The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-13


The last miles fell sandy and Dalton
had wondered rather YEARLY, how much
farther was his inn, when suddenly he
saw the Hercules Of Shinnecock, and
knew that he had reached the goal Of
that days spin The Hercules looking
down from his repose doubtless fancied
if that carved wood indeed holds the
gods heart-that his was but one more
of the modern Centaurs whose legs and
hoofs evolution had made to wheels-if
in very truth the Hercules of Shinnecock
holds some of the personality of the hero,
became a god in the true days OF fable.
You know how this Hercules stands
facing the inn, over against the meadow
and the shimmering bay. All day and
all night he looks down in mighty repose
-summerdays of sketching, artists who
dream of canvasses at the next exhibition
which shall tell OF the changing colors OF
the little sketch of hill country of Shine
cock; autumn days of golfers, and less
athletic folk; winter days and nights
when rage possesses the sea and this
image dreams perhaps of the gone time
when it stood buffeting the waves, defy
ing them--bearing proudly the Ohio and
its flag of the Republic. Do inanimate
things then sometimes fall a-dreaminng?
Do they indeed sometimes hold the nature
of the creature the artist has striven to
produce? SO the great block, carved by
a forgotten sculptor, into the semblance
of the hero as he was conceived in the
Farnesian Hercules-reminiscen not only
of its own taste, but of all that Hercules
knew and saw and did.
A tree overshadows the figure at some
hours of the fitting day. "A perfect
rural statue philosophical Dalton in
his uncritical mood, sitting there on the
inn steps, while the host mildly chartered.
OF another day might have decried this
opinion; but now the low moon had taken
up the pale twilight had turned the dying
light OF day into a suffused yellowness.
The dinner was long over; the last
guest had gone; and still Dalton sat there;
and it was as if he were back in Andover
reading Mr. Bohn's aid to English stu
dents Of the Greek poets. 1t was to him
as If there might appear suddenly out OF
the half moonlight spaces, the priests and
the maidens; as IL a prayer might go up
to the god. as OF many twilight Her
eules was besought in the old days on an
isle Of Greece.
l.
En- said Dalton, taking meditative
pull at his pipe.
1.-THE roads were sandy-weren't they"
said the host You'd had to gone to
Southampton before you found another
tavern. You like to know that this was
an inn in 1745 ON the Kings highway"
But Dalton was not listening. He had
left the gossiping host and had strolled
across the road, and on under the shadow
Of the Hercules-where he paused for
a musing moment-and, then, on toward
the bay. How still it all was, after the
town? How all the world seemed to be
in retrospect and all the mythology again
true. Would it happen in the course of
the cycle OF Time the Father-and the
ever aging, yet, eternal possesor of us,
and our moods-that men would come
back to the mythology, the folk lore, that
peopled the seas and the forests and the
stretches of meadow with personalities
that were not so improbable under
this moon, by this lonely reach Of bay,
and the hilltops ranged against dark
ish blue which the moon permitted but
an occasional star to pierce.
For a full hour this sentimental fell
low-not long out of his office, paced up
and down the beach with his fancies;
and then rather regretfully turned back
toward the shadowy Hercules.
AS he neared it suddenly wakeful, he
let his imagination go tripping. Again he
saw that part of the vanished Greeks,
vaguely true in his memory of those
schoolboy faneies between the studious
moments of digging out explanations of
AZ nj ha
lights out, the door ajar for the laggard
guest, who hesitated, looking up to the
Hercules who seemed to express the
verify the unknown carver had felt, even
were this copy. Now the moon emitted
flaws, and this was the god looking down
at his worshippers. Out of the past, Dali
toms wandering fancies brought these old
Greeks, prayerful of Hercules, and then
"Oh, dearr
He started. Had he tainted, this ex-
pressive sigh which had come out of the
figure; and then he heard, but not the
gruff and awful voice of the hero raised
to the gods; instead, a low feminine tone,
that of Dryad who still was in the trunk
out OF which the carver had wrought this
invincible fgurehead of good ship Of an
other day. Yet there was that note prom
lSeTul OF human cause In the eXclamd-
ton which set all at once Dalton's fancies
at rest. Quickly he stepped back of the
Hercules where, clinging as if for protec-
ton to his superhuman reposeful strength,
was figure slight, and yet human, which
gave out little dismayful cry, and drew
nearer to the wooded block (yet is it not
moreD and cried out:
Don't hurt me, please"
MY dear young lady" said our young
gentleman, 81 certainly have no such in
tention. / beg you thousand pardons"
His voice may have treasured her, for
she now stepped out into the moon
shine-a slight, girlish figure, in a
costume the Greek ladies' not Sappho,
nor her Pericles loved-ever would
have dreamed of, though they indeed
might approve OF it, could they revisit
this old earth, and if they know out OF
the gloomy of Hades. All, are they there
who laughed so lightly on earth. Who so
loved Pleasures own dear self.
In her hand, the supplicant Of the
roadside god, dragged a wheel; slight
girl with that indofiua bIq air Of djStinc-