Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-01-21

CHAPTER L.

COPYRIGHTED By THE AUTHOR, 1871.
=S~--
CHAPTER L.
INTRODUCTORY.
I believe that I am not what could
actually be called superstitious, yet
since my earliest recollection / have
had opinions that differ from tho &C
cepted religious doctrines; and such
opinions Cor beliefs) are often looked
upon as superstitous, if not wholly
ridiculous and not to be considered.
But no one deliberately manufactures
his own belief-that is something over
which he ordinarily has little more con-
troll than he has over the original form
of his body or the co'or of his complex
Tor, for, like these, it is part of his
corporate self He can distort his body
or paint his face, but left alone, they
will resume their normal shape and
color-the same with his belief. How
ever, ones settled opinions are some
times completely changed by some i'm
pressive accident, circumstance or
reaching; but this change, you will see,
is not wrought by his own will. but by
influences that are brought to bear
upon him The influences by which we
are surrounded in the main form our
ion are mapped out in our intellects as
by the hand of an unseen, incompre-
hensible destiny, ard we have little
thought but to follow the directions or
promptings thereof AS the poet says:
'Tis education forms the common mind;
Just as the twig is bent the trees in
clined."
In other words, the impressions of
childhood bear upon ones whole life. L
know that with me-Hal Maia-the i'm
pressions of childhood have hung like a
prevailing vapor over the whole period
of my existence; and in every tragedy,
comedy Or romance, in which L have
been fortunate or unfortunate enough
TO participate, / have been referred
back to the dawning OF my personal
history.
Orphaned in infancy, and left home
less, my childhood was spent among
strange faces, and amid perpetually
AS there was no one to worry over my
whereabouts, / went forth when | listed
and came back when | willed.
I much frequented wild and out Of
the way places, and was often infatu-
ated by gloomy objects that would have
been far from fascinating to other chill
dren. The roar of the cataract as it
tumbled and plunged through jagged
gorges and the bowling CT the wind as
it swept among the cliffs and crags,
were my music.
| loved to wander amid the hush and
the loneliness of woodland scenes The
signing of the trees, the ripping of the
brooks, the quaint sounds articulated
by the small wild animals, by the
beasts of the field and the birds
of the air, were to me we'll
known and welcome sounds The
wilderness was my kindergarten, and
the obiect-lessOns it presented were
earnestly studied.
| had no steady place of habitation,
but was taken in and taken care of,
after q manner, by this person and by
that, for awhile for l was continually
estray, and no one took the pains to
hunt me up.
Thus my infancy and childhood passed
into youth, when childhood's dreamy
Hife ended, and then my living came by
an arduous strife with adversely.
What information l possess was
picked up of my own accord, regardless
of schools or the peda gOgue's art.
] had an early liking for letters, and
explored enterprisingly the realm of
knowledge, although nothing like sys-
TEN or order ever accompanied my
efforts
I was drilled to no particular trade, so
my occupation was necessarily various,
and, aside from the fact that it main
tanned me reasonably well, was of a sort
that bore as its fruit more experience
than wealth.
The course of my career finally settled
IN The channel of itinerant journalism.
and later into that of literature, as best
becoming person of haphaIard accom-
gIishments and rowing disposition.
All these circumstances, being of an
exceedingly miscellaneous and uncom-
mon character, may have combined to
divert my thoughts out of any of the
approved groves of religious theory, and
TO cause the opinions now dominant
within my mind to fasten themselves
upon me; but / credit my belief to other
causes.
When was a little child I held COM
1nunion with Shadowy forms that told
me by MYRIAD signs that they were rel
atfves of mine; souls of my psope who
had shaken off the tolls Of material life
and assumed immortal existence in the
spiritual word. Long before l knew
that they were ghosts followed them
about in the gloom of night and felt per-
fectly at home in their company.
I often followed these specters to the
sraveyards to witness hosts of dim forms
march and stalk about among the white
rombs: this, too, at times when other
children were coddled up in their trundle
beds at home, dreaming things not half
so wild as [ was looking at with open
eyes and the full possession OF my
waking senses.
Eesides the aforesaid, often in my
later life has it been fully proven to me
that there is but the vail of a breath be-
tween the materia ard the spiritual life.
that some of us are granted the privilege
of communing with the people of the
phantasmal world.
| mention these few details of my past