Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-18

of them are highly educated men, with cul
tivated tastes and talents.
An overseer in Jamaica. who never sees
another white man If he can possibly avoid
doing So is gifted musician. Every even
ing after dinner he sits down at his organ
and plays the masterpieces of Beethoven
and Palestrna until it is time to go to bed.
Another has published anonymously
profound work on psychology which made
a stir in the scientific world, and was
wrongfully attributed to several diStin-
guished men. If a visitor can talk intelli
gently on questions OF metaphysics and
psychology, this man gives him hearty
welcome to his plantation; if not. he pre-
fers to be left alone
Some of these men write poetry by the
yard and send it to the local newspapers.
II is usually rubbish, but occasionally it ap-
proaches genius. Here is example. writ
ten by a Jamaican under the pseudonym
Tom Redcam," which gives an idea why
some of these hermits shun cities and men:
The night the town has fallen,
And the gas lamps few and far,
Outtame like the picket fires
On the rim OF a lonely war
The lights Of the town. Madonna,
Are the eyes Of SOUL despair;
The streets the thoughts, Madonna,
That are dreary and dark and bare.
1.-The light that the world affords us.
Though we win where it burns It's best,
Reveals but the pain and the hurry,
The stir OF a street s unrest.
And turn from the streets confusion,
From the toll and the city's p lin,
From all that the heart desires,
And all that the hand can gain
''For what If we win 1t or losr it,
The praise that the world bcstows.
1t fades ike gathered blossom,
1t dies like a whitening rose.
''Ah. the calm Of God Madonna,
1t is far frum the sire is away,
And seeking that ca M. Madonna,
The hearts of thy children stray"
young Englishman, who lived alone on
an isolated plantation. got all his pleasure
in life out of a gramaphone He would
spend hours every evening alone listening
to it. He was never known to spend a night
away from his cherished instrument. 1t was
all the society he cared for-untl he met
the only girl in the world and married
her. She soon civilized him.
Marriage the Only Possible Cure.
When a man falls under the thralldom
of solitude marriage is the only cure; but
often he will not marry, simply because he
would have to give up his hermits life.
A young American planter on the sea
coast of Jamaica in that position. He
loved pretty and charming Creole girl.
and she cared for him. But somehow he
would not make the plunge. He hated
the idea of losing her, and yet he hated
much the idea OF giving up his solitary
life. Month after month he delayed the
formal proposal, which everybody eX-
recting. until at last the affair had a
natural rest.t-the sill married another
out OF pipue. That made the Amer-
can a confirmed misanthrope. and now he
is ranked among the most solitary of all the
iernlitS in jamaica.
Solitude in a Metropolis.
But it is not necessary to go to the
tropics to learn the thralidom OF solitude.
Many men i'll the heart of great cities
know it as intimately as Alexander Sck.rk
did.
one sGch man is the head of II large bank
ing concern IN New York. He lives alone,
save for his servants. to whom he only
speaks to give commands. That is seldom
necessary, they know by long usage ex-
actly what he wants on all occasions. He
has no friends. hardly single acquant-
ance. never visitor. Every day he walks
to his office from his home and walks ba ok
two miles each way. At his office he is
merely highly organized machine trans
acting business in which he takes per-
Scnal interest. He never chats with any
body. or lets anybody chat with him.
After dinner. his real day begins. He
lives in his books all the evening. and every
evening. Reading is all he cares for. He
never gets out anywhere and never has
soul to visit him. His day at the office
is nothing but a dream, and his real life
does not begin till he takes up his book.
This man is essentially n hermit from
choice. He could not be more completely
under the thralldom of solitude if he lived
on a desert ISLAND in the Pacific.