The record-union., 1899-05-08
A KNIGHT OF The OBVIOUS

n kHlunl Ut lHI UDvlUuo'
In the billiard-room at the local clup
one night we were discussing panics,
A recent catastrophe at a music nan hao
brought the subject forward. lnei
was nothing novel in the question, or
perhaps. in our handling of it, but SUD
sequent happenings made the CONVEX ;.
sation memorable. What strikes me-
said l. about all these affairs Is tna'
the loss of life is due to the omlssioi
of some act that seems afterWaro d
simple and natural one. People WIN
do the widest things to secure theli
own escape, sometimes even 10 COM
pass that of others, but the one need
full and apparently obvious course IL
overlooked
Not so strange, perhaps" SAID
Cambridge, who is by way Of belng
a small poet; in all departments OF
life the secret of distinction is the Gull
tivation of the obvious"
What a pity it is that no one mas
thought of cultiyating you.' groWleu
Chandos, who is the kind of man 10
whom a commonplace becomes none
the less uninteresting for being stoou
upon it's head. 1t is a fact that cam
bridge, for all his paradox, is the most
"predictable'' talker in the club. Given
the subject his remarks could be re-
ported in advance. Cambridge does not
suspect this, as he possesses blind
mans painful knack of feeling his way
along high roads worn dusty by the
thousand pedestrians that have pre-
ceded him.
Take literature, for instance" he
continued. "A relish for the obvious is
the qualification for immortality.
Shakespeare utters more platitudes
than any aviary of modern songbirds.
Topper would have ranked beside him,
but for metrical originality. His mat
ter was all right There was nothing
fresh there
THE trouble with modern Shakes
peares," said the President lis not that
they lack obviousness, but that they
are not visible
I'VE were talking about panics," said
the journalist. 'All that is original
in a man seems to come to the surface
in moments of peril. Dickens knew
that, and made Mr.. Tupman (the most
brainless of all his characters hit out
Pickwick went through the ice. Mr..
Tupman, we are told, ran across the
country at his utmost speed screaming
''Fire!" with all his might
No one made a, remark, and the jour-
nalist, after an interval continued.
Crowds have been known to stand
by and let a fellow creature drown be-
fore their eyes when the means of res
MI r
suspect, is not occasioned by callous-
ness, or even by cowardice. The sud-
den crisis has caused a vast accession
of originality. The minds of the
standers-by are occupied with the de-
tails of a thousand fantastic rescues.
Such a commonplace as the stretching
out of a hand or the throwing of a rope
occurs to no one
You should found an order Of
knighthood," said the poet, your
knights-errant to be pledged to relieve
distressed humanity by not going out
of their way
Il would take the vows for one. ;"
said Chandos. L am sure that the
order would be a very good thing
| made a chafing comment, but found
to my surprise that Chandos was quite
serious. He was rather a character,
this man, and word about him may
not be amiss. particularly as he hap
PENS to be the hero of this tale He
was an international water-poloist and
fair all-round athlete. All his ac-
complishments were physical, but his
interests were mainly literary and
speculative. He read little but loved
to hear books and notions discussed :;
sporting talk bored him Invariably
He should by rights have been alert
and hard-headed; instead he was abb
sent minded and dreamy to a degree
This, combined with the fact that he
possessed marvellous memory Che had,
for example, the local timetable by
hearD, made some think that in him
successful literary man had been
spoiled. l walked home that night
with Chandos and got nearer to know
ing him than l had done before. On
one subject, that of his physical cour-
age, l found him morbidly self intro
spective. He was more afraid of fear
than any man / had ever met. His
self-respect, which was considerable.
seemed entirely tentative 1t rested on
the assumption that he was brave. a
point which he admitted had never
been brought to the test He asked
Tor my opinion. l answered truthfully
that l believed him to possess quite
creditable share of pluck
so I think" he replied simply, .'or
/ don't know that 7 should care to walk
about. When l read of men proving
themselves worthless in times of stress,
of their leaving women and even small
children to fend for themselves, I can
not help, however. putting myself in
their shoes. ! picture their feelings
the day afterward Think what it must
be to discover not only that you are a
coward, but that you have been one all
your life. What arrears of self-ccn-
tempt would have to be made upl There
was nothing like that, you know. in old
times. If al man was a coward he knew
1t, had learned the truth by degrees,
and had become used to it. Nowadays
the information comes in one hideous
flash. and finds you with the mental
]<>H>< >,> .
n