The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-11-08
A Quiet Life.

About fifteen years ago, young man
whom we shall call John x was
the chief favorte of the most exclusive
and refined social circle in one of our
Atlantic seaboard cities.
The reasons for his prominent posi-
ton were obvious. He was descended
from an old English family that had
borne foremost part in the Revolu-
ton; he was the heir TO large wealth |;
he lived alone in the stately old home
stead which he had inherited, filled
with treasures OF costly books, pictures,
the innumerable rare belongings which
accumulate, generation after genera
ton, in an afiiuent and cultured family.
John X held the position of a
prince of the blood among the fashion
able nouveaux riches of his native city.
He danced well, he was known to have
a singularly-sweet and powerful voice,
though he seldom sang. He talked
little. but he was the best of listeners.
Whenever his slight, erect figure and
quiet, swarthy face appeared in ball
room, there was sure to be crowd OF
the foremost men and most beautiful
women.
But apart from all these outward adj
vantages, there was peculiar charm
in the man which no one could define.
1t lay, probably, in the total absence
of sham, pretense or OF self-conscious-
ness in him. He annoyed you neither
with vanity nor modesty; he simply
did not think of John X at all. He
thought of you, your interest, your
pleasure; of the duty that lay before
him, of the thing to be done at the mo-
ment. There was no underlying
thought of 81" or me" This lack of
self-consciousness may seem an ordi-
nary virtue, but it is as rare as the
Kohinoor among diamonds.
His fashionable associates knew that
he was q member of the Christian
church; but he was not a man who
could boast of the relations between
himself and God before strangers.
One evening there was q dinner where
he was expected; his chair remained
vacant, and before it was over word
came that he was dead. John X"
said some one who knew him we'll, "an-
swered death as quietly and promptly
as he did every other call to duty
After he was in his grave it became
known for the first time to his family
and friends that he had been for years
a constant visitor to the hospitals and
prisons of the city; and one-third of his
income was spent III trying to reform
and help discharged prisoners. Indeed,
it was from fever taken in one of these
jails that he died
Emerson, who knew him we'll, said of
him: He had one of the largest, sweet
est moral natures l ever encountered
and the most singular lack of self
esteem. After he died, happening TO
pick up an English paper, saw a
notice that John X, one of the four
greatest chess-players in the world, was
dead. Now. had known him in
timately for years, yet never suspected
that he could make move upon the
board"
The outline of such q character can
not but be useful in an age and among
a people where pretentious display and
self-esteem are but too common. 1t
offers the same contrast as does fine
cartoon in black and white hung in the
midst of CANDY chromos. We do not
give the real name of this man, for it
would please him better, we are sure,
that the good he did should live while
he himself should sleep in an unknown
graye.-YOItRS Communion.