The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-08-12
Stories Of an Inland State.

:
; Gradually Nell Everett imbfbed the spiri
Of her companions. John Wright and Olive
Willis. The rebellion In her breast agains
; society. caught by contagion, found fue
in the reverses of her fortune. Born IN pow
erty, she had been rescued by the meres
chance, given q glance of luxury, and re
moved from it. She had been ambition.
and proud, fertile in aspirations, once cooIl,
calculating in the fancied control OF hel
fortunes She had intended to make III.
l social custom OF marriage an instrument
| In doing SO she had been endowed
| strangely with the monumental passion
| Of love itself. She had seated herself at
feast and the luxuries had been swept away
| from the board as she was about to
| taste.
She had learned from the two men that
the reverses Of fortune to her were dis
| elimination, a discrimination OF unjointed
[ and unjust times. She did not ask John
| Wright, her benefactor, for only the small
est sums of money. Her dress was of the
! simplest. She knew the giorifcat:on OF fine
apparel. She was enot:onally conscious Of
her splendid face and figure and the value
of their enhancement and the added Joy
OF enhancing them And she began TO
argue that the circumstance that she so
eminently fitted by taste and appearance
and desire for the better things of life.
vas denied them, was not YER
diet to be received with feeble
humility, but was outrage Of the world
against her and should be met and fought
and overcome, by any method at hand
No circumstance, she argued. that con-
demned her to a plain, uncertain. unrec-
ognized LIFE, and elevated another less ell
gible than she, was justifiable.
John Wright discovered this course Of
thought in her. with delight.
He had said: THE world has given US
q reasona BILE desire for the best, and Gus
tom has denied us. The skin Of common
mankind delights in the touch OF ftne
fabrics. The demand is there, where Ma
ture implanted It. The dissipation of van
ity in woman is harmless, Dut, If she be
poor she is denied it. The stimulation of
possessed beauty is legitimate. The en-
hancement of ornamentat:on Is rightfully
her privilege, and any system which alien
ates that right IS unjust"
81 feel that said Nell.
THE only just inequality" he went on,
lis the wl1;m of birth.
The whim Of birth?''
Eyes. The inequalities Of propa CATION.
The child that is deformed is unequal to
the child born perfect, but Nature has made
the mistake and 1t Is beyond our reach or
correction. The woman who is born beau |
tiful has every advantage over his sister, |
as the world goes. Nature made her SO, |
and we do not complain of Nature because |
we cannot correct her. But all other inc |
qualities are of man, and man We can
reach and correct"
A doubt came into her mind and she |
spoke il:
Mature, Mr.. Wright, also gives one man
a superior brain; another an inferior one. 1
If, during life, one outstrips the other,
Is Nature not to be blamed, not man or
NO You are following a poor old
5windle that the world has used as a de-
10Y for many centuries. Brain has never
won earthly success History, whence come |
LII our examples and precedents. is the
of men, and prominence Is a
'curvy trick, and never was an index Of
rue merit. A thousand soldiers in Caesars
,rmy would have been as famous Caesars,
{ the brains were weighed"
But there was only one Caesar"
Because one soldier may have lacked
inhibition, another desp.sed It; another
lappy In obscurity, and SO on. The great |
st general was ona who never fought a
attic the greatest poet one who never
ouched a pen, the greatest statesman one
Who never made speech, the greetest
philosopher one who never counseled a | 4
ingle word"
Yet" she said. by their works ye shall !
now them"
And by their works We DO know them
ghtfuly-to their discredit."
and why should all these unnamed not
blss neglect to record themselves ?'' =
Because they were SO great they knew
ne futility of the act. The unnamed Cae-
sr thought of time and space and was too I
reat 70 claim a part of eternity and a
art Of infinity for himself, when he knew
e could live but three score years, his
anne perhaps not over three score centu-
es; the unnamed Shakespeare mastered ]
very subtety of mind and heart, and I
as so great he could resist the tempta- /, (
On of his own vanity to display his knowl-
.ge 70 the world; the unnamed Socrates
ruggled with the mystery of life, and
lding himself beyond his depth, waded
shore and did not make the silly revela-
On of his guesS,''
She studied the wrinkled old man at
Myth. What sorrow had crept into his =,
e to lead him to this pessin:sm? She -