The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-18

devil inside OF as. I've got him, you We
got him." cried the preacher-he was an
old man with long white hair and beard,
preachers who came ''reviving," as 1t was
called, through that district had those
eyes. Some of them needed '.reviying''
themselves, in a physical sense, before
they got clear out of it. l am speaking OF
more than thirty years ago now.
"Ah! so US have-so as have" came the
response.
'iAnd you earn't get rid of him." con-
tinued the speaker.
mot of oursel's," calculated a fervent
voice at the end of the room, ''but the
Lord will help u.s."
The old preacher turned on him almost
! fiercely:
"But tn Lord woan't." he shouted.
"doan't ZEE reckon on that, lad. we've got
| him an we've got ia keep him. Ye carn't
| get rid of him. Tn Lord doan't mean
| ZEE to-"
Here there broke forth murmurs of
angry disapproval, but the old fellow went
| on, unheeding.
ut arn't good for ZEE to get rid of him.
| we've just got 10 hug him tight. Doan't
| let him 60. Hold him fast, and-lam into
him. / tell ZEE it's good healthy Christian
| exercise"
We had been discussing the subject with
reference to our hero. 1t had been sug-
| gested by Brown as an unhackneyed idea,
and one lending itself, therefore, to COM
| parative freshness of treatment, that our
| hero should be thorough paced scamp.
Jephson seconded the proposal for the
| reason that it would the better enable Us
to accomplish artistic work. He was of
| opinion that we should be more sure of
our ground in drawing a villain than in
| attempting to portray good man.
MacChaupnQsly fhirdcd Gf / NAV c0in
what has often appeared to me to be
much-needed word) tho motion with
ardor. He was tired, he said, of the
crystal-hearted. nob.e-thinking young
| man of fiction. Besides. it made bad
reading for the young person." 1t gave
her false ideas, and made her dissatisfied
with mankind as he really is.
And, thereupon, he launched forth and
sketched up his idea Of hero, with refer
ence to whom can only say that should
not like to meet him on a dark night.
Brown, our one earnest member, begged
us to be reasonable, and reminded US, not
for the first time, and not, perhaps, al
ings were for the purpose of discussing
business, not of talking nonsense.
Thus adjured. We attacked the subject
conscientiously.
Browns idea was that the man should
be an out and ont BLACKBOARD until about
should transpire that would have the eff
feet of completely reforming him. This
naturally brought the discussion down to
the question with which I have COM
menced this chapter: Does man ever re-
form2 argued in the negative, and gave
the reasons for my disbelief much as /
had set them forth here MacShaugnassy,
and instanced the case of himself-a man
who, in his early days, 50 he asserted, had
been scatter-brained, impracticable per-
son, entirely without stability.
maintained that this was merely an
example of enormous will power, enabling
man to overcome and rise superior to
the defects of character with which nature
had handicapped him.
my opinion of YOU" said, "is that
you are naturally hopelessly irresponsi-
bic. well-meaning ass But" continued
quickly, seeing his hand reaching out for
a complete Shakespeare in one volume
that lay On the piano, "your mental capa-
bilities are of such extraordinary power
that you can disguise this fact and make
yourself appear a man of sense and Wis
DOM"
Brown agreed with me that in Mac
Shaugnassy's case, traces of the former
disposition were clearly apparent, but
pleaded that the illustration was an I'M
fortunate one, and that it ought not to
nave weight IN TIE discussion.
Seriously speaking" said he, don't
you think that there are some experiences
great enough to break up and reform a
mans nature?'
ITO break up" I replied, Eyes, but to
reform, no. Passing through q great ex-
perience may shatter a man, or it may
strengthen a man, just as passing through
furnace may melt or purify metal. but no
furnace ever lit upon this earth can change
bar of gold into bar of lead. or bar of
lead into one Of gold"
/ asked Jephson what he thought. He
did not consider the bar of gold simile O
good one. He held that a mans charac-
ter was not an immutable element. He
iikened 1t to q drug-poison or elixir
compounded by each man for himself
from the pharmacopDia Of all things
known to life and time, and saw no i'm
possibility, though some improbability, in
the glass being flung aside and a fresh
draucht prepared with pain and labor.
SWELL" said /, ''let US put the case
practically; did you ever know q mans
character to changer"
Yes" he answered, ST did know
man whose character seemed to be COM
pletely changed by an experience that
happened to him. 1t may, as you say,
only have been that he was shattered, or
that the lesson may have taught him to
Keep his natural disposition ever under
control. The result. in any case, was
striking"
We asked him to give US the history of
the case, and he did So
HE was friend of some cousins of
mine. 3" Jephson began, "people | used to
see good deal of in my UNDERGRADUATE
DAYS. When met him first he was a
young fellow Of b. strong mentally and
physically, and of a stern and stubborn
nature that those who liked him called
masterful, and that those who disliked
nina more numerous body-termed tyr.
annicaL When / saw him three wears
later he was an old man Of %, gentle and
yielding beyond the border line of weak
ness, mistrustfui of himself and consider
ate of others TO degree that was often I'M
wise. Formerly, his anger had been q
thing very easily and frequently aroused.
Since the change of which speak, have
never known the shade of anger to cross
his face but once. and l think l am the
only person who has seen even that. In
the course of a walk one day we came
upon young rough terrifying a child by
pretending to set dog at her. He seized
the boy with a grip that almost choked
him, and administered to him a punish
ment that seemed to me altogether out of
proportion to the crime, brutal though il
was
Il demonstrated with him when he re.
Joined me.
"'Yes, he replied alphabetically; Il sup
pose I'm hard Judge of such follies.'
And, knowing what scene his haunted
eyes were looking al, said no more.
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