Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-09-22
Concerning Contraries.

Concerning Contraries.
Ruggles strolied up the street that
day prOmiscuously at peace. 1t was not
so much that the spring sun was shin
ing away impartially, or that it felt
good to be young, or that she was
coming up for the alumni ball that
night. 1t was simply condition,
RuggIes argued, like being hungry or
not being, and he liked it. There
were negative situations that helped.
For instance, he had nobody to come
up for commemoration. Ruggles had
been reading parcel Of Oxford
stories aloud to Miss Billy Dugdale,
and he had appropriated ''stay up for
commemoration," among other things
as an adequate phrase. He had
used it once at what the men were
pleased to call mess, this being Mrs.
Elizabeth Frawley's clearinghouse
unions, and they had promptly plung-
ed at him in a vast unmanageable
metaphorical body-Grant and Lush
ingtOn and the rest, and he had not
been minded to resort to the expression
since. But he treasured it for his
own use, and he said it to the only
appreciatiye audience the terms had
50 far won.
No one was his guest for COM
mencement, in other words, and that
was pleasant; moreover this was his
own commencement, and that was
pleasant plus just the added tinge
Of melancholy that stood for a neces-
sary minor strain,-a middle dark, as
it were. And it was to it's last day
exercises that he was strolling over
alone and at peace. He had not
wished to mount the final platform
He was not on the programme, having
never been the family poet or the
frat composer or an institutional
stellar light of any sort He was
called an all round good fellow, and
that was epitaph enough as every
body knows, who knows.
GA fellow" he observed to himself
as an unbiased listener, "must feel
an idiot behind college footlights as a
supe. 1 have disliked matinees from
my infancy anyway"
He turned in at the armory pres
emily. Back on the lake front he han a
glimpse of Washington wandering like
a restless ghost, hemmed in by the
character of the country with a
guarding cousin in duck on one side,
and a blockading aunt with a loud
sunshade on the other.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! he chortled in his
glee!"
Ruggles' clean-cut whistle of the
catchy line almost spoke the words,
and his sympathetic wave and grin
as Washington turned nearly upset the
latter's explanation of the Norman
architecture Of the Armory. So Rug
giles, unrelatived and rejoicing, passed
into the building and up the stairs
Little Brady was reading the class
prophecy. Ruggles strolIed in alone,
nodded here and there, and sat down
alone with an air Of polite interest.
He was seeing himself graduate, and
he liked it. little Brady had labored
up to the class reunion in 1925, and
had come to the flower Of his humor.
"And it came to pass" hurled lit
tie Brady's slender voice, that at the
head Of the table sat a man whose
look was hunted. And to him who
knew I turned about, and asked:
o wise and sage, who is that. hap
And he smiling made answer to
me in this wise:
That, child, is Ruggles. Why is
he sad? For this reason because he
has never been able to fall in love
with all Of the same girl simultane-
ously. He has been known greatly
and superlatively to admire certain
smile, certain dancing, certain car
rlage, certain fashion of holding a
teacup, certain voice, certain hands,
eyes, intellect, teeth, judgment, mind.
arms and other abilities Of as many
girls as I enumerate qualities. But
he has never been able to collect
them, focus them, or take a composite
photograph. He is a blighted be-
ing
A delighted howl went up. Ruggles
smiled indulgently and privately
shook hands with himself at not hav-
ing to stand the other things.
For if there's anything a good bit
common" he reflected cts having to
acknowledge honestly to yourself
that you have been in bona fde love
with a dozen girls. Heavens
The howl melted to murmur, to
quote an enthusiast in later print, and
Ruggles, not being interested in the
idiosyncrasies Of the unknown whom
little Brady was sprinkling through
his prophecy because they had ad-
ministered certain snubs, or had an
swered certain roll calls and done
certain German for him in past days.
went on entertaining himself as was
his fashion. Little Brady was paying
off all scores pleasantly and neatly
and legitimately, but Ruggles was
not enthusiastic and took up another
topic.
He looked about and saw the
chairs all out Of the hall as they
would be at night. and the great
floor canvassed and the musicians