Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-01-03
sinful midnoon.
TIE Lives of Others.

The hero or eacn tale, whether ncll-
tious on no. has his life intwined In the
existence Of many other lives. We find
this thought best illustrated perhaps In
Wilkie Collins Dead Secret" or mo
Name" or The Woman In White" or
Of Anna Katharine Green's "Leaven-
worth Case or OF Conan Doyle's IA
nous and strange wanderings Of Sher-
lock Holmes. These and similar au-
thors we read not for their cpigrammat-
ic sayings, as We do the writings OF
William NJ. Thackeray, but we read
them for the deft way In which they
disentangle the snarled skein OF hui
man plot No sooner are their chief
characters born than the authors let
them worm their way through intricate
and weird surroundings until at last
they lead them to the marriage altar,
or, II the story be tragedy, into the
gaping mouth Of an open grave. Some
one took Ian Maclarcn to task for ere
ating so many dissOute characters In
his books The author Of Bonnie Brier
Bush" answered: Man, how can | help
creating many dissolute charactersf
After my characters are once born they
live their own lives and do whatever
damage they please. Some OF them VIII
get drunk: some Of them will lie and
steal; some OF them will break their
loved ones hearts. My characters, aft
er they are once born. dominate me. l
cannot control them"
Every true story Of life must repre-
sent II 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 ParcR." the fates that
are supposed to decide the destInies Of
every man. Clotho is there pictured
as q beautiful woman, holding the
birth spindle out of which the thread
Of life is to be drawn. Atropos is Ii
beautiful woman pulling forth that
thread. and thereby deciding what the
mans life Is to be. Lachesis Is an old
bag. with pair Of sharp shears cut
ting that thread and making nm 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
1t passes Into the worlds loom. among
and around other threads, adding its
textile strength 10 the warp and woof.
In the nursery the fates are not alone
the three In the picture, but multi
tude which are weaving that thread.
What a 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 will do. A
wlfe's position upon the temperance
question may decide whether or no her
husband shlll die Of delirlum tremens.
The tale OF human life Is a plot In
which the happiness of a mother. IA
ther, a brother. sister. wife. child,
d friend. may be dependent upon the
purity and the nobility Of ole man.
When the heart # the old oak is eaten
e1t, not only does the mighty tree fall,
but also all tue elihgIn1 Vines which
have elambered up the sides Of the
tree; all the birds nests in which the
feathered 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. It brings disaster upon
every life with whom that hero comes
In touch. Our lives are all lntwined
with other lives.
The Lights and shadows.
Every tale, whether fictitious or no,
has it's depressIons as well as its ele-
vations. 1t has Its disappointments
and heartaches and sorrows, and often
It's graves, as we'll as its joys and re-
unions and happy marriage affairs. 1t
has its dark nights and quic6sands and
precipices and often Its murderers and
hlghwaymen as well as Its cities or
refuge and gardens Of Eden and Uto-
erently use the word, its saviors or
redeemers. 1t may have Its Franken-
stems, its Wandering Jews and its mer-
ciless Javerts as well as its Bishop
Myriels and its Jean Valjeans and its
christians" and it's Eternal Cities" 1t
has always been so. An auditor would
not sit hour after hour. as the ancients
used to do, listening to the imaginative
story tellers of old II lights and shad-
ows had not continually chased each
other across their fictitious heavens.
But, though every story, whether fc-
titious or no, may have It's 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 to 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 robed 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 writhing In
agony and bechlng forth a reservoir
Of burning lava and while the heav-
ems were raining tempest OF fire and
the midday wns 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 or
the doomed city. out past the Roman
sentinel who stood by the gate, pre-
ferring to die rather than to desert his
post. out to the blue waters OF the
Mediterranean, in which there was
safety Is not this statement true oil
the beautiful story Of Dickens "Tale
Of Two Cities or of Scotts "1vanhoe,
of Coopers Pathfinder" Of Shake
speare's "Klng Lear" and true OF al
most any Of the works Of the ancient
story writer's as well as the stories
written by the authors Of the present