The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-05-24
The Beauty Of Chaos.

y
morning in chesrf frame of mind,
with heart as LIGHT as cork. Ii is a
pleasant den. this lonely lair OF m ne.
1t makes ,isitor think of a nightma e.
/ 1t is deeorat d after my own designs.
! Whenever found snything too big to
crowd into drawe o. pigeon hole,
nailed it ON the wall. The door is my
| photograph album, wherein arc tackled
the counterfeit presentment' of al my
| friends who have s Mt in their minia-
lures. Whatever the other members of
the family ab 3olu ely ref sed TO allow
in any other room lave nailed up on
the walls of my lair. an no n'ggard
| with nails w zen nail small st ell
engraving, unframed, to the wall, the
easiest way to get that picture down is
to pull the wall away from it. The lair
looks like household scrap book. And
/ think that is why like il.
have reason for everything in tho
lair. There is nothing symmetrical or
regular about it. If there was, would
| twi t it askew. But there is reason
for every photograph on the door and
every picture on the walls, from { e
Hebrew text lette ed ty the hand of the
M ssionary brother over in Assam to the
|
Ell. Every time lift my eyes from my
work they rest upon something that has
story to tell, that is alive and dear to
me and pre- eious with some association
of place, event or person. don't think
l would care .or anythingutt rlystrange
or unmeaning in my lair.
And that is as 8 man den should be.
Only his best friends are invited there
/ nw,Iv - IL. -
mission to his lar. He won't show
everybody his scrap book. And other
people like it, too. Now, there Is a
pleasant fable in the family that affords
me many moments of quiet mirth and
OF which | never weary, that this lair Is
sacred to myself; that IL is the temple
of the jester, into which no human
being may enter, unless he hath per-
NIT from the gentleman with the cap
and bells, and crawleth to the door on
his hands and knees, to symbolic his
humility and gratitude. But 10, my
masters, whenever | begin to whistle,
which is well-known sign that have
ceased writing, into the room cher
little serene Highness" is wheeled, the
Princess brings in her Kensington work,
the Prince climbs up at my desk and
draws pictures all over my paper. Par
lor, playroom and sewing room are
abandoned the minute the brazen gatt s
Of the lair are thrown open. And /
like that, too.
OF course, there are standing orders,
as there are in every well governed
lair, that the den shall never be busted
or swept, save by special pc. mission
and und II the personal supervision of
the giant who lives in it. Did ever
see it busted or swept Never. Is it
ever busted or swept? Good, my
masters, so many times every week
do laugh as l sit me down at my
desk and see here and there on tho
shelves, singly and in clusters, books
standing on their heads. lastly bestowed
in that way by frightened feminine
hands, busily engaged in the awful
crime of stra' gtening up my lair before
l smell the blood of a housemaid and
come roaring in to grind up enough
material for ore baking of bone bread.
Not that | OBJ eet to neatness. No,
am rather neat in ha' it myself / am
in some hings just the least bit methodi-
cal. Look at the pigeon-holes and
boxes in my Wooton. They are all
neatly labeled by my own hand. Here
is one labeled 81 etc Answered. y
Pull out the box and look In it. All, /
q n surprised There is letter in 1t.
However, remember now That let
ter is not answered. The man who
wrote it died, and so | transferred the
letter to that pig on-hole, because II is
Just as g, cd rs answered Now draw
out the next one marked 90. ettels I'm
| a nc MI
no, | forgot. The last letter | put in
there ! had to drive in with hatchet,
and it wedged the lox 50 tight l
haven't since been able to get it out.
And since then | have been fling my
correspondence in the waste basket.
But am going to reform now that
have lite more time and answer all
my letters. | hold that it is just as inn
polite and i'll brel to neglect letter as
it is to neglect to return the salutaton
o. friend who meets you in the street.
But will not promise to answer the
Winters accumulation of ack num-
bers. But you must see by the methodi-
cal arrangement of my desk that | am
o little system atic-powe full little.
There are some things, owever, that
should never lie ranged with any sys-
tenn or attempt at system. A mans
den, for instance. If decorator or a
house furnisher should lay off den he
would spoil the lair. He would take
away from the den Of newspaper man
n certain harming, bohemian, really
for anything, teaching the-young-la-
dies -Bible-class-or-go to- the hanging
air it should have, and would make t
artistic, aesthetic, 'nice,'' in fact. In
short, be would make it "eminentlv re-
Specialize and that would spoil ii. I
fear | am very low in my tastes. con:
Tess that | n no, in love with eminent
ly respectable people or things. seems
10 me, if man is emnen " respeeta-
lie he Is never anything else. When |
hearof an ''eminently respectable man
| always wonder If he didn't marry a
"most worthy woman" An eminently
re -pectable man always makes me think
of TALBOT Twysden, and, somehow, /
like Philip Firmin much better. Robert
V B~rdette, in Brooklyn EagIe.