Page 74
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The magician confirms the child's adoption, blesses the Irish mother, names a saint already seen, and tells the parents to send him to the school of the strong man so his heart will not close in fear.
The page turns the performance into family revelation, pulling the parents into the act and giving their private facts a ceremonial public shape. Even through the rough transcript, the strongest force is the promise that the right school and the right priestly figure can harden the child against fear without deadening him.
The act becomes family revelation as the magician addresses the parents 'as if he had known who they were for a thousand years'. He validates his sight by recalling that the boy 'already seen a saint' - 'The last one alive of the three children of Fatama had come to visit our classroom at Mount Mercy' - and draws out the private fact of adoption, naming the parents his 'second parents' before blessing the mother's Irish 'nature totally caught up in the mans power'. He directs them to 'the school, where walks the strong man ... He has gone beyond death', promising that afterward 'nothing in this world will ever close his heart in fear', and crowns the child 'Michael the Ark Angel'. Scan-backed spellings ('Fatama', 'replyed', 'deceasement') are preserved.