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Show - -- ''7 ' I A fuV ' Famous A Story of. rte Pest l0 Master of ijwrey Beardslcy's Fantastic WW W K'Kption of the "Masque of the SmJS afc'''fl'fTk1? 47 & llBbeath." Pestilence, Masked, MAJbHJS MO mg Behind the Merry makers. )mralleled in Real Life I TRAGIC occurrence in nn American rural community strangely recalls the fantastic of "The Masque of the Red (hat most terrible of all cf llan Poe's tales of terror, le spectral intruder of Poe's lingled among the guests of Incp. spreading among them endful plague, so Andrew danced at a Maryland coun-and coun-and Infected his companions e deadly germs of small-pox. iw Barrett llvp; at Phoenix, I town nenr Baltimore. His brother, William, recently ome -with a slight indlsppsi-t indlsppsi-t did not trouble him very sven when he developed small as on his skin. He thought t be chicken-pox. In a 'few days Andrew Bnrrett ed the snrae type of indlsposl-le indlsposl-le had a severe headache, ac-ied ac-ied by chills and fever, but vmptoms did not trouble him mch. Tin is a robust, full-, full-, cheerful fellow, and by au 3f his will lie threw off the ms of disease, when the illness attacked him ; Barrett was invited l.o a cn by Emery Price, nenr the It was au affair tow,hich looking forward with "great 2. The prettiest girls and the fellows in the .neighborhood oing to be there. Andrew lot for a moment think of let-3 let-3 passing illness prevent him living the fun that this great Inment promised, as a big, simple, but very iffair. All the girls and young om miles around came. The is decorated with pumpkins. s and nil sorts of country that lasts through the Win-ndrew Win-ndrew Bnrrett was the jolllcst and noisiest fellow at the ball. eyes burned with a brilliant light and his cheeks were a bright red. The fever was at its height, but no one suspected it He danced with every pretty girl there. As he whirled his partner around in the old fashioned waltr. or the modern tango he pressed her to him with more than ordinary warmth. Some of the girls may have noticed it, 'but they did not complain. He was a popular fellow, and perhaps they liked It He was very jolly and entertaining with every girl. Ho pressed Ids face close to her and whispered amusing things in her ear. Barrett was not content with bestowing be-stowing his attentions on the girls, lie slapped the men on tho back and put his arms around their waists. Ho tickled some of them on the back of the neck, and he wrung their hands till they winced. The doors and windows of the hall were tightly closed on account of the cold. The air grew hot and heavr, and every condition was favorable to the spread of tho deadly infection. The germs of small pox are exhaled from the broath and skin of infected persons nnd float about in the surrounding sur-rounding air. The calm, cold vision of the scientist as he reads of Unit amazing ball will call to mind -in atmosphere loaded with a myriad disease germs to the square inch and every human being present struggling innocently to make the infection or his neighbor ns thorough as possible. Ag the clock struck midnight the wild merriment reached Its height. At that moment it Is said there was an outburst of kissing, and man after man seized his partner and pressed his Hps full upon hers. And Andrew Barrett was always the leader of the feverish fun, The Imaginative French Artist Lelong's Weird Conception of Edgar Allan Poe's Powerful Story. The Picture Pic-ture Show's the Pe8t Revealing Itself to the Master of the Revels. Andrew Barrett went home. The next day he was too sick to leave his bed. A doctor was called In and pronounced pro-nounced him uninistnkably suffering with small-pox. The news spread over the surrounding sur-rounding countrj', causing .panic and torturing anxiety. The girls realized with horror t.hnt. the man who ha"d held them so closely in the dance, whose warm breath the.y had feir. upon their faces, had been a vehicle for deadly germs. He was scattering the germs of a disease that when it does not- mercifully kill, leaves the sufferer bereft of all beauty, hideous to look upon, often blind, and sometimes some-times disfigured beyond human semblance. sem-blance. Sraall-pox, unfortunately, may be conveyed by a sufferer in the very earliest stages of the disease. That standard medical work, "French's Practice of Medicine," tells us: "And now was acknowledged the presence of the I Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. "I And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-be- I dewed halls of their revel, and died each in the des- I pairing posture of his fall." B From "The Masque, of the Red Death," by Edgar Allan Poe, I "The small-pox patient is always a source of possible contagion from the first appearance of the eruption to the completion of desquamation. It is doubtful whether be gives off the Infection before the appearance of papules, but in one instance the disease dis-ease was communicated by grafts of, skin taken from a person who developed de-veloped the disease a few hours later. "The contagion exists in1 the cutaneous cu-taneous lesions and doubtless In the blood nnd secretions. It is given off in the exhalations from the lungs nnd skin, but It is nowhere more virulent, perhaps, than in the crusts, which are believed to be a frequent source of infection." The guests at the ball did not drop dead at the dance, ns In Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." Greater menial anguish was reserved for them. They waited for days in terror to And out whether the terrible terri-ble disease would attack them or not. The average period of incubation, from the time of infection io the outbreak of the disease, is twelve days. It may be as short as seven days or ns long as fifteen; rarely longer. When the disease is actually Inoculated into the blood It may develop de-velop in as short n time as forty-eight forty-eight hours. There Is, therefore, very great uncertainty as to its appear-nnce. appear-nnce. The firat guest of the ball to develop de-velop the disease was John Wheeler. He had done nothing more than shake hands with Barrett and breathe the same air with him. This was convincing proof how freely tho contagion had been scattered. Within another day Margaret Preston, Pres-ton, one of the prettiest girls at the ball, was Btrickeu down. She had danced with Barrett a great deal. A day later another girl, Lucy Mason, was added to the list of victims. vic-tims. It is known that there are other sufferers and it is impossible to say how far the harm caused by this grewsomo dance may spread or how fatal the consequences may be. The authorities of the State finally became aware of the grave dnnger that had been caused to the public health. Dr. 0. W, G. Rohrer, head of the ;State Bureau of Communicable Communica-ble Diseases, notified the Baltimore - County Commissioner. i take action promptly to. check the spread of the disease. The notification warned the commissioners that unless they took satisfactory measures within two days . the State Board of Health would assume control of the situation. situa-tion. . The distressing occurrence In Baltimore Balti-more County, In its principal scene, suggests Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" so strongly that it will be worth while to recall an outline of the latter story for the benefit of those whose memory of it may have grown vague. A disease called "the red death" had more than half depopulated the country in the story. The Prince of H the couutry, Prosporo. ' was strong H and hoarfy and dqtied the plague. H He called the flower of his lords and H ladies to visit him In a graet cas- foliated palace. There, with ample H provisions, he shut himself and his H guests in with welded Iron bars. H The Prince held a great masqued H ball nnd revel. Poc describes tho H embellishment of the seven chambers H in which the revel was held nnd the costumes of the masqueraders with the most ingenious word-pnintlng he H employs In any of his writings. H To and fro In the seven chambers H there stalked a multitude of dreams. H They took their hues from the weird- H ly-colored rooms and danced with the H other dancers. But among the H dreams there was one who was nob invited and who was not at first per- H celved. H "The figure was tall and gaunt, H and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave," says the story.' "The mask which concealed H the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest H Kcrutlny must have had difficulty in H detecting the cheat. And yet all this H might have been endured, if not ap- H proved, by the mad revelers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red Death H His vesture vns dabbled in blood and his broad brow, with all the fea-tures fea-tures of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror." All shrank from the intruder ex cept the bold Prince, who advanced to 'H attack him: "He born aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, In rapid im-petuoslty, im-petuoslty, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure, when JM the latter, hnvlng attained the ex-tremlty ex-tremlty of the velvet apartment, IH turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which, Instantly nflcrward, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild couruge of de-spair, de-spair, a throng of the revelers at once threw themselves into the black IH npnrtment, and, seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and mo-tionless- .within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped In unutterable horror at. finding the grave cerements and corpselike mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness mM untenanted by any tangible form. "And now was acknowledged the IH presence of the Red Death. He had WM come like a thief In the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each In the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the Inst of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Dark-ness Dark-ness nnd the Red Death held il limit-able limit-able dominion over all." IH |
