The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-19

work on psychology which attracted at.
rention and was wrongfully attributed
10 several distinguished men. If a visitor
can talk intelligently on questions OF meta
physics and psychology, this man gives
him hearty welcome to his plantation;
if not he prefers TO be left alone.
Some of these men write poetry by the
ward and send II to the local newspapers.
II Is usually rubbish but occasionally II
has merit Here is ar example. written
by Jamaican under the pseudonym Tom
Redcam," which gives an idea why some
of these hernits shun cities and men:
The night on the town has fallen.
And the gas lamps. few and far,
Ou'namc ike the picket nres
on the rim OF lonely war
The lights of the town. Madonna
Are the eyes of souls despair.
the streets are the thoughts Madonna.
That are dreary and dark and bare
The light that the world affords us,
Though we win where i burrsits best,
Reveals but the pain and the hurry,
The stir OF a streets unrest.
And We turn from streets confusion
From the toll and the city pain.
From all that the heart desires,
md all that the hand can gain,
For what II we win II or lose 1t
The praise that the world bcsowS'
II fades like a gathered blossom.
II dies like whitening rose.
An the calm of God Madonna.
II is far from the streets away
And seeking that calm, Madonna.
The hearts OF thy children stray
A young Englishman, who lived alone
on nm isolated plantation. got all his pleas
urc in life out of gramaphone. He would
spend hours every evening alone listening
to IT,
He was never known TO spend a night
away from it, II was all the society he
cared for-until he met "the only girl in
the world" and married her She soon
civilized him
When a man falls under the thraldom
of solitude marriage is the only cure but
often he vii! not marry, simply because
he would have to give up his hermit's life.
A young American planter Of the sea
coast of Jamaica was in that position.
He loved "A pretty and charming creole
girl, and she cared for him. But somehow
he would not make the plunge.
He hated tha idea Of losing her, and yet
he hated as much the idea of giving up his
solitary life. Month after month he de-
layed the formal proposal, which every
body was expecting. until at last the affair
had a natural result-the girl married
another man ont of pioue.
That made the American a confirmed
misanthrope and now he is ranked among
the most solitary of all the hermits in
Jamaica.
But it is not necessary to go to the tropics
to learn the thraldom Of solitude. Many
men in the heart of great cities know it as
intimately as Alexander Selkirk ever did.
One such man is the head Of n large
banking concern in New York He lives
alone save for his servants, to whom he
only speaks to give commands That is
seldom necessary, as they know by long
usage exactly what he wants on all occa-
siOnR.
He has no friends hardly single ac-
quaintance, never a visitor. Every day he
walks to his Office from his home and walks
back-two miles each way.
At his Office he is merely a highly or
ganized machine transacting business i'll
which he takes no personal interest. He
never chats with anybody or let's 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 goes 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 a hermit from
choice He could not be more completely
under the thraldom Of solitude if he lived
on a desert island in the Pacific.