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STREET &
Vor. IL—No: 17.
THE JUGGLER'S VICTIM.
Here and there, on the fences apd dead
walls of a small town in the western part of the
State of Ohio, were to be descried certain gay
“placards announcing the arrival of the great
American Cagliostro, the distinguished wizard
Paracelsus Von Buskirk. . Groups of open-
mouthed boys were often gathered before
them, feasting their eyes upon the illuminated
capitals, and wondering at the supernatural
abilities of him who- professed himself able to
breathe flame from his nostrils, hold red-hot
iror bars by his teeth, and pour from one bot-
tle any kind of liquor that might be called
fk . woe
oT.
Certain ignorant souls, filled with reminis-
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SMITH.
No. 11 FRANKFORT STREET.
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Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1867, by Srneer & Sura, in the Clerk's Off
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BACK NUMBERS FROM NO, 1 OF ‘THE LITERARY ALBUM CAN BE OBTAINED OF ANY NEWS AGENT.
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cences of ancient superstition, wete inclined
to believe he owed his miraculous powers to
the agency of the Evil One. Had they, how-
ever, seen him as he mnsed in his ill-furnished,
dingy apartment, they would have learned
that his bargain with Satan, if such he had
made, was far from profitable.
“A tall, thin man, with dark locks tinged with
gray, and black, bloodshot’ eyes that moved
restlessly in their sockeis; he bore upon his
sallow visage the marks of a life of care and
suffering, if not of dissipation. - His features,
regular in their outline, indicated that their
owner had at one: period been indubitably
worthy of the epithet handsome; yet now a
hard, eruel expression about his mouth and
his contracted brow, gave him an aspect posi-
NEW YORK, APRIL 13, 1867.
tively repulsive, which was. hightened by the
rusty suit of black in which he was arrayed,
A ditty blue neckeloth wasthe only bit of color
on his person, and it intensified bis general
air of seediness., His head was bowed be-
tween his hands, bis elbows resting on an un-
covered common pine table.
Forty-five years of age, and still struggling
merely for existence, thus he communed with
himeelf :
“Rather different this from ‘the fature my
boyish vision prophesied. . My poor, good,
kind: mother, little could she have expected
that I——. Bah! bah! mystérn, my too stern,
unforgiving father, he has been the canse of
this. He! and yet he was a good man, too,
The hell which gnaws me is the consciousness
$1 00 PER
‘
SINGLE Copies FEN ‘CENTS. No. 69.
that I owe my present fate to myself alone—to
myselfalone. I hadeducation—circumstances
were all in my favor—I might have been what
I thought I wouldbe, Ah! those might have
been!—how they sting the already-tortured
heart! I wonld see life, Ha, ha! I have
seen it, ©. What blissfal knowledge is mine!
Lifo,: life!—a compendium of selfishness, of
meanness, and deceit. Yet there were oases
in the desert of dissipation, I have had one
or two sweet, holy dreams, I have met with
innocencs—with purity; I might have been a
fond husband, with @ tender, loving wife, aud
happy children, Here in this idiotic town I
see sights that fill me with rage and mortifica- /
tion; these ignorant churls have been more
wise than I—shame that I must confess it!