The advocate., 1894-03-28
CHAPTER XIX.

DraVely
And scorneed to blot it with name.
Such lived not in the past alone,
But thread to-day the unheeding street.
And stairs to sin and famine known
Sing with the welcome OF their feet.
LOWELL.
And on that cheek, and Ger that brow,
So soft. so calm. yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the ttnts that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent
mind at peace with all below,
heart whose love Is innocent. nt.-BYRoN
Were / writing a novel, some Of the
incidents of the last two chapters and
some of which are to follow, would
doubtless bring the clubs|Of critics in
high dudgeon about my old head.
"HoW ridiCuIously improbable! Shows
how little this author knows of the
prophecies observed by people in polite
society. We advise the Rev. Gideon
whoever he may be-tO go out
of his priestly study awhile and learn
something Of the world before attempt
ing to knock another novel together. J"
And so on, till the poor author would
be ashamed to show his foolish face in
public.
But, fortunately, am not writing a
novel. | am not making fictitious peo-
pie act as l think they should. | am
relating how real people actually have
acted, and if their conduct was in
artistic, it is no business Of mine to
make the truth fit my notions Of pro-
priety. Historians, as a rule, do not
altogether approve of the st. BarthOle-
NEW massacre; but not even the most
artistic writer of history has yet pre-
sumed to recast the events to suit his
notions Of how such massacre ought
to be managed. Neither shall | make
over real people into mere ictiOns in
order to make their conduct seem prob
able because conventional. These peo-
ple acted just as l have related and
lust as | shall relate, and whether or
not they acted properly or wisely is not
my affair. Besides, let critics remem-
Der what Aristotle has said on this
same subject Of probability, and the
lines he quotes from Agatha
AEyen this il may be said, is probable,
That many things improbable should happen
In human life"
Suppose | should weave into this
narrative such an incident as this:
John Thompson, a boy about IA years
of age, walked into police headquarters
and said to the sergeant:
81 want you to lock me up. I'm a
thief. I've stolen seven flour sacks full
of wheat from the cars at Chestnut
street and sold it for chicken feed, and
want to be locked up"
"What did you steal it for?" asked
the sergeant.
$50 / could get arrested"
"What makes you so anxious to be
locked up?"
"I stole the wheat so | could get sent
to the reform school. That's the only
way can get an education, and that's
what I'm going to have"
Some literary gentleman having read
this in the privacy of his sanctum
would have dashed down my work, and
in polished indignation and disgust,
would have remarked "--p' two or
three times, perhaps in rapid success
sion. Yet | have taken the incident
from a newspaper of recent date, and
it occurred at Leavenworth in the state
of Kansas. You see, in real life people
are not always studying dramatic pro-
priety; and, hence, real narrative Of
occurrences in the lives of real people
may contain many improbable things
improbable from the standpoint of the
hypocritic. The critics had better let
me alone. l have thrown off this little
essay on probability only to show these
meddlesome folk what l might do
should / be provoked. If they are dis
satisfied with the construction of this
story, they have my permission to work
it over as Thackery did "IvanhOe," till
they get it to their liking At present
am writing it my way. Let us pro-
ceed.
For some reason the memory of Lena
Grahapn's face haunted John COttarell