Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1896 — TRIAL OF THE ROBES. [ARTICLE]

TRIAL OF THE ROBES.

Btor-y of a Madhouse and. Its Bad I Young Patient, - I | In the garden of the madhouse, where the white snow of butterflies flew up towards the sun, the young alien wantiered aimlessly. He was pale with a gentle expression. And what sadness in his pale eyes! Stopping before an eglantine bush, he picked a flower, and, • then standing between two rose trees, he picked from one "a tea rose and from the other a moss rose. He placed the three flowers on a wooden bench at the foot of the shady paths. He said to. the eglantine: “Eglantine, answer! You are accused in the days when you were a poor girt of having mercilessly abandoned a poor and sad youth, who loved you, to marry an old man who was rich. What have you to say in your defense?” He awaited the response, and then resumed: “Your case has been heard. I condemn you.” He said to the tea rose: “Tea rose, answer! You are accused. In the days when you were a young woman of the world, of having tortured to desperation by the infamous contagion of your lying smiles a miserable young man whose heart beat ardently, alas! for you alone. What have you to say in your defense?” He awaited the response, and then resumed; ±~:.. ' “Your case has been heard. I con demn you.”. He said to the moss rose: “Moss rose, answer! You are accused, in the days when you were a vender of kisses and smiles, of having ruined by your perverse caresses<a man who sought in your love forgetfnines? of his old despairs. What have you to say in your defense?” He awaited the response, and then resumed: “Your case has been heard. I condemn you.” Having rendered his judgment, he drew from his pocket a pretty, but complicated, little instrument made of cedar wood and sparkling steel.- It was a tiny guillotine which he, dreaming, had made In his leisure hours. Each in her turn he laid on the miniature Ueai-bloCk, the eglantine, the tea i-QSfi and the.fco.sS rosb. ©fife after the ofc unffiFßo little, fcnlfc, which fell rtffu severed, the from their stems, dropped on the gravel of the path. He picked them up and looked at them long and intently. Then, moving slowly towards a shadowy corner of the garden, where ro person passed by, he dug a little grave with his Augers, iu which he laid the three criminals, covering them with earth and acacia leaves. Then, kneeling down, he wept bitterly until evening over the tomb of the guilty roses—From the French.