The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts (Literature) (74 page)

Then courts Marget-she is drawn to him, & he may be Emil she
doesn't know which he is but (she) her feelings tell her he is no, the
one. Yes, she concedes, he would answer all practical purposes; yet,
lacking the essential one-love-no good. Sorry, but N. G. One
parting kiss to meet no more. Take a hatful. I will not take advantage
of your generosity-2 will do.

The murdering is to happen that night-which is Ghost-NightAdolf & other exorcisors there, to be pestered by 44

E-3

3

(DI) BRONTOSAUR, all bones-"will be more effective that way"
-prances around, reaches into 2° story windows-

"Here comes Carnegie!"-it is the (P) Carnegio-Pittsburghio-
Brontosoriass"-

They have an old love-grudge of tertiary times-they race all over
town & region & fight, scaring everybody to death—

Summons St George from the past, Don Quixotte from the future
& try to interest a tournament, but the boys ruther not-("it's
Sunday").

44 thrashes the creatures (as the magic[ian]) leads them meekly,
they kneel to a cardinal the minute they see him, & the cardinal's
littl[e] boy(s) takes a ride

E-4

4

Remember, Katrina cannot like the magician, he burnt her boyshe crosses herself & attacks him whenever they mee[t]-& she is the
only one who dares defy him.

She's been waiting around ever since that tragedy, with a long
carving-knife.

Shethinks he has instigated the murders-she is so bitter against
him that she attributes to him every evil that happens.

Group F

These miscellaneous notes, on the front and back covers of a Par Value
tablet, although clearly not for "The Mysterious Stranger," were apparently written in Florence at the same time as the final chapter of
"No. 44." The language of the last chapter parallels the first note on
F-2.

F-1

1. Adam? He is part of the dream. [page torn] him by agreeing
with his fad.

2. Father o' de Brotherhood? Sho! Cant ever get him to say anything but that.

3. Ad? Enthusiastic. He is the head-criminal-perpetuate his
name.

4. Agree with his fad.

5. Full of his trouble; cares nothing for Ad. Peters the inventor.

Adm's fad for life's failures came from wife.

Jemmy a wholesome spirit-practical, like x x poetic like x x x &
both, like x x x x & literary by inheri[tance] from that uncle?

Martha is doctor, like Mrs. G. She is in deep sympathy with the
Broken Reeds.

Poem "The Derelict."

George Flinders [written in left margin]

The squawkestrelle & penola

Jemmy apparently no fad to work upon. Shall it turn out that he
has one himself?-his love for her-& it operates by making
him give up the monument scheme.

F-2

1. The intellectual & placid & sane-looking man whose foible is that
life n & God & the universe n is a dream & he the only person in
it-not a person, but a homeless & silly thought wandering
forever in space.

2. The negro whitewasher (of the Brotherhood of Man) whose
daughter (nurse) was lynched for poisoning the white childit turns out she was innocent.

3. The N. E. farmer whose young daughter was beguiled away by
.... he found her after 7 months' search, dying of starvation
-had lived on 2 cans of condensed milk per week-afraid to
go to her father who had never taken her mother's interest in
the children, he being absorbed in the heathen. He rails at God,
who could have saved her & didn't.

4. George Francis Train-looking man who lost wife & his 4 children
in a week when was was 30. At 74 is glad they were takenthey escaped life. "God's only valuable gift to man-death."
Has almost completed extermination-scheme-oxygen.

5 Young policeman refused $10,000 bribe & reported it. Is admired
(with words) but is privately believed to be "a little off." Is
little by little neglected, then dismissed. He laments his foolish
act; the other policeman took the $10,000 & is now Chief of
Police.

Page of Discarded Manuscript

This single discarded page of manuscript on cross-barred paper may be
an early effort to explore the material used in these manuscripts.
It may equally have come from some closely related manuscript: only
once in the Mysterious Stranger stories is Traum or Satan or 44 characterized as "The Prince of Darkness."

I

The rain continued to beat softly upon the panes, & the wind to
sigh & wail about the eaves. In the room there was no sound; both of
us remained buried in thought. After a long time I roused myself &
took up the thread where it had been broken off:

("It was depressing-that which you said.)

"My perhaps over-warm eulogy n of the character A of my race,
& my praise of its noble struggle against heavy odds toward higher &
ever higher moral & spiritual summits, have not won from you even
the slender kindness of a comment."

(He) A The Prince of Darkness n answered gravely-

"Is not silence a comment?"

I had invited that thrust, & was (sorry) ashamed.