Life — March 26, 1891 — page 8: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

‘TR IIRE + FOLLOWING THE FASHION. FRENCH verses 1 cannot write, So I always indite My verses soft and warm THE TRUE STORY OF JONAH. THE EARLIEST PATENT MEDICINE TESTIMONIAL KNOWN, FOUND AMONG THE SCULPTURES OF ASSYRIA. In form. Hoosier rude the "Tis thus I scoop Soft-hearted mult- stud) Which ey o my fills With v e t d a | 8 Bills. | Dear Sirs: NO SecoKing AlLow EO 7 FOR~4RO Drs, Metchisadech & Ptorath: No. 1001 Smith St., Tarshish, While coming from Tarshish to this city recently, by water, PROFESSOR MIDDLEMIST’S PILLS. DID hope—I really did hope it would have been dif- ferent, Professor Middlemist,” said Rafael Amato dejectedly. “ Yeu yourself told me, you know, that it would be all right ; and I had every confidence in you. But here I am only a month married, and it’s coming back almost as bad as ever—and of course, considering the circumstances, a great deal worse. What under Heaven am | to do?” “You care nothing more about her, eh?” said the Pro- fessor, in his deep, booming voice. “But I do care for her, you see!" exclaimed the young man, “I think there's nobody like her. If I didn’t care, I shouldn't mind ; but that's the trouble!” “Who ever heard,” snorted the Professor, “ of a man who cared for his wife, falling in love with another woman ? * “ Then it is as I feared—I am unlike other men,” rejoined Rafael, with a sigh, “ That's what my poor dear mother al- ways used totell me. I'lltell youthe way it seemstome. It is as if all women were only one woman ; various versions of one woman, you know. And since I'm in love with the woman, of course I can’t help being in love with all the versions.” “What! Ugly and pretty alike?” “Oh,no! only the pretty ones. The ugly ones don’t count. They're a sort of mistake. I don’t exactly look at them,” “ Do you consider Verinda pretty or ugly ?” “Why, pretty, by all means! But if she were the prettiest woman in the world—and I do believe she is—still she’s only one version. If I now saw any one else, or if there were no others, I should be safe, But as it is, something happens every time I go out!" oc “ Rafael, my boy,” said the Professor, sonorously, “ noth- ing is so bad as half a philosophy. Your theory that all women are but manifestations of the one everlasting woman is sound enough. But is it not also true that all women are contained in each individual woman—for him who loves her? That precious seeing which love, as the poet says, lends to the eye, should enable you to discover in Verinda the sum and essence of all the fascinations of her sex.” “Yes, but I can’t help remembering that she is Verinda all the time.” Rafael answered, shaking his head ; and after a moment's pause he added, “1 don’t think it would be right for me to forget it. I am not a polygamist.” “ Rafael,” declared the Professor, emphasizing his words with solemn uplifted forefinger, “ you are the victim of a de- luding and erroneous tradition, Marriage is not a captivity, itis an emancipation. As your eyesight endows you with . the visible universe, so in the person of your wife, you are possessed of womankind. Your union with her is a type—” * But, Professor, all this does not heal my susceptibility,” Rafael ventured to interpose. ‘ The situation is this :—I love woman and I am married to a woman. In so far as she is woman, I love her too ; but, in so far as she is my wife—" “Rafael !" exclaimed the Professor warningly. “In sofar as she is my wife,” repeated the young man, sadly but firmly, “I feel as if she were below par. How can a man desire what he already has? It is what he has not that allures him, Were I to love Verinda I should be incon- solable, and should forget all others in serving her; but, as there is no prospect of her getting lost, 1 am in danger of forgetting her in secking after all the others.”