Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-12-05
AT THE HIGH
Tide OF LOVE
A Tale of the Soul-Fiood.
BY William Arch Mclean.
VICTOR IRVINE was a man of
decidedly peculiar appearance,
habits and thoughts. He was

large in frame. He had long,
straight hair that fell around his head
like so many strings. His little dark
eyes went skipping from one thing to
another. On one occasion he greeted
friends with etfusive politeness; on
the next, passed them without recog-
milton, occupied with his thoughts.
People called him crank. They smiled
when his name was mentioned, inti-
mating that something was not quite
fright in his upper story He was
known, however, to be man of intel
ligence, a scholar. His neighbors said
he made his living with some horrid
smelling stuffs he called chemicals.
Victor had a hobby that overshad-
owed all other peculiarities, which he
confided to those with whom he was
intimately acquainted. To these he
invariably explained a strange philoso-
ply that possessed him. He would in
troduce it by speaking of the mysteri-
Gus attraction of the sun and moon up
on the great oceans; how under their
influence there was the ebb and flow
Of the tide twice day. Then he would
conclude by saying that the greater
part of the human body was a liquid
formation; that this same overwhelm-
ing watery composition was subject to
an ebb and flow as in the oceans; and
that it was a fact that he recognized
daily in his own body.
There was a cause for this philosophy
of Victor His mother was of highly
nervous temperament, and very deli
cate in health. Her physician had Or
dered her one year to the sea. She had
gone early in the spring. In a cottage
by the sea she passed many weeks,
most of the time with her face toward
the great eXpanse Of water.
AS the flow of the tide came in with
roar and boom, there was an ex-
hilaration in it that was conveyed to
her that gave her hope and courage.
1t was stimulus to her spirits. Life
was richer than at any other time.
Then would follow the ebb, with its
muffled break, with its subtle slipping
away of waters. 1t brought a change
to the woman. There would be a re-
lapse, a passing away, tameness, q
spiritlessness.
Each day of the whole summer the
ebb and flow of the tides brought an
ebb and flow in the woman, in her
spirits. In the fall n baby-Victor-
was born. He came at midnight at the
greatest roar and rush of high tide
Then the ebb set in. AS the mother
lovingly gazed at her child she family
murmured: "He came at the flow OF
the tide; 1 go at the ebb." So II
proved.
Thus the strange philosophy of the
ebb and flow entered the life of Victor
Irvine. The story of his mothers las
moments had never been told him. HI
was, however, not grown to manhood
when he first felt and recognized tn,
strange influence of the ebb and flow
1t came TO be to him that only In tn,
fow-a few hours at midday and q
dnight-could he accomplish any
thing. Then he conducted his chemica
experiments, made his analyses. Wit
the rush of the flow thoughts, ideas
conceptions, suggestions burst tumultu
ously upon him, pounding on the sur
of his brain. 1t was work of fever
ish intensity to grasp and save then
If he failed to catch them, with the eb
they went. Work was drudgery tn
remainder of the day. At the midnigh
flow it was his habit to put in perms
nent form, in writing the work he wa
engaged upon. Any treatise finishe
then was usually received as brilliant
scientific. The moment the ebb wa
on the pen became impotent.
into the tides Of this mans Lii