The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-05-05
Intramural Thoughts.

1t was curious to read in the newspapers
that on Good Friday business was almost
suspended in the city of New York. Many
great corporations and associations. said
one paper, had consented to observe Good
Friday as day of mourning. The Stock
Exchange, the Produce Exchange. the Cot
ton Exchange. the Shipping Association
rooms. and the majority of the public build
ings-all places which must be presumed to
be peculiarly susceptible to religious infu-
ences-were closed. What would Governor
Carver and Captain Miles Standish. or Cot
ton Mather or Roger Williams, have thought
of all this? A few years ago how little
general knowledge there was of the occur
renee of these days! What does the more
general observance of them mean? The
paper says that Good Friday will soon be
as much of a holiday, or rest from business
as Christmas. Look at us closely. Governor
Carver: does it mean that we are becoming
more truly religious?
Cynicus, my friend, u.s. am afraid very
fond of his own voice. Said he to me one
day, Il read Scott's Bride of Lammer-
moor and l weep few drops privately.
perhaps, over that sentimental story. 1t is
pretty tale told in Ineligible and moder
ate English. But what insanity. to set it
to music. as you call it! Can any human
being, who is not victim of hysteria. I'M
agine man and woman actually making
love in songs, and such silly songs? Yes
yes-yes; l love; yes-y e. e-s; l 0 O.v e
you you; yes; l love. yes yes; Ii | o Ov, e
y 90 u up What, l say, does it mean? 1t
is humiliating to human nature. And by
and by the man or the woman dies. and he
dies saying the same stuff; and when you
think that he is happily gone and good rid
dance. he reviveS, and they lift him up,
and he rOars out more We e e.s. 10 o O.
We. and finally drops, and, thank goodness!
| is really not heard again. And the theatre
is crowded with intelligent people, and they
clap and shout bravo! And they are full of
enthusiasm, and wipe their eyes. and say to
each other. oh. isn't it COO beautifully
| give it up; there are no words! | put it to
you as rational friend says CYnicuS, "if
| it is not a Saddening spectacle. Can the
imagination conceive ANYTHING more eXQu
sitely absurd?" Why does not the wise
Cynicus complain of fairy stories? Do
bean stocks grow into ladders? And if they
did. and grew never so high into space. is
it not clear that the higher they grew the
| more Impossible 1t would be to climb them
and to breathe at their tops? Do we not
knOw-at least do not well informed peo-
pie know, and all people in the land of free
schools ought to be well infOrmed-that at
certain height in the atmosphere respira-
ton becomes very difficult, and at last i'm
possible? And pray what are Ogres? Isn't
it humiiating that human beings should be-
ieve in such monsters? And how could
they possibly live in the air? Cynicus
chdes us with Shakespeare. But what
could be more eXquisitely absurd than to
call canvas smeared with paint the forest
OF Arden and wooden boards the sea coast
in Bohemia? When Cynicus goes to see
las You Like IT. and the Winters
Tale" he looks with his imagination; and
if he has note of music in his SOUL when
he saw the woes of Lucia or the maiden
beauty of Marguerite. that note and his i'm
aginatiOn would make the scene as real as
the tragedy of Ophelia or the loves OF Ro.
meO and Juliet. Yet when he hears an or
atOr eloquently speaking, Cynicus thinks it
is triumph of human genius. But what