The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-23
THE YOUNG MAN ABSAL0M.
David's Son Type Of the Fascinating
ScOundreI of All Ages.

Absalom. the son of David, deserves more
respectful presentation than the type
OF young man who wants to anticipate
the course of nature in stepping into the
shoes of his elders. The young man of the
Old Testament was that, but he was more
than that. He protagonist in one OF
the most absorbing struggles for power In
all history. the human interest of which
has not lost it's mandate to move three
thousand years after its actors became
dust. He was the type for all time of the
fascinating scoundrel who gets along fur
Their in the world by his manners than
others do by their rugged virtues.
In this young man are discovered host
OF men who have lived since him and a
host of other men whose lives are no less
real because they have been lived only in
tn pages of fiction. There is the Greek,
Alcibiades, with the steel-cold calculation
OF an adventurer, the morals of a satyr
and the instincts of traitor, but with the
beauty and the graces of a god. There are
the Inflated English Stuarts, unstable as
water. trivial where they are not treacher-
Gus, shallow-hearted scoffers in age OF
serious things. and yet so winning of per-
son and address that new hearts were won
to them in the place of those they had de-
rided and trampled upon. They have lost
the throne which they seemed always will
ing to betray, but they reign still in song
and story, though better men be forgotten.
The shadow of Absalom brooded over the
elder Dumas as he wrote. and there stepped
forth on the pages Of musketeer books the
handsome and engaging figure of Aramis,
always coldly seeking his own interest, al
ways a plotter, but a personality that has
captivated the reprobate heart of a world
that does not carry its moral destruction
into its leisure reading. Even Anthony
Hope was not unmindful Of Absalom, for
he drew Rupert of Eentzau with his dark
fair face and his insinuating address. n
scapegrace with a touch of Satan about
him. a gallant who would not kill where
he has kissed villain with subtle
charm withal that the men who hunted
him down killed him in regret rather than
In anger.
"a perfect traitor" George Eliot makes
one of her characters say, should have a
face which vice can write no marks on;
lips that will lie with dimpled smile; eyes
of such angel-like brightness and depth
that no fnfamy can dull them; cheeks that
will rise from murder and not look nag
gard" Such was the son of David, accord
ing to the sober chronicle of holy writ. I'm
all Israel" IL remarks, there was none to
be so much praised as Absalom for his
beauty; from the sole of his foot even to
the crown of his head there was no blem-
ish on him. OF his manners there is just
a glimpse in the simple record: so Abb
SALON. stole the hearts of the men OF Is
rael"
The character of Tito. drawn by George
Eliot, in Romola, comes, perhaps, the near
est TO that of the plotting prince of Israel.
Each and all the gifts and graces of mind
and person, each conspired against the
state that sheltered him; each betrayed the
father that nurtured him; each met a vio-
lent and ignoble death--the one on the river
bank in Florence, with the fingers or his
adopted parent clutching his throat; the
other dangling from an oak, in the wood OF
Ephraim, with three darts thrust through
his heart and the structure OF his hopes
crumbling before the assaults of the great
generals of his father.
What that consummate man Of the world,
Lord Chesterfield, urged his son to strive
10 attain Absalom had of nature-"engag-
ing, insinuating, shining manners. distin-
guished politeness an almost irresistible
address" The catastrophe came to him,
as ii comes to men who have these out
ward qualities, but lack the qualities of
heart of which they are the lying SYM
boil. He failed before the fateful day of
Ephraim, and he did not know he failed.
His wisest adviser saw the game was up
when yet his sky seemed clear. And this
is what he did: "And when Ahithophel
saw that his counsel was not followed he
saddled his ass and arose and got him home
to his house, 10 his city, and put his house
hold in order and hanged himself, and died,
and was buried in the sepulchre of his
father"
Blinded by his vanity. Absalom rushed
on to his fate. Ahithophel was doubtless
a better man. and certainly a stronger
man. but his history Is compressed into a
sentence, yet what a sentencei The chron-
jcler fingers longer over Absalom, as If the
charm of the young man was on him. too!
One cannot approve at all the scape-
grace son of David. but one cannot be I'M
mindful OF the hold he had on the heart
Of the greatest man of his time, or of
the fact that from the greatest man of
his time he derived his own wonderful
but marred qualities. He deserves to be
recalled as the fugitive done to ignoble
death in the shadow of an Asiatic forest
but the plant of David sounds so loudly
across the centuries as to make one almost
share his regret. And the king was much
moved, and went up TO the chamber over
the gate and wept; and as he went thus
he said: % my son Absalom, my son, my
son Absalom. Would God 1 had died for
thee, o Absalom, my son. my SOM"