The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-03

can standing here, even IL / am leaning
against tree I'm a rather awkward posi-
ton. Now. the mental attitude Of Mr..
Bradbury is one of benediction and watch
fulness at the same time but nobody would
expect a man In that position OF hands
outstretched. palms down, to move much
of the furniture of the world around into
new places. Yet you can't say anything
but pleasant things when addressing him,
for ii seems an objectionable sin TO ruffie
his composure-and ne has the composure
of a pane of glass, so that even an ineN-
perienced young man from Egypt could
easily look through 1t into his good heart"
Eyes. broke In Shacklett, but you can't
always tell what there is up mans sleeve
from the way he holds up his hands Now.
there's the man who always has his fists
up I'm an attitude that at least keeps every
body else in trouble with his belligerency.
You can't be with him for twenty minutes
without arguing with him, and in five min
utes more your argument has degenerated
into sarcasm. And then there's the peace
| be-with-you man that you could no more
strike in a sensitive spot than you could
| hit an old, STOPPING, smiling gentleman in
the face. And, after all. the man in the
prize-ring attitude often has not even a
toothpick to fight with, and the man with
| the kind, smiling face and extended palms
is armed like a ward heller on election day.
If you size up man according TO his atti-
tude you'll get fooled generally-at least
that's the case around state capitals
And yet, when you know your man thor
oughly," she smiled rather inscrutably in
turn, you will find that If you keep him
|
change the man himself. OF course. ones
own mental attitude and way of looking at
things gets from ones ancestry, and
that cannot be eradicated entirely; but
when you want to make a man see a GER
tain star you have to take him by the
shoulders and lift his chin to certain an
| gle and turn the orbits in his hard skull
toward the star. When you do the same
thing with mans mental and moral vi
sion once or twice he will generally look
at the same star for himself frequently
after that; and looking at the stars is the
incentive to climbing up to grasp them.
Shacklett was very willing for her to rear
range his slouching attitude toward the
world if that did not involve tying his
hands. and she was very willing to leave
his arms and hands free In lifting his face
toward higher things He was very sus-
| ceptible to the influences of the broadened
vision of material things, which was en-
tirely new to him and one of the chief
charms of her home there on the bluff,
with its wide range of view over parts Of
three States.
People don't climb up on the bluffs and
look down on the world as much as they
should" he said to her. after a long look
over the landscape. "You people here have
that advantage; but what's a man to do
| in city, with brick walls overhanging him
all the time, and the highest place he ever
gets to a lawyers Office on the fourth floor
next to the inside court of the bulding?"
You're just the man I should not expect
| to say that" she replied. I'D expect you
to find an outlet away from the brick
streets, If you had to climb a steeple to do
it. Taking everything in the large you
do, I'd expect you to take the largest room
in the house very often, and that's the
housetop. If the house has been built
without a scuttle there is always some tall
building with way to the roof from
which one can lock down on the populous
city to read sermon written by the hand
of God who pulls a tree out Of the ground
|
it all out without a sign of motion there.
Look down on plain of deep, bright green
spread almost level, but with the variations
of surface that the prairie had when ones
grandfather broke the virgin sod. 1t is one
huge mass of the greenest green. 1t looks
like the coverlet of giant-and 1t is. Pierre
ing 1t from below are sharp, angular. board
knives that have cut their way through to
the ocean of atmosphere above. The shin
giles on the sharp roofs show the power Of
humanity and all around them are the
poniards that prick the bubble of mans
egotism. These are the church spires that
come through the green plain and keep ris-
ing and go up higher still, and shoot their
cross-topped points into the cerulean of
heaven. All the swords of man have sharp
points. God tipped his weapon with a cross
and thrust it through the heart of mankind
as easily as the diamond-pointed trocar OF
surgeon who wounds to heal. And the
cross on the church spire has come through
the green blanket that covers mans handi-
work with such force as to make it stand
far above the house roofs, which scarcely
manage to come up into view above the
green. Standing there on the elevation and
looking down on the city, one sees nothing
but a beautiful, deep green bed of leaves
with the roofs and the spires Below That
screen is filth and malice and narrow
crossings and temptations, and jolly streets
and changeable men; but all are hid from
view by the green leaves that shut out the
things below and show only a wide scarf
of life over the bosom of the city. In the
summer the foliage on the trees covers
things, like charity. and only a few am
bilious roofs and the cross-bearing spires
get through its blanketing beauty"
Shacklett listened to her with his eyes
closed, and when she had finished, with a
| deeper pink in her cheeks. he sighed softly
TO himself. Such insights into her deeper
character seemed to put him outside her
| view. He did feel that the large vista from
the river bluff at her home influenced him
| the wind from off the water cooled his
brow. He felt the influence of his sur
roundings at Warsaw without knowing why
or being at all able to analyze either what
he saw or what he felt He could partly
understand how the surroundings in which
Mary Stoddard and her parents and grand
parents lived for years had affected her
, character, and he compared her surround
~