only, and
goes to his native home, the bosom of the
blue sea!
Last night, whilst the captain and I
were hearing each other company in a
pipe apiece of tobacco, he was more than
usuallv communicative:
“Tell me a story, Captain,” said I, “tell
me one in which thehourisof of the mys
tic isles of the sea shall figure, for I feel
strangely spiritual to-night.”
“Out upon you, Lance I” said he, tak
ing his pipe from his lips. “Go away,
you are full of sickly sentiment, of tne
kind you have drawn from Jerusalem
Delivered. I deal in facts, like the fel
low I read of ’tother day, who answered
to the hail of passing craft that his name
was Gradgrind. Stubborn facts are the
best for you in your present state, the
same as Graham bread and cold potatoes
are the best for an attack of affection, or,
as it is misnamed, love. Call it what
you will, whenever the fancy cuts loose
from the reason and sports around like a
dolphin, it is disease of the stomach, sir,
or sometimes of the liver. Much poor
poetry is oftentimes the product of a dis
eased liver.
You want a ghostly story of the sea.
I’ll not gratify you. You have been told
too much about salt water already. I’ll
pin you to the earth this time, as firmly
as Prometheus. And now listen, boy,
to a story of France, in which I, myself,
shall figure somewhat; and—and—well,
well, after all, come to run my mind over
the incidents of it, there will be a little,
love—call it what you will, as I said be
fore—at the bottom of it. But, mind
you, this story sticks to the earth, at all
events.
When I was young, began the old
man, and then he stopped, and pretended
to be picking at his pipe. The truth is,
he had started off on a wrong track, that
brought back memories of the past in too
bold colors.
Sixty-one years ago (he resumed) I
took a run through France, bee&use I
had plenty of money and nothing to do.
I was rattle-headed, like you, Lance, and
I suppose as romantic. I said I took a
run through that country. I’ll take that
back, and say I made a visit to it;. for
the fact is, although . I got through the
northern departments pretty fast, I made
a rather lengthy stay in Auvergne, among
the hills. In fact, I staid there all of one
summer.
I arrived there in the early days of
spring, when the wild bloom of the com
mons were fresh and new, and the leaves
of the grape were silky and light green.
The country was so wildly beautiful, and
the air so life-giving, that I could do no
less than to decide that I would tarry for
a few days. A mighty fine place that-
Auvergne is for a young fellow—not an
old bachelor of thirty-five, more or less,
of your pattern, Lance; hut a young
man, say from twenty to twenty-five; for,
truly, the skies are fair and maids are
fond. I doubt if there is a spot of equal
size, unless it be Circassia, where the same
amount of female loveliness may be found;
that is to say, unless it has changed
amazinly since I was there.
Well, not to be tedious, J came, I saw,
and was conquered by a little maid whom
I shall call, for convenience sake, Marie
—her surname is of no consequence. She
was the daughter of a Count, or Marquis,
perhaps—I am not well written up in
those titles of nobility over there—and
beautiful as the creation of a dream. So
beautiful was she, Lance, that I loved
her. Don’t smile; I loved her with all
the soul I had, and my attachment grew
stronger and stronger daily. I boated
upon the water with her, and rode among
the hills. I was like her shadow, like
her second self, only we were of different
sexes. Soon I discovered that there was
some secret sorrow prying upon her, some
blight of the mind, that dashed all her
pleasures, and I began to think that my
suit was vain. This idea almost took
away my boyish wits; but, to know the
best, or the worst, I resolved to bring
matters to a crisis by offering myself to
her, body and soul. This I did, and met
with what I had feared, a refusal.
“I respect you,” said she, in a French
phrase, “but 0, mon Dieu, I can love you
never. I shall never love a man again.”
“Again!” said I wildly. “And you
have loved another ?”
“Ah 1” she replied, “how well! I have
loved as woman never loved before, as
woman shall never love one of her kind.”
Then, Lance, I felt that I was fast be
coming a sort of second-fiddle here in a
French romance, and it mattered little to
me when, where, or how she had loved;
yet to carry, out the matter to its logical
sequence, I inquired as to the particulars.
“Must I alas! must I,” cried Marie,
wringing her hands, “must I once more
tell that tale of horror? O, Monsieur
Raynor, I cannot, indeed I cannot relate
it now; come to me to-morrow, when the
sun goes down; I am calmer, then, and
I will once more, for the second and last
time, tell to mortal ears a story that
freezes my blood by the thoughts of it.
Adieu, Monsieur Raynor, till then!”
I went home, Lance, with my mind in
the condition of a vessel that had un
shipped her rudder, and is being driven
about by the angry gale. My hopes were
a hopeless wreck, and, feeling that I had
nothing now to moor me to existence, I
prayed, yes, I prayed for death. Can it
be, I asked of myself, that Marie—she
whose angelic smile and gentle voice has
won me to prize my life as doubly
precious—can never he mine ? O, perish
the thought! She wishes to dissemblefor
the time only, to prove my affection.
Her sweet eyes can never, have never,
smiled for another as they have smiled
forme. Her voice cannot have given
its entrancing tunes to another’s ears.
She does but jest with me for a true pur
pose. I feel it to be so. I will go to her
to-morrow eve, and have it from her own
lips.
The day came upon the earth the next
morning with all the rich and varied
glories that dawn ever brings to sunny
France. The landscape was gorgeous
with the commingled tints of the early
sunbeams, and the emerald of the vege
tation, and the groves were vocal with
the glad carols oi the birds; but there
was no joy in it all for me. The sun as
cended to its fervid meridian, and slow
ly, O, so slowly! passed over westward in
all its golden splendor; declined finally,
and sank below the horizon like a great
fiery ball. That day seemed to last for
a hundred vears.
Just at the setting of the sun I leaped
over the wal] of the fence belonging to
Marie’s father. She was there, faithful
as ever to her promises.
“O, speak, Marie,” I cried wildly.
“Speak quickly, and say you did but
trifle with my feelings yesterday. Say
that I may yet have hope that you wifi
one day be mine.”
“Alas,” she replied, “Monsieur Ray
nor, you know not how impossible it is
that we can ever be m6re than friends. I
promised to tell you the reason of my re-
fusal; sit down beside me, Monseiur,
upon this rustic seat, and listen to
me, while I relate what shall tear open
afresh the wounds of my own heart, and
what shall, perchance, cause a chord in
your bosom to respond to the touch of
pity’s fingers, for me.” ,
I sat down beside her, Lance, my hoy,
and it was for the last time. She then
narrated to me a story, in, as nearly as I
can reproduce them, the following words:
Three years ago, Dieu assistez moi, I
lived at Troyes, in Champaigne, with my
fether. I was as joyous and happy a
maiden as lived anywhere in France;
my friends said I was beautiful as a pic
ture of the Virgin, and I, myself, know
that I sang the livelong day, like a bird.
My father, as you know, is a member of
that department of the government which
has the care of the mechanical interests
of the Empire, and, consequently, has
for many years cultivated the society of
such persons as are acquainted with the
parts, and the practical workings of all
kinds of machines, and while we lived at
Troyes, our visitors were chiefly men of
that clasB, whom my fether would be
closeted with for hours, engaged in mak
ing drawings and models. One of our
visitors was a young gentleman, a mem
ber of one of the decayed families of no
bility. He, I learned casually, came.al-
so upon business connected with my
father’s office. He soon began to be very
attentive to me, and as he was all that
was good and noble, I gradually came to
love him. But, ceil pardonniz! Mon
sieur, being naturally coquetish, when he
offered me his heart and hand, I refused,
although my heart was bleeding for him
all the time. O, how he was stricken
when I told him I would not love him!
and how he went about talking with the
air for weeks! I did not, however, cast
him off; nay, I loved him too well for
that. Au, contraire; I gave him my sin
cere and sweetest smiles, knowing that,
after a while, I would accept him; and
then I would frown and pout, just for the
pleasure it gave me to see him temporari
ly miserable for my sake. Well, Mon
sieur, I would not tire you, and I will
hasten. M. Alexandre G—, this was
his name, on three separate occasions, fell
upon his knees before me, and prayed
that I would have mercy upon him; and
for the third time, I affected to spurn his
offered hand. Still he fluttered about me;
but I could see that a change had come
over him. He was not so light-hearted
as formerly; his eyes began to appear
grave, and I had just come to the conclu
sion that, when he declared his passion
again to mo I would accept, because I
knew that I had pressed him with co
quetry, about as far as was safe. Just
then Alexander disappeared. He was gone
for more than' a week when, as I expect
ed, and I had so keenly desired, he came
back. Now there were smiles upon his
beautful features when he asked me to
ride with him, and I was happy in the
thought that when we had ridden to some
romantic spot, he would again request of
me my hand, for I was sure I should not
deny himagain. %,
O, Monseiur, it was Heaven to me to
be thus near him again ? His soul seemed
to have divined the true state of my feel
ings for him, and all his words were of
love for me, and the paradise of a home
to which he would take me.
After a while, we came to a point
where the forest bordered the road upon
one side, and my lover stopped the car
riage.
“Let us descend,” said he, “my own,
my darling; letus alight,and walk among
the shadows of the grand old forest, for
here we may meet face to face with na
ture’s self, and hold sweet converse with
her.”
Then we alighted from the carriage.
How supremely happy I was, thus to De
alone with him that I loved best of all
else on earth! I leaned upon his arm.
He was strangely eloquent all the time
that we trod the mazes of the woods.
“Everything is beautiful,” said he, “ev
erything ethereal; the earth, the trees,
sky, all, all are glittering. The birds
warble their softest songs, and the flowers
exhale their sweetest odors for you. But
O, none of these will compare with the
entrancing scenes, and the ravishing
sounds that await you in the enchanted
home to which I shall ere long bear you,
my own, my darling Marie.”
Our walk led us to a fairy spot where
grew many sweet flowers, and one of
them became more sweet, more priceless
than all the others, because Alexandre
plucked it, and gave it to me.
“Smell the fragrant bloom,” said he,
“sweet Marie, it is odorous and fair, yet
not half so fair as you.”
I took the .flower and. smelt of it.
“The scent is very sweet, indeed,” said I.
“You love it, then, my Marie,” said he,
“I have here the triple distilled extract
of that same blossom.”
And Alexandre took from his pocket a
vial of perfume, and, pouring some upon
a white handkerchief:
“My love,” said he, “the odor of the
flower is too ^ross for so angelic a being.
Take you this handkerchief, and inhale
the same fragrance, divested of all impur
ity, and concentrated. The effect you
will find to be exhilarating, nay, spirit
ual.” -
I could refuse no request of his, now,
and complied.
I remember that the odor was surpris
ingly sweet, and the effect, as Alexandre
had declared, exhilarating. It was more
—intoxicating! I continued to breathe
it. The more I inhaled it, the more I
desired. Soon, all things began to re
cede, growing smaller and smaller, like
things in far perspective. O, how the
trees did whirl about me, and the white
clouds roll and spin! All around me
then became invisible; all dissolved, and
became a great blank. Then I seemed
to be raised to an inconceivable distance;
then I felt that I was sinking downward
into the endless abyss of eternity, and the
conviction siezed me that I was about to
attain to the nieban, or annihilation,
taught by the religion of the Burmans.
After this, I thougnt and felt no more,
and must have been for some time as
dead.
When consciousness came to nle, I was
reclining in a small compartment, closed
all round, which was made of bamboo
wicker-work, and hung with damask, cur
tains. It was open at the top, and, as I
opened my eyes, I could see above me the
circular, shining side of some great body,
with a number of cords running down
ward from it, and secured to the frame
work just over my head. Beyond these
I could see the blue sky, with here and
there a floating white cloud; a few feet
from me, also above, I saw the flag of
France floating in the breeze. I was sen
sible of a sort of motion, which gave me
sensations such as I have felt, when a lit
tle girl, in a swing. Near by me sat
Alexandre G—, upon some bales of what
I took to be tarred hemp. He was gazing
upon me with joy in his eyes.
“O, Alexandre!” I cried, “where am I ?
Speak! am I not at sea on bord a ship?”
“Ah no, my love,” he replied, “we are
on the way to the enchanted home I told
you of—the home of the blest, where
none can take yon away from me, where
we jshall be happy forever. Tis a track
less path, love, hut I know the way.
Are you not happy, dearest ? Remove
the curtain near you—take an outlook,
| and say if the way is not clear?”
j I felt sick with the swinging of which I
: have spoken, and very languid,'but I did
as he desired. I withdrew the curtain,
and looked out. Mon Dieu! O, the scene
which met my gaze ! We were in mid-
air!
“0,1 can tell no more!” cried Marie,
looking pale and wild, and clutching my
arm, as if to keep herself from falling out
of the balloon, which her imagination
told her, for the instant, that she was in.
In a few minutes she became more calm,
and resumed: <
I promised I would tell you all, and
I will. We were in mid-air, and, as I
cast my eyes downward, through the aw
ful depth between me and the earth, I saw
the country, spreading out toward the
horizon, looking less like a map than the
bottom of a vast bowl. Through the
midst there was a serpentine, silvery line,
that glittered like polished metal, and in
the centre, exactly beneath, lay a town,
with many burnished spires.
“Great Heavens!” I cried, with my
brain swimming, “Alexandre G—, tell
me, O, I conjure you, tell me what means
all this?”
“It means,” he replid, “that we are on
the way to our future chateau in cloud-
land, and I believe,” arising and looking
downward, “I believe the stream you see
is the Loire, and that city the ancient
one of Orleans! Be brave my treasure,
like Joan of Arc—that city witnessed the
greatest of her triumphs.”
“O, Monsieur!” (ejaculated the girl,
trembling,) “I cannot describe what my
feelings were then. I was speechless
with horror and amazement, for I real
ized that I was more than two kilometres
from the earth, in a balloon, with an aer
onaut, whom my coquetry had deprived
of reason. I sank down, and lay as one
dead for I know not how long, in the.
bottom of the car. Aroused by the voice
of Alexandre, I started quickly to my
feet, hut was precipitated immediately
against the opposite side. The balloon
was driving along at a fearful rate, and
the wind was blowing an awful gale.
O, how the car did swing, and the wind
whistle among the ropes!
“O, God,” I cried, as I sat up again,
“I am lost 1”
“Lost, darling? Why, no, you are
not. I know where we are exactly; and,
if it were not that a stratum of clouds lies
between us and the earth, which we have
quitted forever, I could show you the city
of Tours. We are not more than eight
een or twenty kilometres to the northward
of it Be calm, my love 1 I am calm as
a midsummer’s eve.”
“O, Alexandre,” I said, “I pray you let
this dreadful machine descend to the
earth, and I will bless your name forever
—nay, I will give you myself, body and
soul l”
“Poor woman! you forget that we are
already married, and that you are mine
while life lasts. Descend? Ah, my
cherub! it grieves me to the soul to de
ny you a request made thus early; hut
would you return to that old, chilly hall,
called earth? I had thought better
things of you, Marie mine, than this.
Believe me, the world is not for such as
you; there is naught but disappointment
there; none of our darling dreams are
there realized; it is ever thus with those
who live there, that just as they expect
their dearest hopes are about to he real
ized, that the cup of expectation is just
being changed to that of enjoyment, it is
rudely dashed from their hands, and they
are miserable. Ask of me anything hut
to descend, and I will grant it with joy
to my Marie.”
To my infinite joy, I could presently
feel that the machine was rapidly settling.
A few minutes later upon looking out, I
saw that we were among some dense
clouds, which surrounded us above, be
low, and upon every side. O, thought I,
if it could only be that my mad lover’s
supply of gas should become exhausted 1
As this thought flashed across my brain,
he, too, seemed impressed with the idea
that we were gravitating.
“The gas is running low, Marie,” said
he, “and a good aeronaut, like myself or
the Montgolfiers, should see that the sup
ply is kept up.”
Then he took one of the bales, and
carried it up into the upper part of the
baloon. Immediately I felt that the ma
chine was rising again. We shot up out
of th8 clouds into the broad glare of the
sun, and I could see the shadow of the
machine driving along the billowy sur
face at appaling speed. Then I swooned
awajr again.
How long I remained unconscious I do
not know. When I awoke, Alexandre
had hold of my arm, trying to arouse me.
“Ah, my love,” he began, “there is a
scene in store for you. Do not go to
sleep again, hut come here and look out.”
He drew aside the curtain, and there,
not far away, in the direction in which
we were flying, lay a great mass of com
pact and awfully black clouds. They
stretched away to the right and left fur
ther than eye could reach, and were
boiling and rolling like the smoke of the
bottomless pit. Anon the lightning’s
crimson tongue would leap upward from
them, and the thunders voice burs
forth.
“Now my precious Marie,” continued
he, “you have an opportunity which no
balloonist ever yet had—that of sitting
in the very laboratory of the thunder
storm, and meeting the lightning eye to
eye! The other day, dearest, those fear
less savants and aeronauts, Biot and Gay
Lussac, thought themselves fortunate,
when, at about this height, they could
take some observation of the movements
of the magnetic needle. How much more
fortunate are we who shall soon see Jove
forging his thunder bolts!”
In a few seconds the machine went
plunging into the black and tumbling
vortex l And O, Monsieur Raynor, how
my very soul shudders at the thought of
the fearful rolling of the thunder, and
the hissing ot the lightning, whiehtook
place ali around ns; at one moment all
was darkness, at die next, with a dread
ful hurst, all' would be flooded with
blaze! This was more horrible than all
else, and I swooned again.
Once more I awoke to' sensibility.
“I think you are sick, my dear,” sud
the voice of Alexandre. “These aiiy t
voyages sometimes make the most experi
enced of us ill. Lean your head ujx»n
me, there is no sickness where we go.’
We had left the thunder storm. I was
very cold, and I saw that frost had settled
upon the locks of the maniac.
“You are cold,” said he, “I was obliged
to rise a ; little higher than I intended, in
order to get but of the storm. The ther
mometer usually stands at this alti
tude, below zero. I will descend a little
now, and we will sail along, parallel with
the earth, until we get out to sea, when it
will be safe to begin our final ascent. It
is not so cold over the ocean as over the
earth at the same height. Soon we shall
bid farewell to France and the world.
We passed over Angiers two hours ago.
Now Nantes is nearly under us. Within
forty minutes we shall be at sea; then,
ho, for the upward flight!”
For an hour longer I lay in the bot
tom of the car, as one in the midst of a
trance. After a while I began to reflect.
I turned my eyes upward, and gazed at
thenuge dark Bide of the aerostat. How
quick the descent would he, thought I, if
an accident should make a rent in the
silk!
“Marie, come here,” cried Alexandre,
exultingly, “ho for the sea and Heaven.
Farewell, farewell to France! Adieu to
the earth!”
He removed the damask, and I beheld
the machine sweeping off the shore, and
away to sea!
Now to descend would be death. But
then death had all along been certain,
and the thought of it had lost its bitter
ness for me. No terror could frighten
me now. The sooner, thought I, that the
catastrophe comes, the better. The ma
chine did not swing now! She was riding
in the still air that prevails at sunset. I
looked upward again, as I had some mo
ments, heard a strange, fluttering sound
from the upper part of the balloon. There
I saw a thin stream of smoke issuing from
the side of the canvass. The next, mo
ment, the upper end of the rope fell down.
It had been burned in twain, and was
blazing!
“Alexandre,” said I, strangely calm,
“the air-ship is on fire!”
“Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed, “On fire?
My beautiful balloon on fire? Never!
She is indestructible. Fire cannot injure
her. Why, my love, she out rode the
lightnings. They pierced her through
and through, and yet she is not injured,
she is a spirit!”
As he ceased speaking, there was a
shriek of the escaping gas: the vast silken
globe collapsed, and. the car, which had
been for several minutes settling, began
its fearful descent, perpendicularly toward
the sea! Faster aud faster it sped, faster
and fester, until—
Thus aw »<*» DM .* . . ,
in Paris for the saV» tf ocitoslri
The uubrooflu from Northers iMty,
vendors from Savoy. The receipts .avSnu
about twenty dollars | «ontb for each ottoq,
.*/
Hew Silver Discoveries In Nevada.
- Late California papers give forther accounts
of the newly discovered silver mines in the
“White Fine” district in Nevada, concern
ing which some brief but fabulous statements
have been published. These mines were dis
covered in April last, and though the proeeei
of their development has been comparatively
slow, probably owing to the difficulty of
transporting machinery in snch a rugged
country, late accounts from respectable
sources, which may be received as approxi
mating the truth, give promise of important
results from the working of the mines.
The “White Pine” district is cold and
snowy. The mines are much more elevated
than are those on the Comstock range. There
are few or no houses in the country, the in
habitants living in tents or brush houses.
In April last eight feet of snow covered the
ground in the neighborhood of the mine.
Very few persons will attempt to winter
there; but in the spring there will be emi
gration from all parts of the country to the
new mine. A good deal of rich ore has been
taken ont, and will be ready for reduction an
soon as the machinery of the mills can be pat
in operation. One account speaks of ore
which is expected to yield from $5000 to
$10,000 per ton. This is selected ore, and
from a lode whioh Is regarded as especially
rich, A mill is nearly completed which will
have capacity for the redaction of ten tone
of thia ore daily.
Thb salea of retail li%oor dealers, in the
United Statea, daring one year, amounted,
according to the report of Oommisaioner .
Wells, to $1,483,491,865. Of thia earn New
York is credited with $946,017,590; Pennsyl
vania, $159,663,495; Ohio, $151,734,875, and
Illinois $119,933,341. When to thia enor
mous amount of nearly fifteen bandied mo
tions of dollars is added the value of dm time
wasted in die consumption of ardent cpirite.
and of the property destroyed by intorfoated
persona, it is asserted that fee savings from
the disuse of alcoholic drinks, would ex-
tingaish the public debt ia one year.
\#. %l
“Justhere,” continued Captain Ray
nor, “Marie sprang from her seat beside'
me, and with the words:
“Mon Dieu! I must show you the steps
of that new ballet,” began pirouetting up
and down the graveled walk.”
“Lance, I was dumbfounded; I saw
instantly that I had been paying my de
voirs to an insane girl, and 1 assure you,
I got out of that garden a second quick-.
er than I went in, with the wind pretty
well taken out of my sails.
“Upon inquiry,” continued the Cap
tain, “I learned that Marie had read the
accounts of the aerial voyages of Mont,’
golfier, Pilatrede Roziers, d’Aland! and,
in fact, of everybody else who had made
any, and had afterwards brooded over
the subject of aerostation until she be
came crazed.”
“Captain,” said I, “all that happened
a number of vears ago; but it was a
pretty good joke on you, and there
fore—”
“And therefore,” broke in the jolly old
seadog, “you are of the opinion there
ought still to be some consequences.
Very well; my legs are becoming too
old and stiff to do it; go down into the
cellar yourselfj Lance, and bring up a
half-dozen bottles of champagne.
And it was done. -
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