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diff --git a/23167.txt b/23167.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..121b53d --- /dev/null +++ b/23167.txt @@ -0,0 +1,674 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Man In The Reservoir, by Charles Fenno Hoffman + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Man In The Reservoir + +Author: Charles Fenno Hoffman + +Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23167] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN THE RESERVOIR *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +THE MAN IN THE RESERVOIR + +By Charles Fenno Hoffman + + +You may see some of the best society in New York on the top of the +Distributing Reservoir, any of these fine October mornings. There were +two or three carriages in waiting, and half a dozen senatorial-looking +mothers with young children, pacing the parapet, as we basked there the +other day in the sunshine-now watching the pickerel that glide along the +lucid edges of the black pool within, and now looking off upon the scene +of rich and wondrous variety that spreads along the two rivers on either +side. + +"They may talk of Alpheus and Arethusa," murmured an idling sophomore, +who had found his way thither during recitation hours, "but the Croton +in passing over an arm of the sea at Spuyten Duyvil, and bursting to +sight again in this truncated pyramid, beats it all hollow. By George, +too, the bay yonder looks as blue as ever the AEgean Sea to Byron's eye, +gazing from the Acropolis! But the painted foliage on these crags!-the +Greeks must have dreamed of such a vegetable phenomenon in the midst of +their grayish olive groves, or they never would have supplied the want +of it in their landscape by embroidering their marble temples with gay +colors. Did you see that pike break, sir?" + +"I did not." + +"Zounds! his silver fin flashed upon the black Acheron, like a restless +soul that hoped yet to mount from the pool." + +"The place seems suggestive of fancies to you?" we observed in reply to +the rattlepate. + +"It is, indeed, for I have done up a good deal of anxious thinking +within a circle of a few yards where that fish broke just now." + +"A singular place for meditation-the middle of the Reservoir!" + +"You look incredulous, sir; but it's a fact. A fellow can never tell, +until he is tried, in what situation his most earnest meditations may be +concentrated. I am boring you, though?" + +"Not at all. But you seem so familiar with the spot, I wish you could +tell me why that ladder leading down to the water is lashed against the +stonework in yonder corner." + +"That ladder," said the young man, brightening at the question-"why, the +position, perhaps the very existence, of that ladder resulted from my +meditations in the Reservoir, at which you smiled just now. Shall I tell +you all about them?" + +"Pray do." + +"Well, you have seen the notice forbidding any one to fish in the +Reservoir. Now, when I read that warning, the spirit of the thing struck +me at once as inferring nothing more than that one should not sully +the temperance potations of our citizens by steeping bait in it, of any +kind; but you probably know the common way of taking pike with a slip +noose of delicate wire. I was determined to have a touch at the fellows +with this kind of tackle. + +"I chose a moonlight night; and an hour before the edifice was closed +to visitors, I secreted myself within the walls, determined to pass the +night on the top. All went as I could wish it. The night proved cloudy, +but it was only a variable drift of broken clouds which obscured the +moon. I had a walking cane-rod with me which would reach to the margin +of the water, and several feet beyond if necessary. To this was attached +the wire, about fifteen inches in length. + +"I prowled along the parapet for a considerable time, but not a single +fish could I see. The clouds made a flickering light and shade, that +wholly foiled my steadfast gaze. I was convinced that should they come +up thicker, my whole night's venture would be thrown away. 'Why should +I not descend the sloping wall and get nearer on a level with the fish, +for thus alone can I hope to see one?' The question had hardly shaped +itself in my mind before I had one leg over the iron railing. + +"If you look around you will see now that there are some half-dozen +weeds growing here and there, amid the fissures of the solid masonry. In +one of the fissures from whence these spring, I planted a foot and began +my descent. The Reservoir was fuller than it is now, and a few strides +would have carried me to the margin of the water. Holding on to the +cleft above, I felt round with one foot for a place to plant it below +me. + +"In that moment the flap of a pound pike made me look round, and the +roots of the weed upon which I partially depended gave way as I was in +the act of turning. Sir, one's senses are sharpened in deadly peril; as +I live now, I distinctly heard the bells of Trinity chiming midnight, as +I rose to the surface the next instant, immersed in the stone caldron, +where I must swim for my life Heaven only could tell how long! + +"I am a capital swimmer; and this naturally gave me a degree of +self-possession. Falling as I had, I of course had pitched out some +distance from the sloping parapet. A few strokes brought me to the edge. +I really was not yet certain but that I could clamber up the face of the +wall anywhere. I hoped that I could. I felt certain at least there +was some spot where I might get hold with my hands, even if I did not +ultimately ascend it. + +"I tried the nearest spot. The inclination of the wall was so vertical +that it did not even rest me to lean against it. I felt with my hands +and with my feet. Surely, I thought, there must be some fissure like +those in which that ill-omened weed had found a place for its root! + +"There was none. My fingers became sore in busying themselves with the +harsh and inhospitable stones. My feet slipped from the smooth and +slimy masonry beneath the water; and several times my face came in rude +contact with the wall, when my foothold gave way on the instant that I +seemed to have found some diminutive rocky cleat upon which I could stay +myself. + +"Sir, did you ever see a rat drowned in a half-filled hogshead-how he +swims round, and round, and round; and after vainly trying the sides +again and again with his paws, fixes his eyes upon the upper rim as if +he would _look himself_ out of his watery prison? + +"I thought of the miserable vermin, thought of him as I had often +watched thus his dying agonies, when a cruel urchin of eight or ten. +Boys are horribly cruel, sir; boys, women, and savages. All childlike +things are cruel; cruel from a want of thought and from perverse +ingenuity, although by instinct each of these is so tender. You may not +have observed it, but a savage is as tender to his own young as a boy +is to a favorite puppy-the same boy that will torture a kitten out of +existence. I thought then, I say, of the rat drowning in a half-filled +cask of water, and lifting his gaze out of the vessel as he grew more +and more desperate, and I flung myself on my back, and, floating thus, +fixed my eyes upon the face of the moon. + +"The moon is well enough in her way, however you may look at her; but +her appearance is, to say the least of it, peculiar to a man floating on +his back in the centre of a stone tank, with a dead wall of some fifteen +or twenty feet rising squarely on every side of him!" (The young man +smiled bitterly as he said this, and shuddered once or twice before +he went on musingly.) "The last time I had noted the planet with any +emotion she was on the wane. Mary was with me; I had brought her out +here one morning to look at the view from the top of the Reservoir. She +said little of the scene, but as we talked of our old childish loves, +I saw that its fresh features were incorporating themselves with tender +memories of the past, and I was content. + +"There was a rich golden haze upon the landscape, and as my own spirits +rose amid the voluptuous atmosphere, she pointed to the waning planet, +discernible like a faint gash in the welkin, and wondered how long it +would be before the leaves would fall. Strange girl! did she mean to +rebuke my joyous mood, as if we had no right to be happy while Nature, +withering in her pomp, and the sickly moon, wasting in the blaze of +noontide, were there to remind us of 'the-gone-forever'? 'They will all +renew themselves, dear Mary,' said I, encouragingly, 'and there is +one that will ever keep tryst alike with thee and nature through all +seasons, if thou wilt but be true to one of us, and remain as now a +child of nature.' + +"A tear sprang to her eye, and then searching her pocket for her +card-case, she remembered an engagement to be present at Miss Lawson's +opening of fall bonnets at two o'clock! + +"And yet, dear, wild, wayward Mary, I thought of her now. You have +probably outlived this sort of thing, sir; but I, looking at the moon, +as I floated there upturned to her yellow light, thought of the loved +being whose tears I knew would flow when she heard of my singular fate, +at once so grotesque, yet melancholy to awfulness. + +"And how often we have talked, too, of that Carian shepherd who spent +his damp nights upon the hills, gazing as I do on the lustrous planet! +Who will revel with her amid those old superstitions? Who, from our own +unlegended woods, will evoke their yet undetected, haunting spirits? Who +peer with her in prying scrutiny into nature's laws, and challenge +the whispers of poetry from the voiceless throat of matter? Who laugh +merrily over the stupid guesswork of pedants, that never mingled with +the infinitude of nature, through love exhaustless and all-embracing, as +we have? Poor girl! she will be companionless. + +"Alas! companionless forever-save in the exciting stages of some brisk +flirtation. She will live hereafter by feeding other hearts with love's +lore she has learned from me, and then, Pygmalion-like, grow fond of the +images she has herself endowed with semblance of divinity, until they +seem to breathe back the mystery the soul can truly catch from only one. + +"How anxious she will be lest the coroner shall have discovered any of +her notes in my pocket! + +"I felt chilly as this last reflection crossed my mind, partly at +thought of the coroner, partly at the idea of Mary being unwillingly +compelled to wear mourning for me, in case of such a disclosure of our +engagement. It is a provoking thing for a girl of nineteen to have to go +into mourning for a deceased lover at the beginning of her second winter +in the metropolis. + +"The water, though, with my motionless position, must have had something +to do with my chilliness. I see, sir, you think that I tell my story +with great levity; but indeed, indeed I should grow delirious did I +venture to hold steadily to the awfulness of my feelings the greater +part of that night. I think, indeed, I must have been most of the time +hysterical with horror, for the vibrating emotions I have recapitulated +did pass through my brain even as I have detailed them. + +"But as I now became calm in thought, I summoned up again some +resolution of action. + +"I will begin at that corner (said I), and swim around the whole +inclosure. I will swim slowly and again feel the sides of the tank with +my feet. If die I must, let me perish at least from well-directed though +exhausting effort, not sink from mere bootless weariness in sustaining +myself till the morning shall bring relief. + +"The sides of the place seemed to grow higher as I now kept my watery +course beneath them. It was not altogether a dead pull. I had some +variety of emotion in making my circuit. When I swam in the shadow, it +looked to me more cheerful beyond in the moonlight. When I swam in the +moonlight, I had the hope of making some discovery when I should again +reach the shadow. I turned several times on my back to rest just where +those wavy lines would meet. The stars looked viciously bright to me +from the bottom of that well; there was such a company of them; they +were so glad in their lustrous revelry; and they had such space to move +in! I was alone, sad to despair, in a strange element, prisoned, and a +solitary gazer upon their mocking chorus. And yet there was nothing else +with which I could hold communion! + +"I turned upon my breast and struck out almost frantically once more. +The stars were forgotten; the moon, the very world of which I as yet +formed a part, my poor Mary herself, were forgotten. I thought only of +the strong man there perishing; of me in my lusty manhood, in the sharp +vigor of my dawning prime, with faculties illimitable, with senses all +alert, battling there with physical obstacles which men like myself had +brought together for my undoing. The Eternal could never have willed +this thing! I could not and I would not perish thus. And I grew strong +in insolence of self-trust; and I laughed aloud as I dashed the sluggish +water from side to side. + +"Then came an emotion of pity for myself of wild regret; of sorrow, Oh, +infinite for a fate so desolate, a doom so dreary, so heart-sickening! +You may laugh at the contradiction if you will, sir, but I felt that +I could sacrifice my own life on the instant, to redeem another +fellow-creature from such a place of horror, from an end so piteous. +My soul and my vital spirit seemed in that desperate moment to be +separating; while one in parting grieved over the deplorable fate of the +other. + +"And then I prayed! I prayed, why or wherefore I know not. It was not +from fear. It could not have been in hope. The days of miracles are +past, and there was no natural law by whose providential interposition I +could be saved. I did not pray; it prayed of itself, my soul within me. + +"Was the calmness that I now felt torpidity--the torpidity that precedes +dissolution to the strong swimmer who, sinking from exhaustion, must at +last add a bubble to the wave as he suffocates beneath the element which +now denied his mastery? If it were so, how fortunate was it that my +floating rod at that moment attracted my attention as it dashed through +the water by me. I saw on the instant that a fish had entangled itself +in the wire noose. The rod quivered, plunged, came again to the surface, +and rippled the water as it shot in arrowy flight from side to side of +the tank. At last, driven toward the southeast corner of the Reservoir, +the small end seemed to have got foul somewhere. The brazen butt, which, +every time the fish sounded, was thrown up to the moon, now sank by its +own weight, showing that the other end must be fast. But the cornered +fish, evidently anchored somewhere by that short wire, floundered +several times to the surface before I thought of striking out to the +spot. + +"The water is low now, and tolerably clear. You may see the very ledge +there, sir, in yonder corner, on which the small end of my rod rested +when I secured that pike with my hands. I did not take him from the +slip-noose, however; but, standing upon the ledge, handled the rod in a +workmanlike manner, as I flung that pound pickerel over the iron railing +upon the top' of the parapet. The rod, as I have told you, barely +reached from the railing to the water. It was a heavy, strong bass rod +which I had borrowed in the 'Spirit of the Times' office; and when I +discovered that the fish at the end of the wire made a strong enough +knot to prevent me from drawing my tackle away from the railing around +which it twined itself as I threw, why, as you can at once see, I had +but little difficulty in making my way up the face of the wall with +such assistance. The ladder which attracted your notice is, as you see, +lashed to the iron railing in the identical spot where I thus made my +escape; and, for fear of similar accidents, they have placed another +one in the corresponding corner of the other compartment of the tank +ever since my remarkable night's adventure in the Reservoir." + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Man In The Reservoir, by Charles Fenno Hoffman + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN THE RESERVOIR *** + +***** This file should be named 23167.txt or 23167.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/1/6/23167/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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