The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-01-22
Of FASCINATION.
1hat - II That Attracts in One
@ 80 and Repels in
SAa Another2
EAe Fewer Gives a Clue to Many
Strange Stories in
& History.
FAas 40 AeglnMinG In Some Secret Source
81 Which Wc Have Not
# h Key.

FEEEEffA NH&T TT--N - -
- Which We Have Not
tho Key.
n What 10 IL? Whence does it spring? In
What unsxplored region of the mind Oh
body are it, roots TO be found? We under
Stand - a. . living fact, but OF its why, its
wnsrsfors, n whether it be an affinity
purely spiritual or partly physical, "s
Know absolutely nothing. Yet it exists
q most Of rs nave succumbed to Its
power. Few. indeed, are so poor in i'm
agiAatton. q Arid in sympathies, as not te
have beeome fascinated by someone OF
something At one time Of life. SAYS The
Qussu. And naturally youth is the time
moat fertile In these extraordinary out
bursts Of self surrender. when that special
person II the center of the universe for the
fascinated soul, the absolute point of per
faction, and ME flawless being who can dc
no harm.
Little children, who are In the mental
condition OF savazss, find this strange
property of fascination in things more
shan In persona. To them matter has attri-
butes which are lost when reason takes the
place Of imagination. A child falls in
love with = bit OF dead material and will
NOT be parted from it. 1t does not signify
what the thing 10. It may be a doll or a
fur rabbit q ball or u bit OF blanket. All
who have to do with children know that
'this queer attraction exists in l~ifoless.
1ornlsss things as we'll as those
TO which IL would be more easy to
give that occult grace. One sturdy little
fellow. who once caught a small silver fish,
would not lst the slippery creature out OF
his chubby hands till sleep relaxed his
grasp. And then, in the morning, when he
found that his soaly charm had gone, heaven
and earth came together and he broke his
little heart. in howls. What did that dead,
slimy. stro1R-smelling charm represent to
mimi Something quite out of the power of
reason to determine. II must have filled
his callow socl with some strange sug-
sense Of a far-of divinity, for the
moment incorporated in those Shiny.
shining scales. As early civilization
goes back for its gods to beasts and
fishes. 80 children find their friends and
secret ~confdants, their loves and mental
feathered captives. We are never SO near
70 the lower creatures as whom We are chill
dren. We never understand them so we'll
nor love them SO much, for the tie OF COM
munity and affection between a child and a
dog, or q child and a cat, is stronger than
four-footed follower, or a b%ecapped old
mistress and q furry favorite-one of the
little lions. small, and dainty sweet" for
which Arsinoe flung over her old lover and
took "far travelled Nicias" instead.
What is it that attracts us in one face and
repels us in another? We might say the
plain impress OF the spirit within if we were
vii attracted by the same person and all re-
PEELED by the same. Bat, as with that
~bQpGly old adage which sets forth how lone
mans meat is another mans poison so the
face-the person-whom we loathe another
passionately desires. and that which We de-
sire another as passionately loathes. The
cause lies deeper than this. 1t has it's be-
~oinnings in some secret ~source-some
strange. undetected science of which we
have not got the key. These subtle hat
monies and no less subtle discorda have
their own "Ursprung," and we have to &c
further yet into the mysteries of psyche
physiology before We come upon that we'll
concealed original cause. Magnetic" some
call il, which is merely resting the elephant
on tho back of the tortoise-and the tortoise
on whatp When we say magnetic" how
much nearer to the absolute cause of thi,
harmony-this discord-are we? We hav,
RlV0A d AdAlVt Wv IL haLho "aLiES u ClIO
ition. and then that definition must be re.
duced to it's elements. For. after all
what is this "magnetism'' which we say W,
zee because we feel? Is 1t a chemical ATTN
ity or q ~geometrical harmony? And in any
case, how is it that one person can fascin
amount Of chemical affinity or a strangel,
complex gsometrical arrangement O.
atoms2
This " of fascination PLAYS an i'm
pertant part in the lives of men and wo
men. Toe often the effects are disastrous
though at times-as in the leaders of larg
and righteous movements, or OF purer spirit
val aspirations-it has been one of the work
ers of salvation for the world. Yet for on
man who is elevated and made heroic by tn
personal fasoination of a woman. say, thou
sands are degraded and ruined
more numerous than the Orsons
and the Omphales and Delilah
are more potent to reduce the strength o
heroes than are the women of heroic
mould to strengthen and ennobls towards
This fascination. to which we all. more o
less, at some time or another, yield our
selves has its terrible side as we'll as it
lovely. The demon lover'' of the old poer
was but an over true type o
the fatal power which can be use
by a strong mind over a weak, I
the souls perdition and the body
ruiz OF the one VINO ylelQs. FOR, lnQeel
what is love but fascination in highes
sense and to the supremest degree? Ii
we're not so. bow should such and such b
loved with all the fervor of a life? We sc
honorable men fascinated into deeradatio
by an utterly unworthy woman-a woma
without heart. pity, sentiment or mora!it,
a woman who knows no more of love tina
she does of virtue. Yet she has power
attract, keep and ruin strong men an
oble lives. We see, on the other hant
women of character and position, who los
themselves, body and soul. for GONE wottl
less vuiQarian who has nothing, apparontl
10 recommend him. Hateful to one, he
fascinating to another; and the mystic
why remains unsolved and insoluble.
wife cliugs to a drunken, dissipated hu
band. not from a sense of duty, which
heroic, but from abject loye-the dog-lil
love of one hopelessly subdued and fasoil
sted TO the point which lies beyond sci
respect. A husband adores a woman vi
has not a charm. physical or moral, th
an outsider can discover-and so on throuj
the scale of human emotions. We ha
this power az q clew to many strange ssori
In history, which, however, Goes Ii
advance us much, But the only prectiC
mart which touches our daily lie ia the ca
We ought to take as to the character 81
nature of those to whom we open COZ o.
houss door; for where there are youl
people there will ever be the 'hei'
1911.