The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-01-22
A Numerical Accident.
BY NJ. E. W. S.

~-' -
sWhat is a Centennial but a numerical
accident?" said Orestes.
''It is nations birthday; always keep
my birthdays, and expect bouquets and pres
ents, don't you, Orestes ?'
"No; I only have one every four years
now. They are getting to be very unpleas-
ant reminders-they axe marked by crows
feet, gray hairs; women give me the go-by; I
have less pleasure in evening entertainments;
the gas is getting to be of poor quality, and
my glasses are not so clear as they once were.
l notice marked degeneracy in print; once
the smallest was SO clear I could read it at
any distance; now the printers are getting
very careless. cannot read it now with my
best glasses, and all because of birthdays! If
anybody wishes 10 send me a bouquet I will
thank him to send me instead good book
large print; aad il anybody wishes to make
me present, will thank him to pay the
coal bIl.'
"Oh, shocking, Orestesl If anyone makes
me present, wish it to be something per-
fectly useless-a fan, bit of china, picture,
and best of all, dear, perishable, fading, fra
grant flowers; that is the very aroma of
friendship, something which is ridiculously
unUseful. Love gices itself, and is not
bought dandelion plucked in walk and
sent ia aletter thousand miles is not valu-
able object in itself, but / have known it to
give more pleasure than diamond necklace;
SO with gifts-they must speak sthe sgiver's
love, not his wealth."
"Oh, what fools you women are, and
always have been, and always will be! and
yet" land here Ores.es drew al old NINA
tIre from his pocket and adjusting his glasses
looked at it with some difficulty, for they
the glasses-were dimmed with adjacent dew
Gapd 1av,tt lid
the purpose for which you were created bet
ter than if you were not fools; you can and
you do make fools of us, which is not always
desirable. Who said that women were born
to praise, to love, and to pardon?'"
II don't know who, but l know he said a
good thing. I believe Lamartine said it of
that charming beauty, wit and genius, Mad
anne Emile de Girardin. We praise and we
love because we are women; we pardon be-
cause you men need it so emphatically.'
II was talking about the Centennial" said
Orestes, with gloomy majesty The intends
always to do the severe HIMSELF. t'Why do
you go off about dandelons ?"
II don't know. was thinking of the dan
delions of a hundred years ago, and the rose
buds, and the beauties in lowered brocades,
who, with stiff corsage defining their delight
full little waists, and delicate laceirufles sbad-
ing their lovely busts, and soft brown curls
hanging low on the forehead, look at us from
Copley's pictures! o Orestes the beauties
OF a hundred years ago. where are they
now?''
'Dust," said Orestes, ''dust," and, as he
said SO he pressed his hand over his pocket
which held the miniature. "Do you remem-
ber," said he in softer tone than have
ever heard him use, ''do you remember
Story's exquisite poem, 'Praxiteles to
Phryne" Ii you do repeat to me the last
three verses-where he addresses Phryne and
claims arts immortality for her.
"Phryne, thy human lips shall pale,
Thy rounded limbs decay
Nor love nor prayers can aught avail,
To bid thy beauty stay.
But there thy smile for centuries
On marble lips shall live
For art can grant Uhdt toUe denies,
And fix the fugitive!
And strangers when we sleep in peace,
Shall say not quite unmoved,
so smiled upon Praxiteles
The Phryne whom he loved.'"
delicious human touchr' said Orestes;
"the sculptor, with the instinct of an artist,
looks down the centuries for the spectator
who is to sympathize with his work.
NO." said J., Indignantly, "the lover seeks
to charm the ages with the smile of Phryne?''
''More dandelions ?" said the fell Orestes.
but do not intend TO walk primrose-paths
this morning, intend to talk sense; I wish
to know why you feel so little interested in
what you call nations birthday and, more
than that, why feel so little interested in
the Centennial'n
II think, in my own case, that it results
from lamentable ignorance of the history of
my own country; know little of its military
and social history, still less of its political his
tory, and what is worse, it is impossible for
me to read anything with interest about it.
might be ashamed to own this ifI had not
SO many companions in my ignorance. Why
is it? Is it because our story is so modern %
"Yes-partly. History must watt as
somebody said well in the morning paper, but
partly because no one has handled it well. 1t
might be made picturesque, should think"
"Yes; Hawthorne has contrived to write
gloomy, absorbing, morbid story, from the
cold, Puritan soil, in sThe Scarlet Letter, but
then we should be sorry to pay for such an
interest with such a tragedy often. Besides
unfortunately, that particular tragedy does
not belong exclusively to any age of the
world. l wish somebody would arise who
could tell me the story of our early struggle,
and our political conformation and growth,
SO that it would stand out az does the story
of Magma Charta, for instance"
Eyes; you want some one to stand up be-
fore an immense blackboard, and chalk out
for you the outlines"
facts put before me in the Motleat manner 7
never can Law down sTbe Dntcb Rennhlic;
any more than could have thrown as;9e The
most enhancing noyel.'
"Well. no one has arisen vet who has tal,en
that trouble for Won. and T do not believe anv-
body will. You have GOT to stndv and study
hard, to know the history of YOUR own coun,
try. Truth to tell, 'acontinued Orestes. "there
are very few picturesque incidentsp p
sob! don't you think so? 1 think there
are many incidents which are picturesque, aad
which, il deftly woven in. would make the
warp and wool most brilliant. Now, look at
this, far back, in 1919: Hitherto there had
been but few women in the colony; but Sir
Edward Sandys, convinced thai pleasant
homes were necessary to give permanence to
the settlement, induced ninety Young women
to cross the ocean, at the expense of the com
pany, and they were soon disposed of as
wives to the settlers, at the rate of one hun.
bred pounds of tobacco worth about seventy
five dollars) each. The next wear sixty more
were sent over, and the price of wife rose to
one hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco.
From 1919 to 1922, thirty-fiye hundred per
sons found their wav to VIRGINIA A written