The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1903-01-02

nous ana strange WanuefinSS OF SneI
| lock Holmes These and similar au
thors we read not for their epigrammat
ic sayings, as we do the writings OF
William NJ Thackeray, but we reat
them for the deft way in which the!
| disentangle the snarIed skein Of hu
man plot. No sooner are their chic
! characters born than the authors le
them worm their way through Intricate
and weird surroundings until at las
they lead them to the marriage altar
or, if the story be tragedy, into The
gaping mouth Of an open grave. Some
one took Ian Maclaren to task for ere
ating so many dissolute characters ii
his books. The author of Bonnie Briel
Bush answered: MAN, how can hell
creating many disSolute characters
After my characters are once born they
live their own lives and do whatevcl
damage they please. Some of them viii
get drunk; some of them will lie anC
steal; some of them will break theil
loved ones hearts. My characters, aft
er they are once born, dominate me.
cannot control them"
Every true story of life must repre-
sent it as mixed up in the lives of many
others. This is always So You may
have seen in some art gallery a picture
of the Three Parcn," the fates that
are supposed to decide the destinies OF
every man. Clotho is there pictured
as a beautiful woman, holding the
birth spindle out Of which the thread
of life is to be drawn. AtrOpOs is Il
beautiful woman pulling forth that
thread, and thereby deciding what the
mans life is to be- Lachesis is an old
bag. with a pair of sharp shears cut
ting that thread and making an end of
that mortal life. But | want to re-
mind you today that in the story Of
life every mans life is intwined in
other lives Before that thread is cut
it passes into the worlds loom, among
and around other threads, adding its
textile strength to the warp and wool
In the nursery the fates are not alone
the three in the picture, but a multi
tude which are weaving that thread.
What mother does may decide to a
great extent what her children will do.
In the dining room there are more than
three fates influencing the lives Of
young men. What the father does
may decide what his boys win do. A
wife's position upon the temperance
question may decide whether or no her
husband shill die of drlirium tremens.
Tho fol- Of lifn ic r,lot IN,
which the happiness of Il mother, ia
Their, a brother, a sister. a wife, child
a friend. may be dependent upon the
purity and the nobility of one man.
When the heart of the old oak is eaten
out, not only does the mighty tree fall
but also all the clinging vines which
have clambered up the sides of the
tree; all the birds nests in which the
fea thered mothers have laid their eggs;
also all of the leaves which are kissed
of the sunlight and are rustling with
joy. In the story OF life. when the hero
does wrong. 1t brings disaster upon
in touch. Our lives are all intwined
with other lives.
The Lights and Shadows.
Every tale, whether fictitious or no,
has its depressions as well as its ele-
vations. 1t has its disappointments
and heartaches and sorrows, and often
its graves. as well as its joys and re-
unions and happy marriage affairs. 1t
has its dark nights and quicksands and
precipices and often its murderers and
highwaymen as well as its cities of
refuge and gardens of Eden and Tito
piaS and rescuers and, if | might rev.
erently use the word. its saviors or
redeemers. 1t may have its Franken.
stems, its Wandering Jews and its mer
CHESS Javerts as well as its Bishop
Myriels and its Jean Naljeans and its
"Christians" and its Eternal Cities" Ii
has always been so. Ap auditor would
not sit hour after hour, as the ancients
used to do, listening to the imaginative
story tellers of old if lights and shad.
ows had not continually chased each
other across their fictitious heavens
But, though every story, whether fic-
titiOus or no, may have its ups and
downs, yet the general rule is. the
greater the danger and the blacker the
sorrow and the more overwhelming
and imminent the threatening destruc-
ton the nearer is the appearance of
the deliverer, the savior or the redeem.
er 1t is when all hope seems 10 be |
forever gone that we are relieved by |
the entrance of some character who is
able to chase away the black winged |
demon of despair and lead forth the |
white roDed angel of hope. You may |
remember an Illustration of this rule |
in Lord Lytton's famous historical nov
ell, The Last Days of Pompeii." While
old Mount Vesuvius was writing in
agony and belching forth a reservoir
OF burning lava and while the heav-
ems were raining a tempest of fire and
the midday was as black as the dark
ness Of the Egyptian plague did not
the blind girl Nydia take her lover by
the hand and lead him forth out of
The doomed city, out past the Roman
sentinel who stood by the gate. pre-
-erring to die rather than to desert his
post out to the blue waters of the
IL which there was
safety? Is not this statement true of
he beautiful story of Dickens Tale
1f Two Cities or of Scott's "Ivanhoe,"
If Coopers Pathfinder" of Shake
ipeare's king Lear" and true of al
most any of the works of the ancient
itory writers as well as the stories
written by the authors of the present
layf
So general is this rule that the psalm
st may have had it in mind w en- he
declared that I'VE SPEND our years as
tale that is told" and is practically
aging. "You know that i'm the tale the