The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-10-11
IF A WOMAN DIE
Ill She Live Again?-An Agnostic Lovers
Strange Study In Physiology.


Late one night in June two men,
medical student and young lawyer
sat discussing more things than Horatit
dreamed of in his philosophy.
''Can you think" said Graham, tn,
lawyer, ''that there is absolutely no ex
istence of any vital principles apar
from the physical functions that stor
with deathp will never believe thai
there is not something behind all thai
the something that looks out of the
eyes-that intangible, incomprehensiblt
something; that II or that you which
only uses human eyes or voice to ex-
press itself
''All that has been discovered to be
nothing but combination more or less
complicated of brain cells" retorted
Fielding, the student. eff you had
gone into the sort of a thing have you
would see that it is all reducible to
matter. A few more steps and there
will be no questions of spirits, even for
such idealists as you. Touch one spot
inthe brain. of genius, and you have
a gibbering idiot. Lift bit of bone
from an idiots brain and you can edu-
cate your man of genius"
Graham shook his head
81 have seen too many DEATHS" con-
tinued Fielding, land too many dis
sections not to be positively assured
that the vital essence is extinct with
death. Why, just look at it, how many
trifiing accidents put an end to mans
existence. Stop his heart, take away a
few pounds of blood, destroy his di-
gestion and you have destroyed him, l
say. The necessary combination of
forces to work his machinery has been
disarranged, and he stops for good and
all. 1 grant you for some It is hard
enough to give up the idea of soul,
but most people will be glad to well
come anhilation, as do: No, we are
born, and we die, and there's the end.
Graham smoked silently for some
time, and looked out of the open win
dow on the brilliant moonlight that
dimmed half the stars.
"a night for lovers" he remarked
presently.
"Who believes in Immortality for one
night only" laughed Fielding. ''What
nonsense it seems that the reflected
light of dead world, and the twink
ling of a few live suns, millions of lea
CUES away, should make people ready |
to die for each other, when they laugh |
at the idea after their own sun rises"
"You incorrigiblc materialist" cried |
Grahami ''why do people marry every |
dayp"
'Habit, example, and conditions of
the race. One woman is as good as
another if she is healthy and sweet
tempered"
poor Tom Carroll doesn't think so
where Dora Varian is concerned" said
Graham, with short laugh.
Eyes, in two years Tom Carroll will
have forgotten her refusal and her exis-
tence, under the comfortable regime of
some indifferently pretty housekeeper
whom accident will saddle on him as
wife, and mother of his children"
II don't know why she wanted to
throw Tom over" said Graham look
ing at the end Of his cigar with slight
frown. "What merciless flirt she Isl
1t would not have been so bad if she !
hadn't taken him away from another
girl. wonder if she has any heart at
ALL"
''She's a skeptic, like me-" said {
Fielding, carelessly. "These men work
up speeches out of novels, and play de-
voice, and it amuses her. Ii would
amuse me-"
you don't know her well, do you?" '
said Graham. Il don't believe if YOU
did, you could keep out of her clutches. !
But she will find her match rs last / h
nave no doubt. Those women do suf- b
er sometimes" .
'Ill wager you what you like" cried r
Fielding, ''that Dora Varian and l will g
play at love in the most artistic way. f,
md separate at the end, neither of us b
he worse for the game" n
''Ill make no wager" said Graham, "
,riefy; "but none the less 1 am sure 4
hat you will either marry, or one of h
GU will repent it." il
Fielding had never been one of the g
Dung men about town. He was sell al
ON lured into a ball room, and never
Ito the pleasure parties where people it
leet so much more agreeably than un- h,
er the lighted chandeliers. Now it pl
as noticed that he was losing his re- CO
red habits to talk to Dora Varian, and m
was not long before one was seldom of
ZEN without the other. People Won tn
cred and gossiped; these two kept co
eir own counsel. Fielding was i'm an
when rallied, and Miss Var he
n placid and taciturn in all her love ca
fairs, was so in this. And the three ha
onths came to an end, and Fielding we
id to Miss Varian:
Next week sail for France. You of
II wish me pleasant voyage, won't an
up" ~.
How long will you be gomez" she he,
ked, lifting her eyes with friendly in sb,
est. io,,
Impossible to tell. My plans are so sol
lefnite that have come to say good me