Melvin G. Winstock

“ Paul Strogoff had developed a peculiar philosophy since Ouida had sent him into grief. Though singularly fortunate as far as this world goes, though young, though of lusty strength, though possessing the ability to gratify every desire, he loved not life, but death. He had come to the conclusion that what a man gets in life is not by any means sufficient compensation for the struggle through which he goes. If he could have folded his arms quietly and passed out of human existence, he would not have murmured, but with perfect resignation accepted his fate. ”

“ She arose.
“Paul, come near me,” she said, with a voice as seductive as that of a luring siren, “and sit upon this low stool.”
This request was made by her following a flashing, unaccountable mental freak, that filled Paul with pleased astonishment!
“I am your willing slave,” he said, as he did her bidding.
“Do you love any woman?” said Ouida.
“I dare not answer,” said the model.
“Dare not answer? Have I not asked you? What do you fear?” said the sculptress.
“Myself,” said Paul.
“He who cannot master himself is like the beast of the field.” ”

“ And, as if in answer to the doctor’s prayer, there came a gentle knock at the door, and Ouida Angelo entered.
“I heard there was a patient here,” said she. “I am a volunteer nurse. Can I be of service?”
“Yes,” said the doctor, and Ouida approached the couch of the dying man, and as she looked upon his wasted face, and saw death’s mark there, her face turned white as marble. She forget the doctor’s presence, forgot all the world, save that this was the completion of her punishment, the wages of her sin.
“Paul!” she said. ”

“ Upon his bed of death he gathered to himself that trusty friend who had been faithful, and conjured him to search out Paul and in some way compensate him for the terrible injustice inflicted upon the abandoned boy. “Seek him out in poverty or shame, and win from his lips my forgiveness, or I shall not rest in Heaven or in Hell.” Consoled by the sacred promise of his friend so died he, and nature was gracious to vex his tired soul no more, for truly had the man endured an undue share of the mortal grief. But so is the world, and no man can measure the amount of agony he can live through. ”

“ Then the thought came to him that he was using his pulpit, not for mankind but for himself, and he questioned his right to such a course of action. He could not, and would not, deny to himself that the artist possessed for him an enormous attraction. A vague dream had often come to him that he could breathe into her soul nobler and purer dreams, but he put it away each time with a weaker struggle against the passion that slowly made its inroads into his soul. She was a Bohemian. ”

“ Society did nothing for me. I have with these hands carved out my fame. You and your kind no more understand art, than you do the voice of Nature. I have sat nude beneath a master’s brush, without an impure thought. I have painted men as naked as the new-born babe, without a quicker pulse beat, wrapped in a dream. ”

“ They are worshiped, and Christ, who made for man the most agonizingly sublime sacrifice of which the mind can conceive, is insulted, neglected and made a common mockery!
“This woman Ouida Angelo, who gave to the world ‘A Grecian Temptress,’ who is she? A luring siren whose devotion to all that is voluptuous and sensual, reveals in her work only that which characterizes her ignoble life. She should be driven forth from achievements, that alike disgrace herself, art and humanity. Instead of worshiping her with idolatrous affection, we should freeze her with a monstrous condemnation.” ”

“ After the nuptial night, Paul disappeared from the knowledge of men. Ouida and Horatio Nugent took up their lives together. New York society indulged in a spasm of virtuous indignation; became monstrously shocked; entered a vigorous protest; and pronounced upon the guilty pair the judgment of condemnation. This mattered not to the lovers. They could see, feel, comprehend, appreciate nothing but themselves, their love and devotion to each other. The outside world was naught to them. ”

“ I awoke, and found I was a woman, strong only in passionate devotion. Yet, could I turn back the hand of time, I would not change. Eternal poverty, exposure, shame, disgrace with him, is better than Paradise without. I have had pointed at me the finger of scorn, and yet upon his aching breast, I have found a consolation so deep and sweet, that it gave oblivion to the taunts without.”
Her reverie was disturbed by a knock at the door.
“Come in,” she said.
Doane entered.
“Ah,” said he, placing his glass to his eye, “can it be? Do my eyes deceive me? Ouida Angelo!” ”

“ And what of Ouida? Her life and pursuit were equally as noble. She had become a woman whose only object in life was to prevent others from falling into the sad sin which had darkened her life. The sensational newspapers had laughed at her for a while, but she bravely persisted, and ridicule was soon transformed into respect and admiration. Several times in the course of their philanthropic work they met, but no thought had come to them concerning a renewal of their former relations, and each, from afar, by magnetic sympathy sustained the other in this newer and nobler life. ”

“ The vague fear which outlined itself in the mind of the club men, had taken shape, and New York was in the grip of the most dreadful epidemic that had ever scourged the Metropolis. The curse of Heaven seemed to have laid its heavy hand upon the people. Hundreds dropped, day by day, into the very jaws of death. ”

“ Not far away from the church was a series of alleys, where poverty held supreme sway, and where the grim specter of want, filth and misery, stalked, dealing death, crime and agony, winning each moment recruits for the devil’s army in hell.
I’ll not allow that rich woman over there to plead not guilty, upon the ground of ignorance of these conditions. She knows all about it, and yet to get those latest diamonds that sparkle on her breast, she made her husband sell the farm, whereon his honest old rustic parents were buried. ”

“ He attacks me from a safe place, behind the battlements of the pulpit. I indulged in the vain hope of having won the respect of one honest man, among the contemptible puppies by which I am surrounded, and I find that he, too, has a narrow, putrid soul. He wants to enhance his reputation at my expense. A vulgar woman would horsewhip him. I cannot so commonize myself. A barbarous woman would kill him, a bold woman would insult him. My vengeance upon him shall not be commonplace.
“A fool, too, he is. There is no wisdom in him. Does he think he can rob me of the affection of New York? ”

“ They builded their own universe, peopled with the inhabitants of their own imagination, and well satisfied and pleased, existed in it. But New York’s frown, in time, practically meant much to them. It meant the withdrawal of art commissions to Ouida, and the absolute banishment of Mr. Nugent from the practice of his profession. As time relentlessly rolled on, their affairs grew complicated. She was compelled to sacrifice her art treasures, her valued property, her jewels, and still they awoke not from their fevered dream. ”

“ The interview was becoming beyond endurance to Ouida, when, fortunately, the subject of the latter part of Doane’s talk—Horatio Nugent—entered the room. He had heard the editor’s allusion to sacrifice.
“Who are you,” he cried, “that dare talk to her of sacrifice for me? The world should weep for her. She has, upon the altar of her affection for me, sacrificed a glory, which before, no woman had ever achieved upon the American continent.” ”

“ Woe is me!”
“And do you think,” said Ouida, with infinite tenderness, “that I regret you?”
“That is the very thought that sears my soul. I know my wrong to you. Yet through it all your brave smile [Pg 93] remains. Oh! for the power to blot out the past; to dower you with the past.”
“I would refuse the gift,” said Ouida, “if I could not share my life with you. You seem fevered tonight, love. Any good results today?” ”

“ My art shall live when churches shall crumble, and preachers’ bones shall mingle with the dust. Divinity [Pg 43] touches the brow of genius, and art becomes the heritage of generations yet unborn.”
A goddess could not have looked more divine than this woman did, as she poured forth the inspiration of her swelling, throbbing soul. There was silence again between them. But he at length recovered speech, and renewed the attack.
“Ah, Ouida, you are noble and good; why not economize this worth for grander and purer aspirations?” ”

“ The wealth and fashion of the city sat spell-bound beneath the eloquent tongue of the great divine. The sad face of the Madonna, in the painted window of Geneva, grew sadder still as she looked down upon the favored multitude. There were present there, men who headed every published list of charity, who paid thousands for pew rental, in this great official residence of God, yet who had no compunction about wrecking a railroad and thereby indirectly spreading ruin among hundreds. ”

“ Connors.
“In affluence,” said Ouida, “we would not have prided ourselves in the devotion of kings. Today, when stripped of all, save humiliation, your proffer is a consolation preciously dear.”
“Would to heaven, my dear Ouida,” fervently said Olivia, “that I could impregnate you with some of the bubbling pleasures of my life.”
“Too late,” said Nugent, “we ourselves have spun a web of fate, that fast imprisons us. We cannot break the chain.” ”

“ Two things caused the great heart of New York society to throb with unusual excitement. One was a marvelous work of sculptural art, where boldness in design and utter fearlessness in execution had almost affronted, and yet had won the plaudits of the cultivated of the Metropolis. Ouida Angelo, a woman in “A Grecian Temptress,” had dared to wring from men an absolute tribute to and acknowledgement of her genius and power. The second event was the announcement that Horatio Nugent, the great pulpit orator, would preach a sermon on “The Nude in Art.” ”

“ These Bohemian rebels, who create and produce and publish these things do worse than this. They make their own universe, enact their own laws, defy mankind, and yet society grovels at their feet and elevates all such so-called gifted creatures to a pedestal high above the church itself! ”

“ A great social leader of the Metropolis had given a ball, to which had been invited not only the “Four Hundred,” but a large proportion of New York’s Bohemian Colony as well.
Olivia Winters had been sent by the city editor of the Daily Tattler to get an account of the affair for her journal. Her reflections as she sat waiting to see the hostess, or some one in her behalf, were neither pleasing nor flattering. “All the world’s a fake,” she thought, “and the men and women merely fakirs. Within a stone’s throw of this place there is a collection of miserable huts. ”

“ Yet the sin is not theirs alone. You who hear me are equally guilty, because you encourage them by your countenance and patronage to continue in their base course of debauching the public taste. We seek in vain for purity and find it swiftly fleeing, while in its place there is rising up a craving for sensationalism which is even reaching the pulpit itself! ”

“ She became rich enough to gratify every whim. She came here three years ago, having lost none of her Bohemian characteristics. Society has opened its arms; as you see, it worships her.”
Paul breaks away from Ouida, and confronts Doane, anger and contempt leaping from his eyes.
“A wonderful story! Is it fully told?” said Paul. “Do these gentlemen know all?”
“All!” said Doane, “all, man? Why, could more possibly be crowded into the life of one woman?”
“Yes, slanderous cur,” thundered Paul, as he slapped Doane’s face with his glove. “Give them the finish. She marries me tomorrow night.” ”

“ He and the dog in silent sympathy became friends, and went out in the world together.
That night they slept in a boat, and in the morning were out at sea, their craft having been attached to a schooner. They were discovered and taken on board, where Paul was put to work. He, however, got back to New York. He never parted with the dog. They had a great time in starving together. Paul held horses, blacked boots, sold newspapers, carried satchels, and, in spite of all hardships, privations and miseries, grew up tall, muscular and of wondrous physical beauty. ”

“ Many a time he had gone down into the gutter to uplift the fallen and degraded creatures, who were abandoned by the big churches to their fate. Gradually he won for himself a distinctive place in the real affections of the common people. He became a familiar figure in the humbler quarters, and often money came to aid worthy causes from an unknown source. It came from Paul, but Horatio Nugent never knew. ”

“ Salmon, the lawyer. “Paul is a fool, to marry Ouida Angelo. She is a great artist, but no creature for wife to any man.”
“They love each other,” said Marie, indignantly. “I don’t see why they should not marry.”
“Of course,” replied the father, “a young girl always looks into the romance of the case. My experience in marriage settlements, and in the divorce courts, teaches me that a marriage of this kind never turns out well. By the way, how are you and young Clafton getting along?” ”

“ For hark me, I tell you, that he who so prostitutes true art, be it man or woman, pandering to the depraved tastes of modern society, is but an agent of the King of Hell!
“‘A Grecian Temptress’ was, or is, its theme. A woman of form almost divine, enticing a youth of purity to voluptuous sin, while in the veiled background stands a Satan, holding sway over the temptress, while she is but serving her Master in alluring souls to the regions of perpetual darkness. ”

“ All true art leads to God. The tree, the earth, the sparrow, the eagle, the wheat, the stars, the beasts, man, are parts of a great and mighty network of machinery. All false art leads to God’s enemy, and sin, selfishness, voluptuousness, temptation and passion, carry with them and in them the seed of their own punishment. ”

“ A noted preacher has set all tongues wagging, and blood-tingling murders, shipwrecks, are forgotten in a universal discussion over a piece of marble statuary. The learned doctor says the artist is sensational, and yet he proceeds to undignify the church by bettering her instruction. He says she is vulgar, yet he vulgarizes a noble theme by becoming offensively personal. No one can quarrel with his right to say what he pleases about a work which has become public property. ”