The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1901-08-08
to manhood? While I was with you
in the Smoky valley I saw several

to manhood? While I was with You
In the Smoky valley I saw several
young men who were younger than I
am. There was something about them
that is different from anything l have
ever known or experienced. It was in
tangible, if you. please, but it was new
ertheless real, because I could not dis
cover that it existed between them
individually, only between them, or
any one of them, and me. They were
rougher, brawnier, heavier in voice, in
manner, in figure, than / am. Their
features were coarser=- everything
about them was different. Hair grows
upon their faces, as it does on yours.
Will you explain this difference to
me?' --1.,- 49,
Your training has been different
from theirs, Lisle.'' e. ~
Pardon me, sir, but l cannot under
stand why that should make all the
difference. There We're subtle differ
plain because l do not know how to
define them, but l could feel them.
One day, while we were sorting Our
cattle, two Of them sat upon their
horses close beside you. studied
them, and 1 studied you. Afterward
[ rode up and took a place beside
you myself, and then l studied over
them again. The same difference did
not manifest itself between them and
you as it did between them and me
or between you and me. Do | make
myself understood? I mean that in
some ways those strangers We're more
like you than I, who am your son, am
like you. The same subtle something
which distinguishes those young men
from me does not separate them from
you, and the same inexplicable differ
ence that exists between them and me
could discover also between you and
me. am not like other men. Why
am not?'
cam I like other men whom you
know, Lisle? Am like Craig Thomp-
SOM" asked Richard Maxwell.
eyes, you are in the sense to which
1 refer-in that subtle sense which
breathe, in the way you breathe it, in
the unspoken understanding between
you and other men, or, since you have
mentioned name, between you and
Craig Thompson-an understanding in
which have no part or place.
"These subtleties, Lisle, are freaks Of
the Imagination which result from your
habits Of study. Your life has been diff
ferent from the lives of any other young
man I ever knew. 1t is my love for
you that has made it so. I have kept
you near me and away from the world
which I have repudiated. l have
taught you differently, trained you diff
ferently, led you to think differently.
Your manner Of living, your methods
of study, your isolation from strangers,
have, combined, created the differences
that you discover Your imagination
has emphasized and magnified them.
That is all.''
Lisle sighed and shook his head neg
atively.
"You do not or you will not under
stand" he said. "Your reply does not
comprehend the question. 1t is like
building a house without windows.
+.
Should not father and son be alike?'
"Sometimes they are very much
alike; sometimes they are very differ
ent. There is no rule which governs
such condition. Step with me to the
mirror. Have you forgotten how great
ly we resemble each other, eliminat ting
the difference in age?'
t'NO. If ic tr,1o that Cur faaturoc oro
alike. Our forms are different. Ere
quently I see you at work without
your coat. You neve~ permit me to re-
move mine except here in the house.
The men remove theirs and place them
across their saddles. Their figures,
thus disclosed, are not the same as
mine. Yours is not the same as mine
I have studied myself before my own
mirror. I know that l am cast in a
different mold from other men. know
that you are cast in the same mold as
other men. am as different from you
as the day is different from the night.
Tell me truly, am l like woman?"
eyes, you have the best qualities of
woman and the best qualities of man.
Strangers see and recognize both: hence
such remarks"
Again you fall short Of a complete
response to my question:" sighed Lisle
1--WE will pass it for the present You
mentioned my parents Who are or
were they? You are one; who was the
other?"
"YOur mother"
"You have always refused to speak
of her to me. Will you not do so now?'
"No."
"Was not my mother-a being whom
you have taught me to despise-a wom-
amp
EYES,"
docs my mother liyeY'
eve will not discuss your mother"
II will not urge you, father have
learned to know that the subject is
painful to you, although you will not
tell me why it is so. May a child dur
inc it's growth change from woman IN