honey-combed bit of steel, dull, and corroded. | ue life much more than those who have seemThis would have astonished me if I had not ingly more reason to be attached to it. In genbeen aware of the high regard they have for eral it may be remarked that persons born blind, the weapons of their father or their ancestors, accustomed to refer all things to their own inand I supposed this to be an heir-loom; or, per- terests, become egotistical, and fear death the haps, it was one of those favored blood-drinkers more from never having been able to see it bewhich have taken so many lives that they are fore them, to confront it, despise it, and like othlooked upon and cherished with superstitious er men familiarize themselves with it. As all reverence by the Malays, who consider them to others in his situation this blind man, I was possess some supernatural power. The Java- told, had an unchanging expression, and spoke nese, of all the Malay tribes, perhaps, pay more without moving his features. In the eyes of regard to their weapons, if that be possible, and the people of the house, this immobility passed have a greater variety, than any others. If I for indifference; there are so few persons who remember aright, Sir Stamford Raffles, in his give themselves the trouble to reflect upon work on Java, enumerates no less than thirty and discover the secret causes of the exterior different kinds. A Javanese, in full dress, is falsehoods which surround us on all sides, that frequently seen with three or more creeses stuck these falsehoods pass for truths, and satisfy the in his girdle; one, his own originally, another careless reasoning of the idle. But, as I found his father's, a third, the gift of his father-in-out afterward, this blind person was a man of law, and perhaps he also may sport the favorite vivid imagination and warm feelings, and posblade of a deceased brother. sessed in a high degree the qualities of our kind memory, order, analysis, generalization, and, physically, an exact perception of ideas by the geometrical sense of touch.

Let any one who desires sport, a fine climate, beautiful scenery, and something to be seen out of the beaten track, go to Java. The Europeans are hospitable, well educated, and well- He was about twenty-five years old, and lived bred, while the natives are a kind and pleasant with his grandmother, who inhabited some apartrace whom it is charming to be among. At the ments of the rez de chaussée, or what we call eastern end the Emperor holds his Court, where the ground-floor; and who enjoyed an income almost the last remnant of the barbaric splendor of from one to two thousand dollars. A female and despotism of the once great Malay princes cousin of some eighteen years, called Marie, actis to be found. Nominally, he is only the ed as sole servant. She was a young girl of a ally of the Dutch, and rules his subjects as he simple and excellent heart, and though not strictpleases; but in reality he is under their con- ly beautiful, had such a sweet expression that trol, and there is a Dutch "Resident" continu- the absence of beauty was not perceived. These ally at his Court, who looks after the interests three lived together, and were sufficient to each of the Dutch government. A stranger, after other. The old lady's means permitting the he has once obtained his passport and permis-young man exemption from manual labor, he sion to travel in the interior, may go in perfect had become well instructed in many sciences, safety and comfort in his own carriage over particularly in music, for which he had a natural well-made roads, and find civility and hospital-taste. ity at every stopping-place.

A BLIND MAN'S LOVE.

The other inhabitants of the street were all long resident there, except a young lady who had I occupied the second floor of this house for some

WHEN I was in Paris during the stormy two months, and a student, who had taken ref

spring of 1848, at the time a second Bourbon family was driven from the throne, there happened in private and humble life an event, which, from some of its details and characteristics, is perhaps worthy of relation.

uge here to avoid his creditors.
"No person,"
he said, "will think to follow me to the Enfants
Rouges; and, in the mean time, I shall not be
very far from the theatres and the cafés of the
Boulevards."

The young lady was called, or called herself, Madame de Montjeu. But since February, the concièrge, from fear of passing for an aristocrat, had addressed her simply as Madame Montjeu. She was one of the subordinate actresses of the Boulevards, who do not depend wholly upon their profession, but willingly relinquish the stage when any rich idler offers them a season at Spa or Baden-Baden. One could tell by the

One morning, as I was passing on a rambling excursion through the street of Enfants Rouges, my attention was drawn to a knot of people, much excited, gathered together on the lower floor of one of the houses of that quarter; and on inquiring what was the matter, learned that some one had hung himself in his chamber. Suicides of this kind are not so extraordinary in Paris as to account in my mind for the agitation displayed, and on further investigation I discov-furniture and dresses of Madame de Montjeu, ered that the stupefaction of the spectators arose that she had been rich, but she had experienced, from the fact that the unfortunate person had during the time she had dwelt in this house, the been born blind-a circumstance which, in their consequences of the Revolution of February. apprehension, deranged the normal laws of sui- Having no engagement, either of the theatre or cide. Now the vulgar, without analyzing the the heart, she was living upon her engagements reason therefor, consider that individuals afflict-at the pawnbroker's. This manner of living proed from their birth with the loss of a sense val-cured her, in the Enfants Rouges, the reputation

of fortune and prudence, of which one was perhaps as much deserved as the other. As she had but one servant-a maid of all work-economy was also added to the virtues which she did not possess.

It was about one o'clock in the afternoon when the suicide was discovered. A man who hangs himself always makes a sensation in the house, second only to a murder. This blind person was, besides, well known to the other occupants, with the exception of the student, who all felt for him an affectionate commiseration which resembled friendship; and when the news of the suicide had transpired, there was a general cry of surprise and grief, and every one rushed to the chamber with the ungovernable curiosity that ever attracts people to the spectacle of death. Madame de Montjeu hastened with the rest; but she had no sooner learned the strange event than she cried out, "How horrible!" and refused to cross the threshold, but remained standing on one side, watching the others as they went in and out. The sun was shining full into the chamber, which was filled with a staring crowd, who ranged themselves in a circle around the suspended body. Marie alone, her face hidden in the covering of the bed, seemed plunged into the depth of despair. From a popular prejudice yet unfortunately widely prevalent, no person had yet dared to cut the rope, and the locksmith who had just forced the door had gone for the commissary of the police. After some time of silent observation of the dead body, that necessity of exchanging thoughts which always accompanies any great emotion began to be felt, and the spectators concluded to give utterance to their feelings.

"Poor fellow!" said one voice.

"Who would have believed it?" articulated another. "I saw him walking in the court-yard this morning."

"Why the devil has he hung himself?" "It is only a blind person who would have hung himself in the full light of day," some one profoundly remarked.

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the convulsive sobs of Marie, who, suddenly rising, mounted hastily upon the bed and cut the cord. The dead body fell heavily and dull upon the floor. This act and the sinister sound caused a movement among the spectators, and some cried out, "But it is an impiety you are committing!" Marie, careless of their opinion, seized the body in her arms and placed it on the bed. She put her hand upon the heart, and when she found it had ceased to beat she broke out again in despairing sobs.

This scene, which drew tears from many of the spectators, was interrupted by an incident almost burlesque-as so frequently happens in life. One of the lookers-on, the student of whom we have spoken, suddenly exclaimed,

"Look! here is my boot-only look here!" He broke through the circle and ran forward to pick up a nicely varnished boot which was lying on the carpet.

"It is my boot!" he again cried out, "and I have looked every where for it!"

All at once he fell into another surprise and exclaimed,

"But just look at my boot-only look at it!" This conduct of the student had before scandalized the rest, but at this last exclamation, they murmured against his inexplicable and illtimed interruption. He seemed to acknowledge the impropriety of his ejaculations and went out. As he ascended the stairs, he was all the time, however, carefully examining his boot, and meeting Madame de Montjeu on the second floor, although unacquainted with her, he cried out, as to the persons below: "Only look at my boot, which I have found in the room of the man who has hung himself!"

While Madame de Montjeu was examining the boot with a lively curiosity, a sudden cry was heard that the old lady was dying. Marie, whose head was still buried in the covering of the bed, heard, notwithstanding, the cry. She rose with the elasticity of a spring, and ascending the stairs four at a time, arrived at the very moment to receive the last sigh of the old woman, who had been struck with an apoplectic fit on learning the sad catastrophe of her grandson.

A kind neighbor was assiduous in her care of Marie, who was for a while plunged into a kind of apathy, so that for a moment they feared for her reason. But the second day after the burial of the two bodies, she insisted upon seeing again the room in which the blind man had died. She cast herself upon the bed, which had remained in the same state as on the day of the terrible event, and still retained the impress of the dead body. Sobs burst out from her breast, she turned herself over and over convulsively, and bit the clothes to restrain the explosion of her grief.

When its violence had somewhat abated, she requested her kind neighbor and the portress, who had accompanied her, to retire for a while..

"I wish to remain alone here," she said, "for an hour or so, to bid farewell to the past, and to prepare myself for the future."

The two women went out, but when the door had been closed upon them, and they heard the key turned, the neighbor said to the portress,

"Are you not afraid she will kill herself as the blind man has done ?"

The portress replied, with that philosophical skepticism which comes from too frequent contact with humanity,

"When from having nothing one comes into possession of two or three thousand a year, they do not kill themselves!"

It was the first time Marie had been alone since the double decease which had so instantaneously and completely changed her habits and position. She threw a look of anguish around the little room, so almost monastic in its simplicity; and whose total lack of arrangement was explained so poignantly by the blindness of its late occupant. There were in it neither

She resumed her reading, so soon as the manuscript became legible:

statuettes, nor paintings, nor books; nothing, in | fidences, was too much excited for the relief of a word, which form the details of existence. tears. There was no pendule even on the mantlepiece. The leisure of the blind is immense; it commences with his life, and terminates only "I come to the moment when I returned with his death. He has not, like us, an imperi-home to my grandmother, after having acquired ous necessity for measuring and parceling out at the institution all that can be taught the unthe time so as to satisfy the thousand duties and fortunate of my condition. Deprived of the pleasures of existence. daily intercourse of my fellows, I lived in sadness. My time was passed in study, in meditation,, and music. An incident occurred to break the monotony of my existence. My grandmother dismissed her only servant, and brought from Picardy, to supply her place, a little cousin called Marie."

There were, however, many sheets of paper written upon and lying upon the table, the last left unfinished. Marie looked at these papers attentively, taking good care not to disarrange them. Do we not still live with those we love while we can yet follow the material traces of their existence! While these traces remain, we can still strive against forgetfulness, which, how-the blind man, Marie felt her heart beat almost ever, little by little, slowly yet surely, covers with its lethargic sands all the past!

Marie, at this moment, would not have disarranged the papers for the whole world; but the desire to probe more profoundly the life and thought of him whom she so deeply regretted, made her try to read the characters which his hand had traced. What was not her astonishment in finding these words: "They who wish to know why I have hung myself need only read what follows."

Marie immediately gathered up all the papers and read as well as a torrent of tears would permit the confidences of the unfortunate suicide, who thus commenced his sad confession :

see.

"I have always distrusted persons who could

On seeing her name traced by the hand of

to bursting. She sat down to save herself from falling, and it was only by great efforts at selfcontrol that she could continue her reading:

"I had no sooner heard the voice of this young girl than I judged her endowed with an excellent heart, generous, and devoted. I attached myself to her with a force of affection of which I did not believe myself capable. It seemed as if the lowliness of her position in the house brought her nearer to such an humble and inferior being as myself. There was so much of softness and kindness in her attentions that on her approach I felt the ice of my heart give way. My hatred of those blessed with the sense of sight dissolved as by enchantment. She was the only person in the world for whom I had ever felt a sincere friendship. I know not if her feelings for me went further, though sometimes I was tempted to believe so. It may be that I deceived myself; this softness, these harmonious combinations of voice and manner, might have been merely the effects of her un

From my earliest infancy I have felt for them a fear and secret hatred. They are false, perfidious, cunning in all their movements, quick as thought, bold, and of a sensibility mingled with cruelty. Whatever may be the ties of relationship or friendship that connect us with them, a consciousness of inferiority pre-alterable goodness. As for myself, I do not vents our living together on a fraternal footing. Between us and them there is an abyss, a sense; and then, it must be confessed, the more imperfect man is, the more is he inclined to selflove and egotism. These two defects, which control us from the first age of reason, render us miserable in our relations with them, so that it is a torture not to be able to do without them.

"We live in solitude. Solitary in the midst of the noise and occupation of men, solitary from the cradle to the tomb, we shall die, as we have lived, in the isolation of blindness."

think I felt for her other than friendship. Marie had rough hands, the consequence of labor; now it is as difficult for a blind person like myself to feel love for a girl with rough coarse hands, as it would be for a person of good sight to be in love with an ugly one. Notwithstanding, however, this serious obstacle, doubtless this excellent girl, so great was my affection for her, might have inspired me with love, had she tried, but she was too honest and simple-minded to attempt any thing of the kind."

"Ah! my hands, my rude hands!" cried Marie, "what have you done?"

The rest of the page was covered with un- She dropped the manuscript, and for a modecipherable characters which seemed to have ment looked, with a countenance of poignant been made upon the paper in almost savage ex- sorrow, upon her red and coarse hands. Her citement. The letters ran one against the other, eyes filled with tears, tears doubtless of bitterwords strove with words, and phrases interlocked ness, and yet mingled with something sweet. like carriages in a narrow street; it was in truth"He might have loved me!" she thought. an alphabetic confusion that would have driven "I lived happy," continued the writer, "too desperate a decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyph- happy without doubt for a being of my sad conics, or a student of a celebrated Boston lawyer's dition, when it pleased the evil spirits who inchirography. Marie thought she discovered fest this world to send into this house a woman amidst the chaos of words fervent maledictions whose name I can not pronounce without a of the blind man upon his birth, and her heart, malediction. She was called, or called herself, already oppressed by these misanthropical con- Madame de Montjou. I soon became acquainted