The National tribune., 1902-04-03
NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON c. THURSDAY

MIN long ago.
Why? why should l hear of him, when
l could not hear of myself? The Confed-
crate army may have had score of spies
named Jones, and l had never heard of
one of them.
But if he had been my brother he would
have hunted me, and would have found
me, That was il.
This thought was more reasOnable-but
he might have been killed!
He must have been killed by the shell
on the hill-yes-that is why | can trace
him no farther. | have never seen him
since. Why had | at first assumed that
he had been wounded only? l see that l
assumed too much-or too little. l had
seen him under the fire, and had seen him
no more; that was all.
Yet | knew absolutely and strangely
that Jones had not been killed.
1t is certain that the memory, in re-
tracing Il succession of events, does not
voluntarily take the back track; it goes
over the ground again, just as the events
succeeded, from antecedent to consequent,
rather than backward. 1t is more diff
cult-leaving memory aside-to take pres
cnt conditions and discover the unknown
which evolved these conditions, than to
take present conditions and show what will
be evolved from them. OF course, if we
already knew what preceded these condi-
uOnS, there is no discovery to be claimed
and that is what | am saying: that
with our knowledge of the present, the
future is not n discovery; it is a mere de-
velopment naturally augured from the
present. An incapable General means de-
feat, but defeat does not imply an inca
pable General.
Now, | had been trying to begin with
Jones on the bare hill where l had seen
him latest, and 10 go back, but my efforts
had only proved the truth of the foregO-
ing. | had only jumped back consid-
cradle distance, and from the past had
followed Jones forward rs well as my own
| imperfect powers permitted; again | had
| jumped back and had followed him until
| he met the Doctor in the night. The epi-
sOde of lifting Willis into the ambulance
seemed separate event of very short du-
ration. Ny mind had unconsciOusly APP
preciatcd the difficulty of working back
ward, and had in reality endeavOred to
avoid that almost impossible process of
! dividing Jones into several periods and
| following the events of each period in or
| der of time and succession. / now, with
out having willed to think it, became con-
scious Of this difficulty, and l yielded at
once to suggestion. | would begin anew,
and would help the natural process.
First | tried to sum up results. | found
| these: first, Jones, in blue, helps another
man in blue and | follow him until | lose
him when he reaches the Doctor. Second,
Jones, in blue, and the Doctor come to
| Willis agan-and then / lose Jones and
all of them. Third, JOncs-alOne and in
gray-is in the act of falling, with Il shell
bursting over him, and | lose him.
| had no doubt Of the order in which
these events had occurred, and none what
ever of the fact that all of JOnes's life
had been lost to me, if not indeed to him
self, when | saw him fall. Now / wanted
to find connecting events; | wanted to
know how to join the Jones at the secret
! IL. IL Il.
| had seen fall, and / set my memory to
work, but obtained nothing. The scene on
the hill seemed unrelated to that of Will
lis
There was remembrance, it is true, of
Jones walking through a forest at night.
but the scene was so indistinct that |
could make nothing out of it; / could not
decide even whether it had occurred be-
fore the time of Manassas. Then, too,
there was recollection Of Jones in a tent,
and of an officer in blue showing him a
map, and | could also remember that l
had seen or heard that Jones had been on
a shore with the Doctor and Lydia. These
events had no connection. Between Jones
in blue and Jones in gray there were gaps
which L could not cross.
Yet | set myself diligently to the task
of joining these events with the more i'm
pcrtant ones: taxing my memory, diving
into the past, hunting for the slightest
clcwS
And there was another event, further
back seemingly in the dim past, that /
could family recall-JOnes, sick in a tent
with the Doctor attending him; yes, and
someone else in the tent. | strained my
head TO recall this scene more clearly. In
this case Jones had no uniform; neither
did the others wear uniform. And now
new doubt-why in a tent and without
uniform?
For a moment I tried to settle this
question by answering that the ConfcI-
crate troops had not been provided with
uniforms at so early a period; but the
answer proved unsatisfactory. / knew or
felt that DR.. Khayme's relationship with
me was so near that, had he been a Con
Tolerate Surgeon, he would have found
NE long since.
Yet the Doctor might be dead, as well
as Jones, was the thought which followed.
But | knew again that Jones was still
alive. How / knew it, | could not have
told, but | knew it.
Then, too, there was n strange feeling
Of something like intuition in my knOwl
edge that Jones was sick-why should
Jones not be wounded rather than sick?
How could / know that this scene in the
tent was not the sequence of the scene
Of the bursting shell? But 1 say that 1
knew Jones was sick, and not wounded.
How could | know this?
AnC there was yet n third instance of
urrcasoning knowledge Il knew that
Jones was in gray in the night and in a
dense forest.
l examined myself to see whether / be-
licved in intuition, and l reached the con-
clusOn that only one of these events was
an Instance of knowledge without foun-
dation in reason. | knew that Jones was
in gray in the dark night Had | been
told so? Had he told me so? l knew that
he had been sick. Had he told me so? In
any case, | knew these things and knew
that my knowledge was simple. But how
could | know that Jones was now alive?
Why should Jones be alive? The only
answer l could then make was that | felt
sure of the fact. | had no reason to ad-
vance to myself for this knowledge, or
feeling. | felt that it was more than in |
tuition. / felt that it was experience, not
tie experience of sight or hearing or any
of the senses, but experience nevertheless |
-subconsciOus, if you wish to call it so
in these days. Though the experience was
inelplicablc, it was none the less valid. |
| wondered at myself for thinking this, |
MUGS to the soul. To know that a man is |
alive, seeing him walk is not essential, |
nor hearing him speak, nor touching his |
beating pulse; he may be mOtionleSs and
dumb, yet will he have the life of express |
sion and intelligence in his face. Com |
municatiOn between mind and mind does |
not depend on ncarness or direction. But |
| saw no face. Intelligence resides not in |
feature; the change of feature is but one |
of its myriad effects. The mind of the