The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 23, 1896, Page 15

E SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 189 15 — but certainly | | brains, sy in their words. | ness in their there was no hypocri { On Monday morning, while the talk of the town was still by th this story and | a thousand theories in regard to it were | ussed, it was made known that | the most promising students of | niversity were missing from their | ymed places, and o that ome of | | the workmen in the physical laboratory nad not appeared that morning. Later in | | the day it was told that the students, the | n workman and i young women had | entered the catacombs early on Sunday without a guide, having obtained permis- | sion to do n the plea of a desire to ke some experiments in photography | the tom As none of the party | n it was evident ombs, and tl arose that they also had seen the| vision ‘of horror which had so affrighted other at day amd had been too te to escape. of guides | | | | | thoroughly nths of the searching parties re- the | heir companions have not yet been The workman when discov- andering about chatteringina and when brought to the sur-| e to talk intelligently. c was given him, which im into a profound sleep, from he did not awaken for many hours. he ved, however, his senses v restored and he was able an and some profes- rsity a story which ex- f this latest mystery of | w in this | rce the commencement of | of a means of photograph- | L the body the | department of the | ¢ have been working night and ¥ some greater wonder i id that while a Yy, it should be an | complete the victory, ientific man, and know noth- or cathode ray, as some listen to the talk of , what | on to zenerate a n power that it woula naked eye to see the bones T =B8Y JSOIN. ITENALCRT | pas | | ere service in searching for hidden treasure among the older buildings or the catacombs of Rome, and that whoever in- vented it might find a fortune if he woula use it in such researches before he made it known to others, I urged the young men, therefore, to make a test of the ray in | searching out whatever might be hidden | in the catacombs before it was made pub- | lic. The idea caught their fancy. “On | Sunday we'll do it,” they cried. “We knowing-it,”’ said one. e may have mistaken our course at the start, and been going the wrong way all along,” said another. Whichever of these opinions was correct it was clear that we were lost. The stu- dents began to swear and the girls to whimper. Suddenly Signor Valmi spoke. “Fools that we are,’’ he cried, ‘““to grope | our way in darkness when we have with ht known to man—the supreme light of science—the marvelous ray which ourselves have perfected.” His voice vibrated with confiagence. and we all brightened up and bezan railing atone another for so stupidly forgetting the very thing we had come to the tombs to try. ‘We were all very joyous then as I lifted from my shoulders the strap that upheld the box containing the apparatus—we were all very gay and chatted merrily, but if we had foreseen what was going to hap- pen when I pressed the key and started that infernal ray we would have smashea the instrument there and then and chosen all the agony of prolonged suffer- ing and death in the darkness rather than face the horror that was to come upon us. No sooner had I touched the key than there leaped forth a light that was not as other lignts are. It beat upon the eye- us the greatest have worked hard and now for a frolic.”” It was agreed that the affair snould be | kept a secret among us, but when did | young men, flushed with a new success, ever keep a secret? The four students | met their sweethearts on the Corso on | Saturday, dined with them and went to | the theater with them in the evening, and | when I met them by agreement with the instruments from the laboratory an Sun- | been arranged to make a frolic of it in | every respect and tae girls, Avith a baskui of lunch, were to be taken along. | After going some distance along the fre- ‘ quented ways of the catacombs we went | off into a passage where we were not likely to be interrupted by guides and sightseers and began to mmke preparations for the | experiment. Everything was soon in read- | iness for the work ana we had only to | | press the key of the battery to turn on the | powerful ray, when it was suggested to bave luncheon first. We were all very ] willing to favor the proposal, for the jour- ney had been long and we were tired and hunery from the exertion, It was an ex- cited luncheon party. All of us were more or less nervous, and though we drank lit- | tle our talk and actions were like those of persons half intoxicated. One of the girls | :p and began to dance. Two of the dents followed her and then the other joined them. Suddenly there was a s | whirl of skirts, a flutter of a breeze in the air, and instantly all the candles which had been massed together to light the feast were blown out at once. The accident was greeted with shouts of laughter. The girls screamed in pretended fright and the students began loudly chal- lenging ghosts to come forth and show themselves. fter a little of this amuse- ment I began searching for a match and | discovered to my surprise that I had none. A request made to the others of the party brought forth the startling truth. There was not a match in the party. We werein the farthest recesses of the catacombs, without a light, without the means of pro- | curing one, ar 1 toofar from the frequented ges to be found by the usual parties ghtseers. If we had been too merry be- fore we were sober enough now, and began balls like flashes of fierce lightning fol- lowing one another with inconceivable rapidity. The roof, the walls, the floor, seemed penetrated by it, and as I glared | around in amazement I appeared to be in | the midst of an illimitable space whose | atmosphere was itated by incessant | shocks of electricity and whose light was | rendered terrible by shifting shadows of | | an awful and terrifying bluckness. | day, I found the girls with them. It had 1 Before I could recover from the amaze- ment caused by th tounding glare, I heard from behind me the most appalling shrieks. I turned quickly and beheld a sight that shall be with me as terror by day and by night until death takes me. I | saw before me eight skeletons that started back from one another with uplifted hands of horror. I heard from four of these skeletons, one after another, groans of that fearful kind which come from human lips only when a hideous fear dom- inates every fiber and I saw those skeletons fall prone upon the ground. I saw four other trembling keletons { Then I heard the voice of Signor Valmi, | but oh! how different ws it from the cdn- fident voice that had spoken but a mo- | ment ago. “Friends,” he said and faltered, for his voice was husky and hoarse as a raven’s croak, “iriends.” he repeated, “‘do not be alarmed. The skeletons we see are our- selves. It isin the light of the cathode ray that we behold one another. Let us be firm. The light ith us. S with us and we are There was enough of confidence in these words to encourage the students and I saw them set abou iving the girls from the swoon in which they had failen at the first shock of the terror. I cannot | say that my courage came back, though { my mind was clear enough to understand | the meaning of what had happened. I crouched low on the floor and watched what was coing on with eyes that burned | in my head. 1 saw the fallen skeletons rise up. I heard the hasty frightened words that were whispered for encourage- ment by those who, themselves, kad little courage. Suddenly the strain be- came too great. Men and girls alike went e heart and brain, | stoop to lift up those that fell. | IN THAT INFERNAL RAY THE YOUTH h directly to wonder how we could grope our way | mad. They began to shout, to dance, to vack to the main paths of these under- oubt of his | ground tombs. leap, to scream. 1 saw them even as I saw the skeletons of the tombs around BY W. C. A young mother crooning over her first born sat in her humble cabin on the bor- der of the great Tensas Swamp, that dis- mal, mysterious and all but impenetrable jungle which stretches for many miles into the lower border of Alabama from the head of Mobile Bay. She was awai ing the return of her sturdy husband, a hunter by vocation, who had gone into the swamp for game. It was the middle of August and the day was exceedingly hot. The tall sedges and other grasses that began where the jungle ceased and | that filled all the broad flat pampas region lying between the swamp and the forest of pines wae dry and offered a temptation to fire. The woman belonged to the common people, but the infinitely gracious light of motherhood shone in her blue eyes and in- vested with rare comeliness a face that bore beneath its present radiance hard traces of an inherited necessity toearn a sustenance by the sweat of the brow. Strength of limb and health of body were becoming accompaniments of the rich coloring of her cheeks, for, having issued from generations become accustomed to the miasms of the swamp, she was on her proper heath and her vigor reflected the bountiful luxuriance of the surrounding [ FOR HER BABY’S LIFE. MORROW. there was nothing to return to but danger in the swamp and a possible heap of ashes where her home had been. She must go on and on, daring mot to call her hus- band’s name aloud for fear of the beasts, but plunging and floundering forward in the dumb and desperate hope thac some- where ahead she might find him, or some- where beyond the jungle discover the | safety of human companionship. | It was thus that after some hours she | by the broad expanse of the Tensas River. ! Behind her lay the terrible forest, its upper parts lashed by the gale and its still depths echoing the moaning and swishing of the cypress tops and the sway- ing muscadine vines that clambered from wind, and beyond 1ts reach of two miles in width began interminable canebrakes. Besides a skurrying bird here ana there not a living thing, not a sign of human habitation, greeted the wretched woman’s eager scanning. She did not know where she was nor how many miles she had come. She knew only that she was hetpless and desolate, that her baby was crying with fright ang | was dismayed to find her progress barred | the roots to the summits of the trees. | Before her lay the broad stretch of tide- | water, its surface deeply ruffled by the | ! ening attitude the monster would retreat, | for she knew that it was only in the pro- | tection of their young that alligators were | ferocious; but she felt that all her strength | had fled. Her legs seemed to be but masses Iofstone, cold, heavy and inert; and her |arms, though still retaining strength | wherewithal to grasp her infant and the rotton branch, had lost their flexibility. Worse than all, she found it impossible to remove her steadfast gaze from the | blinking eyes whose glance was riveted upon her. Nor could she even command | the function of her eyelids, which remained | fixedly open, leaving the veballs to dry and burn. The huge brown bulk, trailing thirty feet along the log and led by the "';:littenm: eyes, slov ept toward her, while she breathed ort and noiseless gasps and pressed her baby to her bosom. |~ Then came an unexpected horror. The | unaccustomed weight upon the log broke he restraining roots asunder, and, with a deep rolling like that of a ship in distress, | the log swu free of the shore and began slowly to drift out into the stream. This alarmed the alligator, for it was a new experience on his old basking-log. So he roded into the water with a heavy splash and disappeared beneath the surface. | This gave the log so heavy a roli that it | dipped the woman and wetted her. In clutching to save herself, but never for an instant relaxing her firm grasp of the child, she lost the club with which she | had held the monster at bay, and now sat | helpless and unarmed. | Thetide wasatthe ebband the farther the | | “SHE HELD HER BABY CLUTCHED TIGHTLY T O HER BREAST.” Q 5 AND THE BEAUTY OF LIFE WERE ALL AS HIDEOUS AS THE DEAD OF A THOUSAND YEARS. & hout harmony and swung their bony | about with frantic motion. We heard gibber and laugh and scream. We ow they were wicked fiends and we fled. s, we dropped our torches and fled—we, | guides, and these strangers with us; it is only by the grace of God | elves alive and safe in the sun- *Lit aga e strangers who were with the guides s confirmed their story. Being i a more intellectual cbaracter 1d less given to superstition, they did not that the light came from hell, nor e horrid skeletons were fiends; but d affirm the main elements of the | 1showed a terror as great as that | des themselves. This is the was circulated Sunday evening. ved with incredulity by many <, but none who had the tale direct es, or from those who were could have any doubt of its | tratn. Terror such as theirs| d not ve counterfeited. There might Lave been, and possibly there was, some al cou ability to accomplish the feat he said:| T have a peasant’s instincts and a work- | them. In that infernal ray the youth and “There are stars in the heavens which man’s training. Whenever 1 am at all | the beauty of life were all as hideous as cannot be seen even through the most | bewildered or surprised my mind | the dead of a thousand years. Then my powerful telescope, but which register | attends mechanically to its accustomed | brain began to give way and I fled lest I themselves on a gelatine plate. T1he light | duties, and my work goes on even though | should become a maniac there and then. from those stars is not essentially different | I be half unconscious of it. At thismo-| How far f fled or how long I wandered from that of the stars which are plainly | ment, when the students and their friends | T know not. When next my senses re- visible. In the one case the light is weak | hastened in dismay to creep along the | turned I was in this bed and you gentle- while in the other it is strong. That is all | black passage to escape, I turned instinc- | men were around me. Of the students the difference. Roentgen’s ray can be tively to find in the darkness the instru- | and the girls I 2an tell you nothing more. made visible only by photography. I will | ments belonging to the university which | They went forth on a frolic in search of generate one which will enable you to see | were in my charge, nor did I make a move ] treasure and they found what I have tried the bones within the man exactly us you | to follow the others until I had found the | to tell, but what I cannot describe and now see the clothes he wears or the hat on | apparatus and mounted it safely on my | you cannot imagine. I left them between his head. Nothing 1s lacking but force, pback. When I turned to go I heard the | science and death, and God alone knows and the force will be found.” | party groping their way along and easily | which has them now. Last Friday Signor Valmi and three | followed them. friends, who were working with him, came | ‘We had moved on in thisslow way it | Daughters of Revolutionary Soldiers. out of their laboratory together in great | seemed to me about an hour, when there There are but nine daughters of Revolu- tionary soldiers belonging to the Order of | the Daughters of the Revolution, and the youngest is a newcomer to the Willimantic Chapter. She isonly 56 years old, for her father was 74 when she was born, and he excitement, declaring they had solved the | came from the leader of the party a cry of problem. They were disputing eacerly | amszement: 2 among themselves as to the best way of | ‘“Here is a wall. announcing their discovery to the world | ther!” when I interrupted them. Then came a hurried and despairing ‘We can go no fur- It had occurred | consultation. to me that a light of that kind would be of | main avenue in the darkness without . I bhad an idea | on that subject myself. ““We miust have crossed the | was one of the youngest soldiers in the war.—Boston Traveler. vegetation. Modified by the new happi- | ness and light that filled her life the dull- | ness of her compreheusion was still dimly reflected in her face and in the heaviness | of her movements. But suddenly she paused in her croon- | ing and play with her baby, raised her | head and sat in rigid stillness, listening. | Then her face blanched, and, snatching | her baby to her breast, she sprang to the | door and eagerly scanned the vast stretch | of dead grass palpitating in the sun. “0 God!” she exclaimed, *‘it is goming.” As she spoke a blast of hotair struck her white cheek, coming suddenly to disturb the dead calm that hitherto had pre- vailed. To the windward, rolling in great writhing wreaths toward the sky, was a dense gray smoke, that, mounting rapidly, in a moment turned the brilliant sunshine.| to a dusky opal hue. The flames, urged by a high wind, whose forerunner had just | assailed her, ran toward her with incredi- ble speed and fury—with the speed of the wind and the fury of destruction. She knew what it was bringing to her in her lonely and exposed position. There was no time for regrets; a pre- cious treasure was clasped to her bosom, and that was the one thing in all the world to be saved from the merciless monster coming to raze and devour all that lay in its path. With a silent prayer to Al mighty God for the safe deliverance of her treasure at her hands and with a dumb, blind hope thatsomewhere in the profound and trackless jungle she might find the one other next and most precious to her soul, she fled bareheaded and panting to the protection of the swamp. Of all the agonies which she thereupon encountered—fear of the roaring fire behind that sent broad sheets of flame athwart the sky and started small fires all about her; concealed vines that tripped her feet and rebellious shrubs that tore her garments: dread of black bears whose growls of alarm made her knees tremble; terror of frightened panthers whose screams rang through the dark forest—of none of these things need much be told. The woman fought her way through the jungle, now beside herselt and under the influence of a rash eagerness to save her baby’s life from the innumerable menaces that dogged her feet. But she knew a little of these wilds, and with approxi- mate accuracy could judge whether this tuft or that was treacherous or firm; whether this vine would poison her and therefore her baby as it tore her flesh; whether her leap was able to clear that black pool, and whether the dark kx_)ob of moss on the other side covered a slippery root or honest ground, % She held ber baby clutched tightly to her breast, and its loud waillng brought forth from the darker clumps of dwarf palmetto certain hideous creatures that filled her with a terror far beyond that in- spired by the growls of bears and the screams of panthers. These were the alligators, those ancient and (ormidnj;le kings of the Southern swamps. The sim- ple folk of those lowlands knew with what jealousy they had to guard the safety of their babes when these monsters were hunting food. 3 Once in her flight she inadvertently stepped upon a young alligator, Bnd.us ensuing sharp squeal brought Plungmg forth its enraged mother, which gave chase to- the fleeing human mother so closely guarding her own young. ’1"he pursuit was soon abandoned, But 1t im- paired the woman’s remaining wits and she plunged, floundered and staggered forward with but two purposes in her dis- ordered mind—flight onward and onward and the preservation of her child from harm. Indeed, to stop or turn back was impossible; not but that she was now perfectly safe from the pursuit of fire, but hunger, that her own clothes were nearly | stripped from her body and that she was | dying of thirst. | There was a hazy interval, though | partly through it rang faintly the peevish, | whimpering cry of an infant followed by | silence. When the mother staggered to her feet she found her baby sleeping in | the hot sand beside her. She staggered to | a little pool a few steps away, drank her | fill of tepid, ill-smelling water and re- | turned tq her infant. A new danger soon appeared—the twink- | ling eyes of mocassins, the most yenomous | of all the snakes of the Southern jungles, | peered at her and the child from small | tuits of dwarf cane that fringed the river | bank. She snatched up her baby and be- | gan cautiously to pick her way along the river, lest she set foot on one of these deadly reptiles. Soon she found a place of seeming safety, where she might enjoy a | little rest and have time to bring her wits | to order and devise means of escape. It| was a great tree that had stood on the low bank and i:ad fallen into the river at an | acute angle to the shore line. Ii was still | anchored to the bank by a few unsevered roots on the under side, and although its | great trunk was half submerged the ex- | posed part was broad and secure. Had | | not her observation been blunted or possi- | bly her experience -lame she would have | observed that the upper part, long denuded of its bark, bore certain signs that, haa | she known their meaning, would have | made her avoid this refuge as the most | deadly trap into which she could have | fallen. Seeing none of these she walked out upon the log as far as she could g0 to the re- | maining stumps of broken limbs, and there | she sat down, made herself comfortablo | with her back resting against a branch stump, and appeased the hunger of her | whimpering child. The infant then feil into slumber. The spot where the Wwoman sat was in the shade of the trees on shore, A feeling of utter exhaustion and of re. freshing coolness came over her, and before she could realize her peril and summon her energies for renewed efforts to escape she | went to sleep. Presently she was roused by a strange crackling and scrambling, and the log swayed so heavily that she clutched a broken branch barely in time to save her- self from the water, which was dark and deep. It wasa second or two after her heavy eyes had opened that she was able to perceive a huge alligator slowly creep- ing down the log toward her and thus com- pletely shutting off all means of escape to the shore. To springinto the river was out of the question. A choking terror for a moment paralyzed all her facuities, realized that her baby, which had awakened ewhile she slept, was crying again, and that this sound had attraeceq the hungry saurian. With wisdom and calmness born of a great horror dimly realized the woman stilled the cries of her baby, at the same time wrenching a rotten limb from the prone trunk and waving it menacingly at the beast. The alligator stopped and watched her with blinking eyes. She could see his broad flanks expand and contract with bis breathing, and the rank odor of the musk which issued from an orifice underneath his throat was borne to her senses with the hot breath that poured heavily from his nostrils. There he lay flat on his belly, perfectly still, hugging the log and blini. ing stupidly at her with his smali angd watery black eyes. He wasnot more than twenty feet from ber, but presently he began to shorten the interval by creeping forward with an al- most imperceptible motion. The woman believed that if she could command suffi- cient strength to rise and assume a threat- | | She | by log drifted from the shore the more rapidly it began to move down the stream. A fortunate circumstance resided in the tact that a number of branches on the under side of the log remained intact and served as ballast to reduce the rolling of the trunk. The wina had fallen and a dead calm lay upon the dark water. The mother, her babe’s mouth pressed to her empty breast, sat in numb d@spair. Not even the strength or intelligence to set the forest and brake ringing with cries for help abided in her. It was not con- ceivable to her that in all the world there could be anything butdesolation and death. This brought a certain calmness upon her spirit. She remembered the little home that her own hands had done so much to make comfortable, but which to her was more precious as the nest whither she had gone with the man she loved, and who, next always to her baby, filled the meager measure of her life. It was hard to give him up, hard to die thus miserably away from him, leaving no trace of the ones he loved so fondly and for whose protection he would have given his life; no record of the horrors which had been endured nor of .the terrible end at hand. And how desperately and eagerly he would have fought to save them! How he would spend days and weeks in searching the jungle for them, calling upon them to answer! From these bitter and despairing re. flections she .was recalled to her present state by a heavy scrambling on the log and a deep rolling of its bulk in the water. | Her tormentor had returned—had indeed kept faithiul watch upon his prey from the time the log had swung free of the bank. He was more daring now, for delayed sat- isfaction of hunger will invest the most cowardly beast with a certain order of courage. It is true that he clambered upon the further end of the log, which was full sixty feet long, but it would not require a great length of time for him to cover the interval. Simultaneously with his advent the hopeless mother, knowing that it was not she, but her baby, whose life was sought this - loathsome monster, becama aware' of a strange sound upon her ear. Although there was something vaguely familiar in it she could not think other- wise than that it proceeded from within her and was an admonition of her death. It was at first a low and distant rumbling, seemingly behind her, for by this time the log was headed straight down the river, and she sat with her face up stream. The rumbling rapidly grew louder and became a roar, but it only added to the dumb cold terrors that held her soul in chains. The roar changed to a deafening clatter, as though a thousand smiths were hammering at their forges. Then camea screaming blast that filled all time, space and percep- tion and transfixed hervitals with piercing pains. Upon that the huge black bulk of glittering eves, heaving flanks and dripping scales plunged hastily into the tide. The loud clattering and screaming ceased, and thinking tbat she was dying the woman pressed her baby closer to her bosom and closed her eyes. But the clattering had been as frienaly as its cessation, and the wild scream had been a notice of deliverance, for the log had drifted to the great railroad bridge which spans the river, and the people on the rumbling train that was passing with so much noise had seen the woman and the fearful menace that sat facing her on But the men who were lowered by ropes and who brought her and her precious charge up to safety ana comfort, reported that she said nothing but this: “Save my baby! Save my baby! Don’t let him eat my baby!” And they added that it was hours beforé she cculd say any- thinz else or would permit the baby to be taken from her arms. the log.