Show THE CRYSTAL many years ago I 1 was boarding in a v ell known house at the lower end of broadway kept by a jolly light eyed light haired fat german lady the widow of a professor ame mme steinberg As for myself I 1 was a quiet old fashioned teacher of languages and the place sniped me among my pupils wag the daughter of a rich widow lady living in washington saure which wag the height of fashionable aspiration in choso days my department was instruction in the german language and in ella cameron I 1 found a pupil so completely and naturally imbued with the mysticism deemed peculiar to the germans and the orientals orient als that I 1 found ahe grasped the instinct of that grandly expressive language as an infant learning its mother tongue there was german blood somewhere in the long pedigree of ellas ancestors ella cameron had inherited sufficient of the natural scotch intellectual force to give her balance without blunting the subtle sensibilities of her mind one day there came to our house a foreign gentleman to board no ono knew his nationality and to this day I 1 am ignorant of it he spoke english fluently and idiomatically correct but with such an accent as he might have learned by being educated abroad yet he was not an englishman Englis for he said BO his german uns perfection hia french parisian his italian and spanish a marvel As for his age he might hav been thirty or he might have been fifty naturally enough with our assimilating tastes education and pursuits and through the kind intervention of ame mme steinberg paul stolberg and I 1 became soon acquainted and then intimate great men he would eay are bit the embodiment of an abstraction and as purely accidental as anything within the meaning of the word these and similar renunciations enunciations he would give utterance to not in any dogmatic or self sufficient spirit but simply as stating the result of his study and experience peri ence most cultivated and educated persons I 1 have met have possessed hobbies of bome sort and hobby was the collection of crystals his collection however was certainly the finest I 1 avei saw containing specimens of quartz spar and other minerals and even the diamond in various forms they were arranged in his cabinet under glass and numbered several hundred besides these he had in another case a collection of magnets comprising about fifty and also of all sizes such a curious concatenation of tastes surprised me and I 1 remarked it asking why he had selected two such diverse objects for collection not so diverse as you think my dear friend aard he for I 1 at least think that co powers apparently different kt orm and character produce the saws results if exercised in the sams manner treze must be consanguinity somewhere the agnet attracts said I 1 and the crystal excited by friction will do the tet BO aill a glass bottle or a stick of jeanng wax he ea ailed and going to his crystal cabinet selected from it one of the larger ones then he said as he returned to my bide sit easily in your chair while I 1 bhoj you something else the crystal will do and mark your sensations I 1 took an easy position resting my hands on the arms of the chair and waited seating himself directly in front of me he raised the crystal with both handa and at about a distance of six inches from my person drew it slowly perpendicularly before me from my head to my feet As he did so I 1 noticed a sensation as of a light breeze blowing upon me the operation was repeated and thia time I 1 felt a pleasant drowsiness creep over me the cool wind still blew upon me see crystal which assumed a larger appearance and became luminous at the angles A third pass and it occurred to me that I 1 would mention this luminous appearance which was increasing but on trying to do BO I 1 found I 1 could not speak or move and with a din fancy that I 1 waa rude to fall asleep under such circumstances I 1 became insensible when I 1 became conscious the window was open and the cool october wind blowing upon me my forehead was wet and my chair had been wheeled in front of the window stolberg sat by me and I 1 observed that he looked paler thab usual and aldous womb is the matter said L he replied 1 I do not care to wait you should come naturally out of our coma so I 1 used moans to awaken you what do yon think of the payer of the crystal now I 1 replied that I 1 had never heard of it before and described my sensations to hiim but be did not pay much attention and his mind seemed distraught but how is it about the magnet said I 1 you tay Q not yet proved to me any identity these two forces one experiment of this sort is enough for an evening he replied on another occasion I 1 will convince you that the precisely the same magnet possesses power but tell me yon have a whom I 1 should much like to meet miss cameron I 1 was surprised that be should cave t heard of herand aid yon mentioned her name anen yon were under the influence of the crystal he replied so then said I 1 this power is allied to that of animal magnetism it produced a result by a different means but this miss cameron as I 1 judge from your remarks must be a peculiar character what I 1 should call sublimated you are right though I 1 had no idea of talking in my sleep or telling tales ont of school but really I 1 would like you to her and converse with her stolberg expressed the pleasure it would give him to meet her and I 1 promised to make an arrangement to that end when I 1 gave her my lesson on the following day my description of my friend and my assurance of his scholarly attainments roused sufficient curiosity in my pupil to render lier eager to seo him so an appointment was made with the consent of her mother for tho following day and punctual to the hour we entered mrs camerons drawing room the ladies appeared immediately after and presenting my friend aliat was my surprise to see miss cameron suddenly pause trembling violently while her face became vividly pale I 1 stepped forward to support her but stolberg had already taken her hand and as he gracefully expressed his gratification at meeting her she became instantly calm and seating herself in a moment she was pleasantly engaged in conversation somehow or other we drifted into the subject of mesmerism and I 1 mentioned the affair of the crystal ella was interested te and begged that mr stolberg would give her an opportunity of witnessing its effects he agreed willingly and a future occasion was promised when the experiment should be mado on the young lady herself A few days later on reaching our boarding informed by mine steinberg that mr stolberg had packed all his property with orders to send it on board a packet which was to sail on the following day for hamburg A note to me left by himself informed me that he had received letters which required his immediate departure but that ha would not deprive miss cameron of her and would meet me at her mothers houdei in the evening at the hour which had been named at that place I 1 found him apparently making himself quite at home and presently opening a small bos which lie had brought with him he drew from it the same crystal with which he had operated upon me seating himself in front of her as she reclined easily in her arm chair he commenced the mysterious passes with his crystal I 1 watched her closely and as he moved it slowly in front of her I 1 could perceive that she gradually grew pale then her eyelids dropped and she was apparently in a sound sleep her mother called to her touched her and evea used some gentle violence to awaken her but without the slightest apparent effect pointing the crystal at her stolberg drew silently backward toward the door when to our astonishment the sleeping figure rose or rather glided after him out of the door into the hall down the stairs and as he opened the arnt door stolberg called to mrs cameron who stood with me at the head of the stairs watching the results of this wonderful influence you see madame would follow me anywhere and as though to prove it she passed out of the door which stolberg shut and to my horror I 1 heard him lock it after him I 1 flew down the two flights of stairs into the basement my brain turning mad it seemed to me and reached the sidewalk by tho lower door just in time to see a carriage turning at full speed the nest comer returning to mrs cameron I 1 found her in a swoon out of which as she awakened to sensibility she passed into convulsions and at midnight was a cerase meanwhile the police had been informed messages sent in all directions but of stolberg or his unhappy victim I 1 have never heard since buffalo news |