A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD TO THE LIVING.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2082, 17 June 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAD TO THE LIVING.

Dramatic Person.® : Dejected Youth Tranquil old man.

Scene —A lonely spot in the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Tranquil Old Man discovered, sitting in meditation on a tombstone. Enter Dejected Youth, with heart bowed down and plunged into a gulf of dark despair. Dejected Youth ; Here I will end it all. From this appropriate place my liberated spirit shall take its flight to the Unthinkable up. Here shall they find my untenanted clay and bury it with the unknown dead ; and in after days, it may be, she will pass my grave, bestowing a glance of unconcern upon the stranger’s tomb. It is better so- -and yet, now at the last I would not have it so. By some strange instinct 1 feel impelled to leave her one last message to speak to her as it were out of the night of oblivion, relating the awful consequences of her perfidy and kindling forever in that icy heart, the inextinguishable hand of a just remorse. (Perceives Tranquil Old Man.) Ha 1 the hand of Providence provides the

instrument of this better resolution : I will not die silently and ingloriously like a tallow candle, but rather as a bursting rocket, starring the nigh' of conscience with a baleful illumination. Sir (to tranquil Old Man), you see before you a betrayed and (lesperale man resolved upon an awful deed, Tranquil Old Man ; * * * Dejected Youth ; Sir your benevolent aspect encourages me to entrust you with a secret ami charge you with a message from.the dead tojhe living. 1 feel that I may depend upon you to keep the one and deliver the other. Tranquil Old Max : * * * Dejected Youth ; It is well —your reticence proves your discretion. Liston, then, to this revelation, and by all that is sacred 1 charge you to perform the last wish of a dying man I At No. VI3G Van Ness avenue, iu a stately pile, resides a beautiful lady whose mum ,alas I is Marquerife Lillian Macbeaumh. She was betrothed to me, and wo both were pi air, I nder the inspiration of love and hope 1 struggled for the means to many her. Long, desperate, disheartening but fruitless was the effort, and at last, in a moment of rashness, I committed a crime against property—■ a felony —an undetected, lionable deed- and was a rich man. Nay, do not start—do not look so coldly upon me. Think bow—

TttAXijrn. Old Max : * » ' DR.irm.D Voith ; Please hear me out. Hastily perfectin'* my title to my new estate, 1 flew on the wines of love to lay my wealth at her feet as the fruit of honest industry and fortune’s favour. She mot inewith a changed manner. I need not dweln upon the interview ; distrusting my sued cess—destitute alike of patience, devotiod and heart, she had bestowed upon herhano the rich but rascally Mhi beamish! I curse her ami fled. Converting my property int coin, I plunged into wild dissipation and squandered it all. f am penniless in purse, broken in spirit, a wanderer and vagabond on the earth. Hho knows not w hat has become of me and I had intended to die and make no sign. Go to her, my friend, and aay you saw me die by my own hand—and hers. Tell her the man who sold his soul for her has deliv- ’ ered the goods, Tell her nay do not avert your countenance ; I Tranquii,*Ou> Man : * * * Dejected \outh ; Bid her come and look upon her work, llemind her that the senseless clay was once all trembling alive with love for her, and that although James Degrout, le Mallihau died with a curse of her perfidy upon his lips, he loved her to the last. Tell her—for by the brazen instrument by your side 1 sec you are a musican—that when she snapped the strings of this heart she spoiled the finest melody that ever the ears of the angels have heard on earth, and made a base discoid of all my life. Do all this, I adjure you by 31.ur hopes of (he heaven whose gates are forever closed against mcl And now farewell. Marguerite, Marguerite, in thy remorse I am more than avenged ! (Steps quickly behind Tranquil Old Man, thrusts a pistol into his own mouth and blows out his brains with a terrific report.)

Tranquil Old Man (snatching an enormous ear-trumpet, putting it in position and bending his hontl slightly in anotlnr direction); Hay 1 Curtain.

An Arizona paper, the Gila ILnder, makes the following business announcement : “We have decided to put to vote the question ‘ Who is the Greatest Liar in this Town?’ under the following conditions ; An election box has been fitted up in our sanctum, which will be opened for the reception of votes to-morrow morning. Anyone, male orfemalo, can vote whobuysacopy of the Ui fn , m ,mr able and gentlemanly devil, who will act as poll clerk. A oters can vote as often as they please, the only condition being that they shall purchase as many copies of the tioivlf t' as they deposit votes. The polls will be closed when no more people can bo persuaded to vote. A 1 Blodgett, the efficient bar-tender of the ‘ Montezuma, ’ will set up the drinks for all who vote, at our expense. When the result of the voting is announced we have arranged to give the successful candidate a serenade and a purse of ten dollars, and for this wo ask the contributions of our cultured and refined constituency. We add that we shall not deem it an insult if our friends should cast their votes for us."