The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-04-13

"Fiction, being human made, is al
ways within the grasp of human COM
prehension," said another, while truth
is often beyond it,
Mr.. Edwards, whose 60 years and
many successful novels gave weight to
his opinions, was appealed to.
1T seems to me that truth is the
most logical of all things" said he.
Every fact is the inevitable conse-
Quence of some other fact, though In
our ignorance Of prior or intermediate
facts we often miss the. sequence. The
difference between truth and fiction is
that in fiction we are permitted to see
both cause and effect, while truth Of
ten conceals certain causa, facts, the
absence of which makes the conclusion
seem strange, illogical, unaccountable.
My wife's first love affair furnishes so
good an Illustration Of what 1 mean
that, IL you will pardon SO personal a
relation, will tell you about it."
OF course everybody expressed q de-
sire to hear the eminent novelist's sto-
~.
We'll" said he, "in 1860 she who is
now my wife went with her parents to
live In small town in Missouri. She
was then II years old, that age when
the vine heart Of maiden begins ear
nestly feeling about for the oak to
which 1t is to cling for life. There was
not very extensive forest of available
oaks In that little town, yet before a
year had passed she had fastened her
tendrils to one Of them, young fellow
whose loving but misguided mother
had bestowed upon him the Scriptural
Christian name Of Elimelech. 1t might
have taken some courage for Flora
Eldredge to receive openly the atten-
lions Of young man with such
name, especially since her brothers and
sisters missed no opportunity to chaff
her about it. But she loved Elimelech
with a devotion which paid no heed to
such trivialities. So one day they
plighted their troth, vowing by all that
was sacred to their earnest souls that,
come what might, they were for each
other through life, through death,
through the eternal existence of their
immortal essences
then the boom of great gun rang
across this continent and reverberated
round the world. Sumter had been
fired on. Men met on the streets of the
little Missouri town and in the excite
ment of the hour Missed the words
which made them mortal foes. Mr..
Eldredge, Flora's father, was an out
spoken northerner. Elimelech's father
was an equally outspoken southerner.
They came together in heated dispute
and parted in deadly enmity. Mr..
Eldredge well nigh broke his daugh-
ter's heart that day by commanding
her never again to see Elimelech, and
the young mans father declared he
would disown his son If he did not at
once break off with the hated north
erners daughter. Elimelech at one
home pleaded, and Flora at the other
wept, but all to no purpose The roar
of the tempest in the paternal breasts
deafened the hearts to pleas and sobs.
''The sentiment of the town was al
most unanimously with the south, and
1t was soon borne in upon Mr.. Eldredge
that his personal safety lay in immedi-
ate fight. Within two days he and his
family had departed, but not until the
lovers had met surreptitiously and re-
newed their pledges of love and fidelity.
"Mr. Eldredge himself did not know
where he was going to settle, so all his
daughter could say in the three letters
which she managed to send to Elime-
lecl from as many points along her
Journey was that she would send her
address as soon as she had one. But
by the time her abode was established
Pap Princes Confederate army held the
little Missouri town and the Inaiis
could not pass in. The important LET
ter which told her lover how 10 adj
dress her was returned to her from the
dead letter Office.