The Winslow mail., 1897-01-16
The Clown and the Missionary.
Py VIOLA ROSEBORO.

Copyright, 1892, by the Century Connpany.l
1t was a sunny May morning, and the
Baltic was steaming out Of New York
bay for Liverpool. 1t was the old ships
last trip in these waters, and she made
it under special conditions She was
given up entirely to second class passen-
gers, who, of course, as a result, had in
some respects first class accommoda-
tions. The consequence was social
mixture perhaps shade odder and more
varied than is usually seen. Two weeks
before my friend Miss Milman had hap
pened to see this arrangement adver-
tised and we had suddenly and happily
discovered that at the rates given we
could afford to drop work (our painting
and writing) for month or two and to-
gether run over to the other side. -
We were on deck in that May sun
shine, our hands full Of flowers-for our
friends had graciously ignored our low
ly second class estate in their farewells
the bright waters dancing around us,
the workaday world behind us, enchant-
ed lands of romance and beauty before
US, and at our elbows new and hetero-
geneous representation of the dear, dull,
supremely interesting human race. By
the time we had spent an eternity of
two days in d universe of water and
sky we had discovered beneath the pre-
vailingly commonplace eXteriors various
pleasing features among our fellow pas
sengers. The Irish ward politicians OBJ
vious moral Nervousness, taken together
with his tender devotion to little sick
wife, gave us an enjoyable incongruity.
We relished the simple and profound
moral patronage we received from
trio of professional feminine philan-
thropists, we'll meaning souls, dripping
with self esteem, who were going over
to investigate the workings Of some So
ciety for the promotion of some sort OF
good works. We delighted in their
genuine horror of stunning, bouncing,
good looking young woman who was
said to be an actress, but whose normal
position, it was perfectly clear, was at
the head of a column of lightly clad
-amazons i'll Kiralfy spectacle, and we
liked her as a perfect specimen Of her
kind, but we had most pleasure i'll the
simple admiration and respect we felt
for a shabby, gentle, intelligent mis-
sionary from China, who was on his
way to great Exeter hall meeting in
London, and in the curiosity aroused in
US by dumb, wooden youth with wa
terry, pale eyes and a red head, who
looked rough and ''horsy," and whom
we repeatedly saw sitting in his state
room-it was opposite ours-reading
small Bible.
We thought it piquant when we
found he knew the spectacular amazon,
but that was but the beginning of salts
factions, for we soon discovered that he
was himself a circus clown.
To look upon little dull, faithful
looking creature like that, to see him
absorbed i'll reading pocket edition of
the Holy Scriptures and to be able to
reflect that he lived by the violent vi
vacities of a sawdust butfoon was a
privilege that, among other things,
made me laugh till cried. Perhaps the
step from the one expression to the 9th
er was shorter than usual.
The sight of him gave me new thoughts
as to the possible value of rites, of form
al observances. There was nothing III
his aspect as he read to suggest keen in
tellectual or spiritual activity. On the
contrary, could imagine him turning
two leaves at once and being never the
wiser or the less wise. The occasion
was plainly one of ceremony, but it was
equally plain that it was ceremony OBJ
served with religious feeling, and with
out going into the gloomy question of
how far religious feeling may be re-
moved from a sense of moral obliga-
tions l felt very sure to such boy as
this, English or American, and unf1at-
tered by the public opinion of his world,
the ceremony of Bible reading was
morally conserving.
The third day out 1 did highly rep
rehensible thing. l had seen the Glow
ON deck as | came down to my state
room, and when near the open door of
his saw the Bible lying on one of the
theatrical trunks with which the place
was filed. The temptation was ire