The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-01
Leadsall Carolina Daes i'm News and Creua aton
I INDIVIDUAL OPINION and
Personal Point of View.
By FRED. L. MERRITT. .-SSmu.



that he might be of better form, color or
action. Let us not, then. frown upon the
high stepping Clara We're de We're, or
sneer at the simpering Lord Hardup or
laugh outright at old Vincent Crummles.
For suppose the players chose not to
play, but to live quiet, unostentatious
lives-or mayhap sit here oglng on the
fence with uS-where would have been
the comedy?
And then too, there's comic side to
our sitting on the fence to see these folk
pass in review; and to the eager haste
with which we turn to the socalled so
ciety Page to read that 'Mr. and Mrs
Plutus dined yesterday with Mr. and Mrs
Midas and that Miss Folair gave a
reception last night to introduce her
friend Miss Debonair,' and that more or
less rich, Misses A. b. c. d. and Messrs.
E. F. G. and Fl. We're present. all dress
ed in their best clothes. Day after day,
in the papers, VIC lead lists cf people who
ate together and danced together and
talked airy nothings. 1t is phenomenal.
the avidity witt. which we read it. as it
is hashed and rehashed for us in that
golden domesday- book. the modern news
paper; for this show, like the real thing.
has it's press agents and press notices.
II these good folk were in any way dis
tinguished, it would not be so queer that
we should sit here ogling. If they had
done or said or written anything; if they
had painted famous picture or carved a
statue OF mark, or builded noble struc-
ture IL they had composed beautiful mu
sic. given birth to great inventions. effect
ed humane reforms, or in any way made
the world better or it's inhabitants hap
pier. the curiosity to hear them and to see
| them and to read about them would be
ineligible.
Perhaps you will deny that you read it,,
and perhaps you say truly; but somebody
does, else why the columns devoted daily
! to THE Doings of Society,"" while the inn
! portant news of the world is cut down to
paragraphs? The newspaper understands
| itself; it is a shrewd merchant who sup
| plies the demand in the market.
| And by this we discover that to many of
the audience on the fence the show has
been, not Comedy but a Passion Play
+, While we have ridiculed, others have wor-
| shipped. With liberal fancy they have
sung to the -Four Hundred the song
/ Titania sang to Bottom
/ Mine ear is much enamored of thy note
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful
/ To their eyes the actors in the comedy
| have become enchanted beingsa to their
| view the veriest ass among them has been
! translated
IF this Transformation comes from a
! blind worship of wealth. then indeed is 1t
/ despicable IT, on the other hand it be
| the result of ceaseless aspiration for a
better condition, and the instinct of the
| imagination to decorate our lives with
| the vision of fairer circumstances than
/ our own, then is it something not to be
ashamed of. If it is not what they
are. but what we believe them to be or
think they ought to be that read in
| the paper, then the reading may do US
| good.
| AS the seamstress sews with weary
| fingers and tired body, she thinks of the
| fairy robe she is fashioning from costly
| material. In fancy she follows it to the
| form that must wear it and pictures it as
| noble and good for none other would
| that soft splendor of raiment befit.' The
| lofty and lovely lady must have COM
| panion as fair and good she. All the
circumstances must conform to the fairy
texture in her tired hands-in her vision
Iney 90 CONFORM, ana anna perfume anu
music and splendor, fair women and noble
| men glide by. The woman dreams, and
while the dream lasts the charmed life
| is real.
| In a less degree. We of dull, plodding
prosaic life, Dream of wealth and power
| and invest the favorites Of Fortune with
| an ideal charm. Those who bask in her
| smiles are gods and goddesses feasting
| and as We cannot be Ixons to gain ad
| mission to the celestial banquet, we would
| fain get a glimpse Of it through the news
| papers, or on the promenade.
Thus we ponder the Society Column, "
not because we are snobs and wealth
worshippers, but because in so doing our
Imagination takes fire as We contemplate
the power of wealth and the narrowness
of life smooths out as we think of the
great things we would do to make the
world better, had we but the opportunities
enjoyed by those of whom we read.
In short it gives us an insight into a
new and strange world that we fain
would enter, and which We dream we
would make the better by our presence.