The new age. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1902-190?, 1902-09-20
MANY MEN of
MANY MINDS
BY EDITH WYATT
Copyright. 1901, by S. S.
Mcclure Company

I
In the northwestern part of Chicago,
not far east of the river, in a place OF
silent streets and empty lots, stand
several large frame houses. with pick
ct fences, built before the fire. Tall
poplar and cottonwood trees hang
clouds of pale, glimmering foliage over
the wooden sidewalks. An occasional
electric car with one or two passen-
gers shrills past under the rustling
shade. and cows are sometimes pas
tured on the frequent brown lots.
In one of the houses of this place
there lived two American gentlemen
different as the poles. Judge Amos
Parker and Mr.. Paul Haviland. Judge
Parker, the house owner. an old set
tier, was a plain man. the father of a
large family.
His wife had died when the children
were little. His sons were gone into
business in distant towns. and his
daughters. combining piety and fiirta-
ton in a neighborlng church, had
sported actively through their respec-
tive courtships till they We're all mar
ried and gone, and tneir father was
left alone with Edna, the servant girl.
and Nick, her brother. who had ac-
companied the family when they
moved from Indiana forty years ago.
Judge Parker was a ponderous, easy
going man, of tremendous legal infor-
nation, with a long. white face and
almost no nerves. He scarcely per-
ceived the loneliness of his remote
too sensitively, as when they were
with him he had been only very slight
ly acquainted with them.
His taste was not for men as individ-
uals. but In bulk. He loved the public
and public life. and he would have pre-
ferred almost any discomfort out Of
doors or in hall to sitting in a parlor
through an evening.
The judge could not for an instant
bear exclusive society. Indeed, the
only moment when he experienced I'M
easiness was when he was forced into
the presence of a group of people Sc
lected by a delicate social tact instead
of by the rude hand of chance or polit-
ical organization. If he had no lecture,
no Republican rally or G.. A. r. meet
ing to attend. he would go out and sit
on the fence of his grass plot to smoke
and to talk to Nick or TO any casual
loafer.
Paul Haviland, on the other hand.
enjoyed almost no society but that Of
his betrothed, Margaret Alden. and a
literary friend, Richard Elliott
He read law in the law office of
Judge Parker's former law firm for
three winters. 1t was during this time
that he lived with the judge. to get far
away, he said. from the CRIME and sor-
didness of the city, and in the even-
ings. while the Judge was Off with the
public in the CRIME and sordidness, he
sat In the old Parker house and wrote
long retrospective letters to Margaret
Alden and composed verses called
Retrospect" circumstance or If"
which gave its name to his volume of
collected verse; "~
| II had Observation-Disclosures II is!
What does IL matter now?
Yet this pressed spray of clematis
Again reminds me how
But never mind-it's gone and past.
What does II matter now?
Had you but spoken or 1 not stayed
There on the lawn with her
This clematis had been, i wis.
A different messenger.
Perhaps-heigh no! The play is done
And you in Peshawur.
II they had told me what was true
Or / had eyes to see,
Earnest been gone or 1t been you
There on the lawn with me-
BAIL What's the odds? Or rose or rue
| What is the odds to me?
Richard Elliott wrote a preface al
most entirely of margins for the book,
commenting favorably on the re-
straint. suggestiveness and perfect
good breeding of Mr.. Haviland's lines,
and Paul had great fun In his own
way in writing them In the evenings.
while the judge had great fun in his
own way In seconding motions and in
Producing politicians In long. heavy
addresses at political clubs.
Ii was curious circumstance Of
auA dAt thdt, Nhlic hC was
Of very sensitive and impossible
nature, the attitude he chose to assume
In his verse. one described by Richard
Elliott In a magazine article on "Hav-
Hand and Indifferentism." was exactly
Judge Parker's attitude, and that gen.
tleman might have asked with far
more sincerity:
BAH What's the odds? Or rose or rue
What is the odds to me?
In the spring of Paul Haviland's
stay at the old Parker house Margaret
Alden came to visit Chicago, and at
the time of her visit she and her lover
passed through long period of mental
suffering. .7i7sl Leon. So
Their trouble arose on the day Of a
heavy spring rain. They were to have
met in the Art Institute. and Paul
Havffand, surprising that Margaret
Alden would not keep her tryst In the
worst storm OF the year. had not kept
his. ~ = - ''' 60" i-sV -TA - q, 80 =
He was overwhelmed with contrition
at his mistake when he visited her In
the evening. 80 "' rs '''''ai o. '''e -
But when he said, cit never occurred