LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1803, 1 December 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

THS SENATOR'S DAUGHTER.

The Smalii Gold Box,

[From the "New York Sun."] (Concluded ) ' I will cot bore you with chemical and physiological facts,' continued Wanlee ; ' but you must know that the food which we take, in whatever form, resolves itself into what are called proximate principles—starch, sugar, olelne, fibrin, albumen, and so on. These are selected and assimilated by the organs of the body, and go to build up the necessary tissues. But all the proximate principles, in their turn, are simply combinations of the ultimata chemical elements, chiefly carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen,

and oxygen. It is upon these elements that we depend for sustenance. By the old plan we obtained them indirectly. They passed from the earth and the air Into the grass ; from the graßS into the muscular tissues of the ox, and from the beef into our own persons, loaded down and encumbered by a mass of useless, irrelevant matter. The German chemist* have discovered how to supply the needful elements in compact, undiluted form —here they are in this little box. Now shall mankind go direct to the fountain head of nature aliment; now shall the roundabout, cumbrouß, inhuman method be at an end; now shall the evils of gluttony and its attendant vices cease ; now shall the brutalmurdering of fellow animals and brother vegetables for ever stnp—now shall all this be, since the new, holy cause has been consecrated by the lips I love 1' He bent and kissed those lips. Then he suddenly looked up and saw Mr Walsingham Brown standing at his elbow. ' You are observed—compromised I fear,' said Mr Brown hurriedly. 'That Italian dancer in your employ, Miss Newton, has been following you like a bound, I have been paying him the same gracious attention. He has just left the Capitol post haste. I fear there may be a scene.' The brave girl, with clear eyes, gave her Mongolian lover a look worth to him a year of life. ' There shall be no scene,' she said ; ' we will go at once to my father. Daniel, and bear ourselves the tale which Francesco would carry.' Tho three left the Capitol without delay. At the head of Pennsylvania Avenue they entered a great building, lighted as brilliantly as the Capitol itself. An elevator took them down toward the bowels of the earth. At the fourth landing they passed from the elevator into a small carriage, luxuriously upholstered. Mr Walsingham Brown touched an ivory knob at the end of the conveyance. A man in uniform presented himself at the door. ' To Boston,' said Mr WaMnghamßrown. 111. THE FROZEN BRIDE. The senator from Massachusetts sat in the library of his mansion on North street, at two o'clock in the morning. An expression of astonishment and rage distorted his pale cold features. The pen had dropped from his fingers, blotting the last sentences written upon the manuscript of his great speech —for Senator Newton still adhered to the ancient fashion of recording thought. The blotted sentences were these:— * The logic of events compels ns to acknowledge the political equality of those Asiatic invaders—shall I say conquerors ?of our Indo-European institutions. Bnt the logio of events is often repugnant to common sense, and its conclusions abhorrent to patriotism and right. The sword has opened for them the road to the ballot-box ; bu'-, Mr President, and I say it deliberately, no power under heaven can unlock for thesa aliens the pacred approaches to our homes and our hearts!'

Beside the Senator stood Francesco, the professional dancer. His face wore a smile of malicious triumph. ' With the Chinaman ? Miss Newton my daughter ?' gasped the Senator. 'I do not believe you. It is a lie 1' ' Then come to the Capitol, your Excellency, and see it with your own eyes,' said tho Italian.

The door was quickly opened, and Clara Newkon entered the room, followed by the Hon. Mr Wanlee and hi<i friend.

' There is no need of making that excursion, papa,' said the girl. 'Sou can see it with your own eyes, here and now. Francesco, leave the house.' The Senator bowed with forced politeness to Mr Walsingham Brown. Of the presence of Wanlee he took not the slightest notice. Sonator Newton attempted to laugh. 'This is a pleasantry, Clara,' he' said, 'a practical jest, designed by yourself and Mr Brown for my midnight diversion. It is a trifle unseasonable.'

'lt is no jest,' replied his daughter, bravely. She then went up to Wanlee and took his hand in hers. 'Papa,' she said, 'this is a gentleman of whom you know something. He is our equal in station, in intellect, and in moral worth. He is in every way worthy of my friendship and your esteem. Will you listen to what he has to say to you ? Will you, papa ?' The Senator laughed a short, hard laugh, and turned to Mr Walsingham Brown. ' I have no communication to make to the member of tho lower Lranch,' said he. ' Why should he have any communication to make to me ?'

Miss Newton put her arm around the waist of the young Chinaman and led him squarely in front other father. 'Because,' a' e said, in a voice as firm and clear as a bell—' because I love him.'

In recalling with Wanlee the circumstances of this interview, Mr Walsingham Brown said long afterwards, ' She glowed for a moment like the platinum of your thermoelectrode.'

'lf the member from California,' said Senator Newton, without changing the tone of bis voioe, and atill continuing to address himself to Mr Brown, 'has worked upon the sentimentality of this foolish child, that is her misfortune and mine ; it cannot be helped now. But If the member from California presumes to hope to profit in the least by his sinister operations, or to enjoy farther opportunities for pursuing them, the member from California deceives himself.*

So saying, he turned around in his chair and began to write on his great speech. " I come," said Wanlee slowly, now speaking for the first time, 'as an honorable man to ask of Senator Newton the hand of his daughter in honorable marriage. Her own consent has already been given.' ' I have nothing further to say,' said the Senator, once more turning his cold face toward Mr Brown. Then he paused an instant, and added with a sneer, 'I am told that the member from California is a prophet and apostle of Vegetable Bights. Let him seek a cactus in marriage. He should wed on his own level.'

Wanlee, coloring at the wanton insult, was about to leave the room. A quick sign from Miss Newton arrested him.

* But I have something fnrther to say,' she with a spirit. ' Listen, father; it is this. If Mr Wanlee goes out of this honse without a word from you—a word such as is due him from you as a gentleman and as my father—l go with him to be his wife before the sun rises 1'

'Go if you will, girl,'the Senator coldly replied. ' But first consult with Mr Walsingham Brown, who is a lawyer and a gentleman, as to the tenor and effect of the Suspended Animation Act.' Miss Newton looked inquiringly from one face to another. The words had no meaning to her. Her lover turned, suddenly pale and clutched at the back of a chair for support. Mr Brown's cheeks were also white. He stepped quickly forward, holding out his hands as if to avert some dreadful calamity. ' Surely you would not —' he began. ' But no! that is an obsolete law, an inhuman, ontrageous enactment that has long been as dead as the partisan fury that prompted it. For a quarter of a century it has been a dead letter on the statute books.' ' I was not aware,' said the Senator from between firmly set teeth, ' that the Act had ever been repealed.'

He took from a shelf a volume of statutes and opened the bonk. ' I will read the text,' he said. 'lt will form an appropriate part of the ritual of this marriage.' He read as follows :

Sec. 7391. No male person of Caucasian descent, of or under the age of twenty-five years, shall marry, or promise or contract himself in marriage with any famale person of Mongolian descent, without the full written consent of his male parent or guardian, as provided by law; and no female person, either maid or widow, under the age of thirty years, of Caucasian parentage, shall give, promise or contract herself in marriage with any male person of Mongolian descent without the full and written and registered consent of her male and female parents or guardians, as provided by Jaw, and any marriage obligations so contracted shall be null and void, and the Caucasian sa contracting shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to punishment at the discretion of his or her male parent or guardian as provided by law.

Sec. 7392. Such parents or guardians may, at their discretion and upon application to the authorities of the United States District Court for the district within which the offence is committed, deliver the offending person of Caucasian descent to the designated offisers, and require that his or her consciousness, bodily activities and vital functions, be suspended by the frigorifio process known as the Werkomer process, for a period equal to that which most elapse

before the offending person shall arrive at the age of twenty-five years if a male, or thirty years if a female ; or for a shorter period, at the discretion of the parents or guardians; said shorter period to be fixed in advance. ' What does it mean V demanded Miss Newton, bewildered by the verbiage of the Act, and alarmed by her lover's exclamation of despair. Mr Walsingham Brown shook his head sadly. 'lt means,' said he, 'that the cruel sin of the fathers is to be visited upon the children.'

•It means, Clara,' said Wanlee, with a great effort, ' that we must part.' ' Understand me, Mr Brown,' said the senator, rising and motioning impatiently with the hand that held the pen, as if to dismiss both the subject and the intruding party, 'I do not employ the Suspended Animation Act as a bugaboo to frighten a silly girl out of her lamentable infatuation. As surely as the law stands, so surely will I put it into effect' Miss Newton gave her father a long, steady look, which neither Wanlee nor Mr Brown could interpret, and then slowly led the way to the parlor. She closed and locked the door. The clock on the mantel said four.

_ A complete change had come over the girl's spirit. The spirit of defiance, of passionate appeal, of out. spoken love, had gone. She was calm now, as cold and self-posses;ed as the Senator himself. 'Frozen!' she kept saying under her breath. 'He has f rozan me already with his frigid heart.' She quickly asked Mr Walsingham Brown to explain clearly the force and bearings of the statute which her father had read from the book. When he had done so, she inquired : 'ls there not a law also providing for voluntary suspension of animation ?' 'The twenty-seventh amendment to the constitution,' replied the lawyer, 'recognizes the rightof any individual not satisfied with the condition of his life, to suspend that life for a time, long or short, according to his pleasure. But it is rarely, as yon know, that any one avails himself of the right—practically never, except as the only means to procure divorce from uncongenial marriage relations.'

* Still,' she persisted, ' the right exists and the way is open?' He bowed. She went to Wanlee, and said:

' My darling, it must be bo, I must leave you for a time, but as your wife. We will arrange a wedding'—and she smiled sadly—- • within this hour. Mr Brown will go with ns to the clergyman. Then we will proceed at once to the Kefuge, and you yourself, shall lead me to the clouter that is to keep me safe till times are better for ns. No, do not be startled, my love! The resolution is taken, you cannot alter it. And it will not be so very long, dear. Once, by accident, in arranging some of father's papers, I came across Life Probabilities, drawn up by the Vital Bureau at Washington. He has IeBS than ten years to live. I never thought to calculate in cold blood on the chances of my father's life, but it must be. In ten years, Daniel, you may come to the Refuge again and claim your bride. You will find me as you left me.

With tears streaming down his pale cheeks, the Mongolian strove to dissuade the Caucasian from her purpose. Hardly less affected, Mr Walsingham Brown joined his entreaties and arguments. 'Have you ever seen,' he asked, 'a woman who has undergone what you propose to undergo ? She went into the Refuge, perhaps, as you will go, fresh, rosy, beautiful, full of life and energy. She comes out a prematurely aged, withered, sallow, flaccid body, a living corpse, a skeleton, a ghost of her former self. In spite of all they say, there can be no absolute suspension of animation. Absolute suspension would be death. Even in the case of the most perfect freezing there is some activity of the vital functions, and they gnaw and prey upon the existence of the unoonicious subject. Will you risk,' he suddenly demanded, using the last and most potent argument that can be addressed to a woman, 'will you risk the effect that your loss of beauty may have upon Wanlee's love after ten years' separation ?' Olara Newton was smiling now. 'For my poor beauty,' she replied, ' I care very little. Yet perhapß even that may be preserved.' _ She took from the bosom of her dress the little gold box which the Chinaman had given her in the supper room of the Capitol, and hastily swallowed its contents. Wanlee now spoke with determination : ' Since you have resolved to sacrifice ten years of your life, my duty is with you. I shall share with you the sacrifice, and share also the joy of awakening.' She gravely shook her head. "It is no sacrifice for me,' she said. But you must remain in life. Yon have a great and noble work to perform. Till the oppressed of the lower orders of being are emancipated from man's injustice and cruelty you cannot abandon their cause. I think your duty Is plain.' ' You are right,' he said, bowing his head to his breast.

In the gray dawn of the early morning the officials at the FrigDrific Befnge in Cambridgeport were astonished by the arrival of a bridal party. The bridegroom's haggard countenance contrasted strangely with the elegance of his fall evening toilet, and the bright scarlet bows at his knees seemed a mockery of grief, The bride, in white satin, wore a placid smile on her lovely face. The friend accompanying the two was grave and silent.

Without delay the necessary papers of admission were drawn up and signed, and the proper registration was made upon the hooks of the establishment. For an iustant husband and wife rested in each other's arms. Then she, still cheerful, followed the attendants tr ward the inner door, while he, pressing both hands upon his tearless eyes turned away sobbing. A moment later the intense cold of the congealing chamber caught the bride and wrapped her close in its icy embrace.