The Virginia enterprise., 1903-08-21

OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
BY S. RHETT ROMAN
GOoOcOcOoOcOoO$
7 AM CONTENTED with my lot. And
/ I venture the assertion that very
few men of my acquaintance can, with
truthfulness, make a similar state
ment.
To be satisfied with what one has,
whether bread-and-cheese existence
or one In which truffles abound, is the
essence Of philosophy, the height of
wisdom. and the only basis of content
ment.
Well, flatter myself have reached
that sublime pinnacle Of perfect salts
faction, with conditions, as fate and my
own determined efforts have made
them, and no outside element can
henceforth disturb them or me.
The time was when the ardor and
impetuosities Of youth led me into
snares and pitfalls in plenty, when am
bitions beckoned and I followed, and
when, like Marc Antony, believed the
world could we'll be lost for the slow
smile of certain lips and the glance of
eyes as deeply blue, as fathomless and
mysterious as some land-locked noun
tain lake.
That was ages ago. Like other men,
had my lesson to learn, and l found it
vepulsively hard.
But now, know it, and know it
thoroughly. There are no surprises
ahead of me, where men and women
are concerned. I can afford to smile
over the crudities and absurdities of
the time when I had enthusiasms and
a belief in worth, goodness, disinter-
estedness and other mythical virtues,
and long since ceased envying Arthur
his fireside divinity, the woman with
blue eyes, my once Cleopatra, the same
who threw me over for better parti,
she thought, which was miscalcula-
tion on her part, because to-day am
q very much weather. man than Ar
thur, thanks to some copper mines in
Colorado. Where was the harm? The
aim in life for all is riches.
To reach to contentment all a man
has to do is to attend strictly to his
business, do little speculating by way
Of diversion, and push his interests
further afeld.
And If rurally inclined, as am, with
an inherited taste for landed estate,
gotten from forbears who were lords
of much domain, he will find that life
can be made very satisfactory by buy
Ing place like this one, and that a
man can do without those feverish and
exacting affections called family ties,
which, thank God, l propose to con-
tinue to ignore.
was idly jotting down the above
random thoughts last evening with a
delighted appreciation of my freedom
from cumbersome burdens, when dis
patch was handed me by Thomas.
Did say man can order his own
fate and maintain it, within what
boundaries, and on what lines his incli-
nations prompt?
Well, I was mistaken. It seems there
is fatality (the pious call it a Wise
Providence) which takes pleasure in
= stepping in and ordering differently,
and with diabolical malice to thrust up-
on you the moral obligations of an old
time friendship, compassion for the
helpless and other promptings of a like
nature, until you are helpless puppet
and must needs dance when the strings
are pulled
4 OF course, was sorry to hear of Ar
thurs death.
\ I never had any feeling but one of
contempt for his character, he was al
ways double-faced, and a plausible
+ young sneak, but we were boys togeth-
j er, and the very fact Of my always
bearing the brunt and shielding him
y when reckoning came to us for our
n various and frequent escapades, made
me fond of thu handsome little fellow,
although God knows he was selfish
I and heartless enough. -
I have often wondered by what tor
tuoss methods he got between Aline
and me.
It was during those years when was
]. out in the far west seeking the for
& tune I found eventually in the copper
mines. the hot anger and pain of his
4 trsachery and her loss was over, long
years afterwards realized had been
too hasty. r.. -. ~.~.-.>s., i I'D ,.= 4
Was 1t trap laid for me? Perhaps
Aline was also fooled. have some
times thought t.