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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 1899)
THE MAD ARTIST. T It was in my early artist days that I took rooms at Regis for the summer and settled down to paint. It was a queer little out-of-the way house on the top of the cliffs, and I was the only lodger. I had been there about six weeks, when, one evening, as I lay on the sitting room sc.fi, smoking and rumin ating, I became oddly conscious cf an other presence in the roam—conscious that I was not alone. Then I looked around aud saw, to my astonishment, or the farther side of the square center tab e a man stand ing. sideways to me, at au e.’.sel,paint ing in oils. I saw him as c early as I see the paper now before me—a small thin man, with piooii.nnt bright brown eyes, wearing an old black vel veteen coat. I knew I was suffering from some delusion, yet still I saw the fellow painting away as if his life depended upon it. Presently he scraped his palette and placed it on one side; and picked up a finished picture from the floor and put It carefully In the drawer of a heavy oak table behind him. He clos ed the drawer, but not a sound of pal ette knife nor closing drawer reached me. Then, for the first time, the man looked at me, his feverish bro.vn eyes fastened on me inteut and e gcr. The vision could have lasted but two or three minutes; then man, easel and oak table were gone, and I saw my -X room with its comraon-pa.nlxd deal furniture Just as usual. Well, I shook myself, and resolved for the sake of my brain to work rath er less hard in future. But, in spite of the teachings of common sense, those eager brown eyes hain.ed me; neither could I forget the finished pic ture of which I had bad full \iaw; my trained eye told me at onto that it was the work of a master-ham!. The subject was a sh.pwreck, and I would have given my life co have painted the beating waves cs they had been depicted on that supernatural canvas—cr, as I told myself, on the canvas of the mirage conjured up by my tired brain. She was a small, gentle woman,with the remains of good looks, but looking older than her thirty years, wli ch was not surprising when one thought of her matrimonial experience and of her struggle to keep up her small home. “I would not mind my fcot, if my hand were not wrenched, too," she said, with a sigh and a glance at the unfinished work spread about. She was so gentle, so grateful for my small help, that I found myself giv ing her landlady directions for her comfort as if she were a helpless child. When I had done what I could I said jgood-by. I had turned to leave the room when any eye was caught by an oil painting on the opposite wall, the head and shoulder painting of a white-faced, ibrown-eyed man in a velve'.een coat— jin short, the portrait of my visitor of ‘ \the previous night. Under the picture stood the heavy oak table of my vistan. My involuntary exclamation of sur prise attracted Mrs. Raymor’s atten tion, and on seeing me staring hard at the picture she told me that It was the portrait of her husband, done by a brother artist soon after her mar riage. How I got myself out of the house I do not know. I was feverish with excitement, wondering what could be the meaning of the mystery. I waited that evening, half expecting a repeti tion of my previous experience; but nothing happened, though the state of my nerves would have warranted any hallucination. The following day I did not paint. I thought rest was necessary. But, A SMALL, THIN MAN. while I lay idle on the downs, the vi sion of that white-faced artist was over me, before me. I grew quite dis turbed, and thought my brain was softening. Strolling back that e\ening, I pars ed a lady whom I had often noticed because of her sad history. She was the widow of an artist of whom owe great things had been predic e i. The poor fellow had gone mad, and, thou h still painting, had allowed no one to ever see his work. What he had done with his can vasses no one knew—probabiy he had burned them; at any rate, when he died, not a trace of his work was to be found. His young widow was left penniless. She was forced to support herself—as she had been foiced dur ing much of her married life—by do ing elementary teaching and needle work. I had gone a little way on when I heard a sharp cry, and, turning, saw that Mrs. Raymor had slipped on the steep, stony descent and fallen. Nat urally I offered her assistance,of which she stood in need, for she ha1 sprain ed her foot badly, and could barely walk. Luckily, her lodgings were close by, and with the aid of my arm she hobbled to them. I helped her into the poor sitting room she rented. From its appear* ance, from the sewing machine and piles of work lying on the table, I guessed how hard the poor soul strove to make the two ends inert. The following day, at t :e earliest possible moment, I called c:i Mrs. R:ty mor, for I had resolved lo get to the bottom of the affair if I could. The doctor had forbidden her to use her hand or foot for a month at least, and I could see that the poor little woman was greatly depressed. For a while I made conversation, turning over In my mind how I could lead her to talk of the picture. At last I went to examine the oak table. It was, as I have already said, the exact duplicate cf that ether table, except that the latter had possessed a drawer, and in this one.deep and heavy as It was, I could see no opening. Noting my interest in it, Mrs. Ray | mor asked me whether I could help i her sell it. She said she must have i money; that, through her accident she could not gain even the small sums she had before earned; that she had long ago sold almost everything of ! value, but had retained the table be ! cause her husband had been so proud of it. Though she assured ms the table held no drawer, I remained un convinced, and I continued to examine it minutely. Suddenly I remembered a table I had seen years before in an old curios ity shop, which had possessed a secret spring in one of the legs. I had hit on the secret. The center leg was em bellished with quaint, deeply cut heads of demons. In the open mouth of one of these my finger touched a spring. Immediately the table’s curved ha'f front slid suddenly back, revealing a large, deep drawer. Trembl.ng with eagerness, I pulled it open, and there lay the mad artist’s canvasses, some thirty or more, large and small. On the top lay the “Wreck,” the master piece I had seen on the previous night. Well, I possessed friends in the painting world, and among us we sold the pictures for fairly decent prices; enough, at any rate, to give the widow a modest competence for life. I learned later that Raymor and his wife had lived in the house in which I was then lodging; his studio had been the very room in which I lived; he had let no one, not even his wife, enter it, but had painted there year after year. It was supposed he burned his work, and some he undoubtedly had, for, at his death, the charred remnants crowd ed the grate; but the main part he had stowed carefully in the secret drawer. Mad as he was, his madness had never touched his art—that had re mained powerful to the end. I occu pied the same rooms for many a sea son, but the “mad artist" never reap peared to me. I believe firmly his spir it had wished to repair the evil his clouded brain had wrought in life, and for that purpose he had visited me. For long I told no one, not even the widow, of what I had seen. But now those whom my story could affect are dead, and so I relate without scruple how I was led to find the mad artist's hidden treasure. OASTORIA. Bear* the >9 The Kind You Have Always Bought If you are suffering from orowsinese in the day time, irritability ot temper, sleepless nights, general debility, head ache, and general want of tone of the system, use Herbine. You will get re lief and a final cure. Price 50 cts. P. C. Corrigan_ ARE YOU GOING ABROAD? 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