The times., 1897-08-22

| Marion Hill must be credited with un-
| earthing good thing in literary curiosity,
| and the Critic thanked for its reproduction
| Expatiating upon the fallacy Of longer
| writing fairy tales for yonDg people, Marion
Hill remarks tnat the clear mind of youth
is now too severely utiita rian, and TO age
alone belongs the drea ming of dreams,
the seeing of visions and the love Of the
marvellous. There is given the Teproduc-
ton of the Narcissus myth, after a class II
leyel-headed children has passed it through
the crucible of their scientific practica
bIiUy.
The tale was given to them in about
this shape:
''0nce youth named Narcissus was out
hunting with his friends He became sepa-
rated from them, and, while wandering
ahout looking for them, became 10 beauti
fdl fountain. Kneeling down beside the
water, he saw his own image reflected in
the clear stream, and fell in love with
1t. Day and night he knelt there, begging
the image to come out and be his dear com
pdaion. But the face only smiled plead
ingly at him, AMI of course never answered.
so poor Nareissus pined away and at last
died. dis friends found only his dead boy
They were broken hearted with grief
They went away to prepare his funeral
pyre, but when they returned, the body
was nowhere to he seen, and in its place
was sweet little flower which the :
named after him. and which We call mar
clssus to this very day"
Their version is given without comment
The skeptical reader is assured that the
language and ideas are wholly their own
nothing has been touched up for literary
effect, and no alteration has been made,
except in the case of some weirdIy phonetic
orthograpfy. The word 'imaginationery'
Was kept on account OF its seeming 10
not TO be found in its cognate terms
imaginative" and lima ginary''
''once upon a time in Gre ece there lived
a man ramed Narcissus, who was very
kind aud who was Il hunter / think he
had short, light hair. peculiar thing
about him WAS that he never wore a hat, |
nor shoes and stockings, and when ne |
went cut he would wear sheet over his |
shoulder. One day in this far-ofR land in the |
East, Narcissus was ont hunting with his /
Wien he lost sight of them, |
and saw fountain flashing beneath 4 /
n
for lie knelt down and looked in. There he
saw his own image but he thought it was
a beautiful fairy sprite who lived III the |
water. don't think Narcis ssus eve-
washed himself very much, or he would |
have seen his face in the water before. |
He was kind hearted man, and aIwa ysin
love, so day after day, a nd night after
night he stayed beside the clear brook.
wondering and thinking, but never losing
sight of the fairy as he thought it was
He said to il, You have the oreliest face
of anyone | ever laid eyes on. Won't Won |
please come with me? / VIII surely give /
you my jewels, and everything else have
"-ind the face ouly smiled at him. He !
stayed there forgetting about his meals ami !
sleep and at asst hedied of hunger. Theitlea
or this story is sort OF sad idea l think
IL is an imaginationery story and not true
in sonIe things. Narcissus spoke to the
image like u foolish baby. and think the
man who wrote the story made up lot of
it. When the friends of Narcissus found
him there dead, they were fill with sorrow
and they went.away To get some wood, for
in those days VIXEN a man died his friends !
buried him in wood pile. When hey care
back they found that Narcissus was gona.ei
and to their surprised eyes there was a
flower growing in the place. So they
called the flower NaTcissus, and to this
cry day it blooms once 4 year andis sweet
and beautiful. 1t does not ! asst very long
and has q sweet smell to it. l don t think
was very DID,