Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-09-25
EVENING STAR.
~stran..r ,hau F,c,,a. ;,

j here IL more romance in our so-cailed prac-
ueAl American life than the grGmb!ers seem 90
ihinE. When the coming American dramatist
looks about him for materials, he need not 20
outsice OF the Gsily newspapers. IL Is Just AZ
uue now as II was in Byron's time that truth Is
suspge-stranger than fiction. In the columns
OF the Times within a day or two for example.
have appeared two or three brief paragraphs
Inst should suggest gread deal TO the writer OF
DRAMATIC or fictitious literature. In the busy
and busting city of Allegheny, Penn, lived
and died one John Leskar, q native OF Ssxouy
and ct one time concerned in = revolution in
his own country. He was man OF wealth and
culture; be was thought qualified 20 an any po-
stlon IN Europe, and he led in the reyolutiOn
or, as We should now call IL, conspiracy against
the government. Leskar and bis comrades plot
ted 10 overthrow the relying dynasty, and 60
stamp IL out forever. Leskar was 20 be King
OF Ssxony when the throne was thus made va
cant. The cor spirscy failed. Lesksr WAS driven
into exile, aud his estates were c0nfscated
Coming 20 America, he lived in poverty in a
republic where all men are sovereigns. After
last week so poor that be was given At last a
panper's burial. In this country, where so
many wrecks OF ambition lie on the shores, be
was almost unnoticed until he died. Then a
brief line tells us how this haffied reyolutionst
ana candidate for a throne lived in a western
Sl.y ehine out miserable existence, aud nurs-
ing his old-time dreams of royalty in the midst
of the stir and fierce democracy OF a strange
people. This is tragedy.
In the backwOOds of Saratoga county there
reported 20 be boy who is closely kept aud
watched by woman TO whom he appears 20 he
not related. The lad Is not permitted 20 hold
communication with anybody, but he has sue.
cetded in telling some one that be used 10 live
in Brook Ign. Moreover, bis unnatural guardian
is said 10 receive from that city the money
reeded ter the maintenance of both. Distant
helehhors, piqued by this apparent mystery,
rave spread abroad these scant details. and one
bereft parent, missing bis son since last Nav,
has gone to examine into the facts This l.
melodrama, and the possibilities OF romance
that present themselves sre infinitely sug-
sestiye. What gimpses may we not get OF a
cruel uncle sending his WARD, not TO be covered
WITH leaves by pititul robin red breasts, we're
the Children in the Wood, but to be hidden in
the forest OF Saratoga county by a mysterious
crone who gets postal money orders from Brook
lyI. or, there may be an abduction here; the
woman Is the custodian of q stolen child, and
when the Brooklyn father reaches the cabin he
may find that the unknown has vanished like a
stage Lsmiel in Christmas pantomime. Only
Lamlel Is myth, and the melodrsmatic woman
OF the backwoods Is q reality. OF course this
suggests also the mysterious case of the long
lost Ross boy, though there is no actual connec-
ton between the two incidents. Given the
facts already known about the Ross child, his
rather, family, home and disappearance, and
there rise at once numberless strange and ex-
citing dramatic situations. Each of the many
theories of the affair is story in ITSELF An in
genieus playwright could make from this ma
terial vastly more striking drama than that of
" The Child Stealer," q sensational placsrding
OF which, by the way, greatly terrified the peo-
PIE OF Philadelphia some years ago.
There are only two or three of the inuumera-
BE incidents constantly coming TO the surface
of the daily current OF life and illustrating the
straDseness of its details. There is something
pathetic In the poor exile's baftied life and
psuper's death. He showed Spartan frmness
in refusing aid from friends whom he had in
yolved with him, or concessions from the gov
eminent he had plotted TO overthrow. In how
many other lives about us are similar yicissi-
tudes ana half hidden tragedies? To be sure,
the boy OF the Saratoga county woods, with his
Ground face and pug nose, :" las per descrip-
ton is not a specially sentimental figure; hat
perhaps he represents a tragedy or melodrama
in somebody's household. There are the posi-
bilities; and scores of other instances promise
quite as much. At any rate, the American
dramatist, when be does come, need not 90 TO
France for his plot and incidents.-N. I.
Times, sd.