Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-01-01
The Lives of Others.

Wilkie Collins Dead Secret or NO
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 Shar-
lock Holmes These and similar au-
thors we read not for their cpigra mmat.
lc sayings, as we do the writings of
William NJ. Thackeray, but we read
them for the deft way in which they
discntangle 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, IL the story be tragedy, into the
gaping mouth Of an open grave. Some
one took Ian Maclaren to task for Gre
ating so many dissolute charact In
his books The author of Bonnie Brier
Bush" answered: Man. how can help
creating many dissclute characters?
After my characters are once born they
live their own lives and do whatever
damage they please. Some of them will
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.
cannot control them"
Every true story Of life must repre-
sent 1t as mixed up in the lives of many
others. This is always so. You may
have seen IL some art gallery picture
Of the Three Parc;e,' the fates that
are supposed to decide the destinies Of
every man. Clotho is there pictured
as beautiful woman. holding the
birth spindle out of which the thread
of life is to he drawn. Atropos is a
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 an end Of
that mortal life. But l want to re
mind you today that in the story Of
| life every mans life is intwincd 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 multi
! tude which are weaving that thread.
/ What mother docs may decide to a
great extent what her children will do.
In the dining room there are more than
three fatcs influencing the lives of
young men. What the father does
may decide what his boys will do. A
wfes position upon the temperance
question may decide whether or no her
husband shill die Of dclirium tremens.
The tale of a human life Is a plot in
which the happiness of a mother. ia
ther, brother, sister. wife. child.
a friend, may be dependent upon the
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
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 intwincd
with other lives.
The Lights and Shadows.
Every tale, whether fictitious or no
has its depressions as we'll as its ele
vations. 1t has its appointments
and heartaches and sorrows, and Otter
its graves, as we'll as its joys and re-
unions and happy marriage affairs. II
has its dark nights and qucksands and
precipices and often its murderers and
highwaymen as we'll as it's cities OF
refuge and gardens of Eden and Ito
pias and rescuers and, If | might rev
erently use the word, its saviors OF
redeemers. 1t may have Its Franken
stems, It's Wandering Jews and its mer
CHESS Javerts as well as its Bishop
Myriels and its Jean Valjeans and it,
"Christians" and its Eternal Cities" II
has always been SO. An auditor would
not sit hour after hour, as the ancients
used to do, listening to the imaginative
story tellcrs of old II lights and shad
ows had not continually chased each
other across their fictitious heavens.
But, though every story, whether fic
titlous or no, may have its ups ant
downs, vet the general rule is, the
greater the danger and the backcr the
sorrow and the moro overwhelming
and imminent the eatcning destruc
ton the nearer is the appearance o
the deliverer the savior or the redeem
er. 1t is when all hope seems to BIZ
forever gone that we are relieved b!
the entrance of some character who il
able to chase away the black winged
demon of despair and lead forth thu
white robed angel of hope You ma.
remember an illustration of this rul,
in Lord Lytton's famous historical nov
ell, The Last Days of Pompeii" Whil
old Mount Vesuvius was writing il
agony and belchng forth a reservoi
of burning lava and while the heav
ems were raining a tempest Of fire ant
the midday was as black as the dark
ness of the Egyptian plague did no
the blind girl Nydia take her lover b,
the hand and lead him forth out O
the doomed city, out past the Romal
sentinel who stood by the gate pre-
ferring TO die rather than to desert hi
post, out to the blue waters Of tn
Mediterranean, in which there wa
safety? Is not this statement true c
! the beautiful story Of Dickens "Tal
Of Two Cities' or Of SCOTS "lvanhoe,
a