The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-11
MISS MARY MACL ANE AND
HER LOVE FOR MEPHIS TO
CONTINUED from Page Elsvsn,)

III / were to marry You, how long
would YOU be happyT'
For three days"
you are wise" ne said You are
wonderfully wise in some things. though
you are still very young"
Your logic Is good logic" said the
my losic-oh. / don't care anything
about logic" | said, with sudden COM
plete WEAKNESS. ! felt buried and
ness. Everything lost its color. Every
thing turned cold.
"At this moment" said the Devil. you
feel as n YOU cared for nothing at all.
TRANSPORTATION. 1 could kiss your soul
II i answered. YES" without emotion.
IAN hour" said the Devil. lis not very
long. But we know II is long enough :, to
and be happy in. And the world con-
tains great many hours. Now I am
leaving you. II is likely that ! may new
er come again, and 1t Is likely that may
1t all vanished sat by the window
In the gloom. 1T is dreary." said.
For nineteen or thirty-nine. that is
written to be proud Of. The scene. Is
| alive. The characters sustain their parts.
and one Of them, remember. Ii the Devil.
II feel that the cause OF my tragedy
began Ions. long ago from remote germs,
not matter OF development. Some one
forgot me in the giving OF things. My
soul Is not genius.
To-day ! walked over, the SAND. ana u
ing and the sky was tilied with roses and
gold.
me. NY soul 10 wondrouss fair. 1t 10 Hike
a young woman. The beauty of 1t Is too
great for human eyes to. look upon. 1t is
too great for mine. Yet l look:
my soul said to me: I am Sick
81 answered: And am sick.
are we not well?
How may we be well?' I asked.
1--WE may throw away all our vanity
| take on a new life. We may learn to wait
and to possess ourselves in patience. we
may labor and overcome. .. =,
I've can do none OF these things, !
said. Dear soul. why do you not
resign yourself? Why can you not stay
quiet and trouble yourself and me no
| more? Why are you always straininK and
| reaching? There isn't anything for you.
my soul made answer: T. may strain
and reach until only one worn nerve of
me is left. And that one nerve may be
scourged with whips and burned Win
in love :. :. viii keep my one atom
of faith said my soul. :.
| " But lie and sleep now I said. Don't
reach after that light any more Let us
| both sleep a few years.
| No. said my soul.
| " oh. my SOUL | walled. look away at
that glowing copper horizon. Let US go
| there now and take an infinite rest. Now!
| We can bear this no longer.
| No said my soul. we will stay here
| and bear more. There would be no rest
yet beyond the copper horizon. Ana there
is no need of going anywhere. / have
my one atom of faith
| II gazed at my soul as it stood plainly
| before me, weak and worn and faint. In
the fading light. 1t had one atom OF
faith, it said and tried to hold its head
| high and to look strong and triumphant
Oh. the irony and pathos of 1t!
MY soul, with its one pitiful atom OF
faith. looked only what 1t was--a weep
ing, hunted thing"
In spite of her bold statements, one sees
that Mary MacLane has an inextinguish.
able desire for good. She rails at virtue
religion. institutions chiefly, II would
seem, because hypocrisy often shelters It,
self behind the words. OF the beauty OF
goodness without reward. as an end In
itself, she has no understanding 1t Is
not philosophical, she says, to remain
true to an ideal that offers only the
vaguest hopes of realization.
Il think just now of woman who
lived long ago and in whom the worle
seems not to have found anything ad
mirable / mean Messalina Valeria, tht
wife of the stupid Emperor Claudius.
have conceived a profound admiration for
this historic wanton. She may not. in
deed, have had anything to forget; She
may not have suffered. But she had the
strength of will to take what she want
ed to do what she liked, to live as she
chose to live
cit is admirable and beautiful beyond
expression to sacrifice and give up ant
wait for love of that good that gives il
itself a just reward. And only next t.
this is the throwing to the winds of al
restraint when the good holds itself aloo
and gives nothing. We are weak con
temptible fools who do not grasp the re-
sou.ces within our reach when there Il
no just reward for our restraint. why
do we not take what we want of the va
rious temptations? 1t is not that We are
yirtuous. 1t is that we are towards
Netx to happiness, Mary MacLane de
sirss fame. that beautiful, benign. gen
tie. satisfying thing fame" She wishes
to leave all her misery, her obscurity. hel
weary unhappiness behind her forever
To make IA beginning she sends forth thii
portrayal. Fame Is very fine, she says
It Is next thing to love.
Fame has a sun and moon and bril-
liant, gentle stars OF her own. and these
shining once. shine always. The greer
river may run dry in the land. But fam'
has a green river that never runs dry
One may wander over the face of thu
earth But fame Is herself a refuge. Ont
may be the target tor stones ana nluu
Yes-but fame stands near with her arm
laid across ones shoulder. as no othel
arm can be laid across ones shoulders
Fame would I'LL several empty places
Fame would continue to fill them fol
some years.
Fame IL you please, devil
OF the many distinctly original passages
in the book. these stick to the mind:
sometimes. carly in the evening, jus
before dinner. l sit in the stin.backet
chair with nv elbows on the window Sill
and my head resting on one hand. anc
| look out of the window at a pile a
stones and a barrel OF lime. These are il
. the vacant lot next to this house.
| II fix my eyes intently on the pile o
stones and the barrel of lime. And l fis
my thouhgts on them. also. And some o
my widest thoughts come 10 me then.
II feel an overwhelming wave of kno
of pantheism which. at the moment ! fee
it. begins slowly to grow less and less
| and continues in this until finally i
dwindles TO a pile of stone and barre
) of lime.
II feel at the moment that the uni
verse is pile of stone ana a barrel o
lime. They alone ara the real things.