The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-04-30

add that the sensation gave them the
same pleasure experienced in witness
ing high tragedy in a play? That
may be true enough-up to a certain
point. But beyond that point, even to
the most helpless, irresponsible and
disinterested witness, the scene shakes
off it's theatrical pleasure, and becomes
agonizing reality.
There are various elements which
determine this point of conveyance, in
the mind of the spectator, between the
theatrical fascination and the vital per-
sonal terror produced by the tragedy.
One element is time; another individu-
ality. With the individuality of the
participants clearly developed, and
time, the important factor in the result
of the tragedy, the emotion of terror
becomes supreme with the spectator.
Nor does the amount of fatality in
the balance at all determine the extent
to which the spectator realizes the ter
ror of the situation.
For instance: 1t is well-esta blished
fact that a spectator can witness, with
playhouse pleasure-when powerless to
attempt to prevent inevitable collision
the awful spectacle of two swiftly
approaching trains freighted with
doomed human beings. The people
are concealed. The spectator knows
that they are there, knows that they
are many and that they are surely
doomed. But he does not see the dis
tinct individuals implicated, and he
feels that time holds no hope for deliv-
GRANGE. Therefore he consciously or
unconsciously gets kind of stage plea
sure out of the exciting spectacle.
Let me illustrate, from personal ex-
perience, the point where the elements
of time and individuality render a
tragedy unexpectedly and supremely
terrible to the most innocent, helpless
and disinterested spectator.
Many autur rs ago, the approaching
marriage of a family friend furnished
me occasion for visit to Atlanta,
where he and his promised wife re-
sided. Under the circumstances, ex-
pected to see little of him, but the
southern country was new to me and I
anticipated seeing as much of that as
should prove of interest.
One exquisitely clear day, shortly
after my arrival, l took an early lunch
and boarded the noon train for Stone
mountain.
The gentleman who shared his car
seat with me was ON the same mission,
but was far better posted on the scene
which we were to visit than l. He stated
it was rumored that there was cave,
in the most perpendicular side Of the
mountain, which was inhabited by
myriads of bees. AS it was discernible
only at a distance, we agreed to make
a wide circuit at the base of the noun
tain, to point opposite the supposed
bee cave, and see if my powerful field
glass would reveal the cavity and posi-
bly, some safe way of reaching it from
p the summit above.
Stone mountain is a single immense
bowlder, one solid rock rising to a
height of three thousand feet from an
almost level plain. Its three sides are
all steep, but the facing out upon the
open plain, invisible from the rail-
road, is extremely precipitous and in
places perpendicular. The soil which
ages had strewn into it's crevices and
upon it's dizzy little table-land had
rooted occasional clusters of hardy
black jack oaks, and the vaulting am
bition of some settler had led him to
plant cabin and a vineyard upon the
most sheltered and fertile portion of
the plateau.
At the base of the mountain nearest
the station are the stone quarries. A
number OF men were at work in them
cutting paving stone from the foot of
the great bowlder. 1t occurred to me.
as noticed them that James Hardy,
my Atlanta friend, was interested in
the quarries.
AS our circuitous walk brought us
tuto view of the most precipitous side