The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19

of Jamaica somebody is always giving
ball or a dinner or a tennis party
All that a man has to do, if he tires
of his own company, is to saddle his
pony and ride ten or twenty miles to
another plantation. He is warmly
welcomed in the hospitable Creole
fashion, and give pleasant evening
with music and conversation. But the
man of solitude prefers to sit on his
own veranda after dinner, smoke his
cigar, and try to count the flref1ies nit
ting through the chocolate trees. This
he does year after year, until he be-
comes an old man.
II went out to dinner last week, old
man." said one of these Crusoes of
| 1.-The bush' First time for over a
year I'd left the plantation. Wish 1
hadn't. Good dinner, charming peo-
pie. Dear old lady, the mother; nice
girls, too. Played me Mendelssohn's
| Consolation and the Spring Song
after dinner. hadn't heard any good
music for over five years. But l wish
ed l hadn't gone. Too much racket
for me. l was glad to get back to this
quiet old plantation and be alone again.
I'm no good for society. 1 suppose I'm
selfish, but I prefer my own company
| to anybody's."
i How They Amuse Themselves.
This man is a type of thousands.
Many of them are highly educated men,
with cultivated tastes and talents.
| An oVerseer in Jamaica, who never
sees another white man if he can pos
sible avoid doing so, is gifted musi-
| cian Every evening, after dinner, ne
sits down at his organ and plays the
masterpieces of Beethoven and Pales-
trina 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
distinguished men. If a visitor can
talk intelligently on questions of met
aphysics and psychology, this man
gives him a hearty welcome to his
plantation; if not, he prefers to be left
alone.
Some of these men write poetry by
the yard and send it to the local news
papers. 1t is usually rubbish, but oc-
casionally it approaches genius. Here
is an example, written by a Jamaican
under the prendonym tom Redcam,"
which gives an idea why some of these
hermits shun cities and men:
1.-The night on the town has fallen,
And the gas lamps, few and far,
Outfiame like the picket fires
On the rim of a lonely war.
1.-The lights of the town, Madonna,
Are the eyes of a souls despair:
The streets are the thoughts, Madonna,
That are dreary and dark and bare.
1.-THE light that the world affords US,
Though we win where it burns its
best,
Reveals but the pain and the hurry,
The stir of a streets unrest.
'And we turn from the streets confu-
sion,
From the toll and the city's pain,
From all that the heart desires.
And all that the hand can gain.
! For what if we win it or lose IT,
The praise that the world bestows.
1t fades like a gathered blossom,
1t dies like a whitening rose.
"Ah, the calm of God, Madonna,
1t is far from the streets away,
And, seeking that calm, Madonna,
The hearts of thy children stray"
A young Englishmans 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-until 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 thrall-
dom of solitude, marriage is the only
cure; but often he will not marry,
simply because he would have to give
up his hermit's life.
A young American planter on the
sea coast of Jamaica was in that po-
sition. He loved pretty and charm
ing 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 as much the
! idea of giving up his solitary life.
Month after month he delayed the
formal proposal, which everybody was
expecting. until at last the affair had
a natural result-the girl married an
other man out of pique. That made
the American a confirmed nissan
thrope, and now he is ranked among
the most solitary of all the hermits
in Jamaica.
Solitude in Metropolis.
But it is not necessary to go to the
tropics to learn the thralldom of soli-
tude Many men in the heart of great
cities know it as intimately as Alex
ander Selkirk ever did.
One such man is the head of large
banking concern in New York. He
lives alone, save for his servants, to
whom he only speaks to give COM
mands. That is seldom necessary, as
thCy fAAlON ny lOllS USAGE GAdClly
what he wants on all occasions. He
has no friends, hardly a 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 high
ly organized machine transacting busi-
ness in 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 gets out anywhere
and never has a soul to visit him. His
day at the office is nothing but a
dream, and his real life does not be-
gin till he takes up his book.
This man is essentially d hermit |
from choice. He could not be more
completely under the thralldom of
solitude if he lived on a desert island /
in the Pacific.