St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-04-26
LIFE'S TRAGEDIES.

LIFE'S TRAGEDIES.
Before Mr.. HOWELLs had adopted his
peculiar views on realism in fiction
which have divided novel readers into
camps of friends and enemies, he wrote
good many books which were popular
with everybody capable of enjoying wit
and spirit. One of the volumes of the
Atlantic Monthly, now many years back,
contains a story of his which has never
been reprinted, and is not included
among his published works. 1t is said
to nave been suppressed because its
plot was too transparent picture
OF an actual episode, the public eX-
plotting of which was offensive to
the people concerned. The GLOBE
does not know whether or not this
is the true explanation of the
fact; and the novel itself, which was
called ''Private Theatricals," has left
no very definite impression on its mind,
except that it was bright and entertain
ing, and III the authors earlier style. 1t
was the simple record of a summer at
an Eastern resort, i'll which figured a
light woman, and two men whose friend
ship had stood the test of years. Over
this woman, who was quite unworthy of
such sacrifice, these men quarrel; and
there Is powerful scene, where, with
much dramatic intensity, they are pirt-
ured us trampling under their feet, for
all utterly inadequate reason, the most
precious possession of their lives, the
loss of which leaves them both lame
and impotent.
Experiences of this sort are not un-
common i'll the careers of most men and
women. Their bitterness is permanent
and oppressive, and if those who suffer
them are sensitive TO their sting, they
are for them great tragedies. The sor-
sowS of life are not alone in external
things and objective experiences. The
records of courts of justice do not con-
tain all the annals of deeds of violence,
nor do the wrongs of every murdered
man and woman and the crime of every
murderer figure beneath the headlines
OF the daily press. The violation and
death of the human body comes within
the province of legal supervision. but
the tragedies which weaken and destroy
the hearts and tie souls Of living Great
ures are worked and endured in secret,
and the lives of those who sin and are
slnned against in this domain may be
lived for long years behind the mask OF
a smiling face which affords no index
to the anguish hid within.
The mad poet said that as to the
spider his web and to the bird his nest,
so to man was friendship; and. while
this was not the maddest thing he
wrote, it was not the wisest, either.
The protection and comfort which come
to human beings from close and warm
personal relations with their fellows
are. it is true, to be counted among the
great things of life. But their response
bilities and their dangers are lost sight
OF when they are classified i'll this way
with words of unlimited praise. Even
the pureSt and the brightest strands
which unite us one to the other now
and then become tangled and painful.
Children grow tired of their parents
and struggle for freedom and divorce,
and fathers and mothers feel the burden
of their hostages to fortune as a mount
gladly rid. Such revulSionS endure i'm
most eases for but moment, but while
they do they are tragedies of the pro-
foundest sort. They rend the souls
which undergo them as would fever.
he conflict between safety and the
conviction of duty is terrible to suffer,
and to those who have not the power to
see the sure landing place beyond the
sea of temporary passion, there is great
darkness and h0peleSSneSS while the
storm RACES.
Marital infelicitieS patiently sub
mitted to constitute another class of
tragedies. The vulgar parading of
such sorrows is common enough in the
law courts, but infinitely more in num-
Der are the lives. which are passed in
alternate flashes of JOY and blight, Or in
one long night of quarrel, of which no
mutterings come to the general ear.
b BROWNING, in one of his poems, cele-
brateS the faith the grammarian must
have in the life to come. that he should
be willing to spend his years in this
world over nothing more real than parts
OF speech and the Jules of SyntaX. And
in the same way, those that pass from
youth to age in all atmosphere of do
nestle martyrdOm must be either the
victims of despair, or animated by the
fullest confidence that there is glori-
Gus future, for which their sad expert
ences are but a training school. 1t is
one of the most ineXplicable mysteries
of human nature, that men and women
who seem and are completely equipped
| to be CHEEKY comrades for other people
are so often linked in lifelong bonds to
| spirits with which they are ceaselessly
! at war. One would think that incom-
| patibilities and differences would Weld
to an ambition for personal comfort, if
to 10 higher motive. But such is not
| the case. Brothers and sisters Haunted
cling to each other long after affection
and happiness have ceased to illumine
their relations, and men and women
| break bread for scores of years around
a hearth fire where shoulders the chill
flame of mutual distrust and dislike.
Those who criticise the wisdom of
| continuing such unions have, perhaps.
never known the most exquisite form of
| the souls tragedies. There is a sorrow
not to be spoken lightly of in submitting
to domestic differences. whether they
come simply as Interruptions to pleas
anter experiences or are the daily
routine of those who suffer them; but
| they are not to be compared to a love or
a friendship dead and gone forever.
Men grow up together, and at the same
time grow together. They are as much
| parts of each other as their limbs are
parts of their own body. The chapters
in their lives are delightful reading be-
cause they read them aloud together.
| They see and remember the bright
things by the wayside, not for them
selves alone, but because they want
each other to share in their store. Their
| thnmmhtS and deeds and ,unrdS from tLo