The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-12

morning By that duck 40 not
mean the wee bit of humanity the
storks have lately brought to my
neiehbor-a little being who is plump
and cute enough to be called by any
| foolish endearing name-but mean
| a real fowl which comes early 10
wake me. l do not know where II
comes from, whether it walks up
| street or down on its way to me.
| There's something uncanny ABOUT the
appearing and disappearing OF TINS
creature. The first thing l knew OF
it's existence was it's quack! quack!
down there exactly under my win
dow. 1t seemed to be saying in
ducllish undertone: Wake! wake!
Get UP. Get out! Let the children
sleep but you must wake! wake!
After the thing has accomplished
it's purpose-a purpose which seems
fiendish in view of the fact that /
often fail to sleep in the early hours
! of the night-it wanders away, l
know not where.
/ Ida, who presides in the kitchen
and various other places, cheerfully
suggests that Its a ha'nt." This
strikes me as very good solution Oh
the problem. Except through some
unearthly wisdom how could that
duck know just where my window is!
How could it pitch it's unmelodious
voice to the tune which always
| wakes me and never rOuSeS anybody
else? Why should it come exactly at
| the same time, rain or SHINE! III IT
had CHANGED to find a dainty bit of
grass something unusually choice
| there under my WINDOW, why
doesn't it venture back oftener? /
| fell YOU the thing is out of the or
dinar-- it's sinister. and while II may
not be so poetic as the raven on the
bust of Pallas it is succeeding in get
ting its beak into my heart just the
same.
Have YOU noticed how rapidly the
broken-up newspaper article is grow
| ing? | wonder if our minds are quite
as scrappy as this would indicateE
Does it show mental degeneracy? or
is it but another illustration OF
American haste? AS for myself
get so much pleasure out of these ar
ticIes that touch on many subjects,
passing
From grave to pay,
From lively to severe"
that / begin to have intellectual
qualms and am about. to decide that
it is a falling off in mind power when
l get to the point that l read with
| greatest zeSt these thrown together
papers and the shorter editorial para
graphs while / avoid or postpone the
more weighty, looking matter This
is very we'll for rest but when we
allow such things to take the place OF
| any and all continuous mental effort
it must weaken our thought habit.
After all, / suppose it makes less diff
| ference with women as our most con-
tinued trains of thought are not eX-
| pected to work out any great things
for humanity, We are not supposed
| to be able to make any great diScoV-
Al ,I.@, ~ .,io 400. In
not invent; when we undertake the
| mysteries of philosophy we do the
| Mrs. Eddy or Madame Blavatsky act;
| when we try literature we very occa-
sionally do something fine,-so what
difference does it make whether we
hop from thing to thing in sparrow
fashion or sit still and broodingly
think ourselves into Nirvana? At any
rate, when l write that novel which
has been smmering in my brain for
years | expect to make as great use
a. dashes, daggers. a9terisks, etc,
as did that ancient worthy, Lawrence
Sterne
l am re-readng the Marble Faun.
1 daresay that will sound Anticipated
to one who rushes through so many
of the present-day novels with their
Mysteries and questionable discussions
but I am really re-reading the
Marble Faun.
Do you remember how Hilda had
given UP creative work and become
copyist of the immortal artists whose
pictures adorn the galleries of Rome?
"Hilda's faculty Of genuine admira-
| ton is one of the rareSt to be found
in human nature; and let us try to
recompense her in kind by admiring
her generous self-surrender, and her
brave humble magnanimity in choos-
ing to be the handmade of those old
magicianS, instead of minor en-
chantress within a circle of her own.
1.-THE handmade of Raphael whom
she loved with virgins love. Would
it have been worth Hildas Whlle 10
relinuuiSh this: office for the sake OF
giving the world picture or two
which it would call original; pretty
fancies of snow and moonlight; the
counterpart in picture OF SO many
feminine achievements in literature!
See that? There was time when
I would have resented this with all
my heart and SOUL as being pro-
clamation of woman's inferlorlty to
man. But somehow / do not now re-
J sent it. Suppose there is an lntellectu-
al inferiority,- then?
I have a friend who declares she
does not like to play second fiddle
doubt that she dislikes it SO much as
she thinks. There is something rest
full in the thought that the grand
strains would go on, the orchestra
will roll it's waves of sound upward
and outward even while the weaker
instruments shall have moments
pause.
ones point of view often changes
as one grows older and | have come
to see that the worlds custom is rignl
when it gives women the more Secluu
ed life There can be no question ol
this. 1t is unfortunate that Il'c
mothers of men should be keyed 70
the note of a strenuous life cdse
mot what sort of strenuoS1ty IL oe
the life of artist, nurse, society ieau
er, typewriter or what else-1 - pet-
ter that our women have time 70 Nv
UP to the best that's in tnenl' anu
how can this be done II they are
strained in nerve and worn III 'pii
3 -
There are a few things that come
into a woman's life noWca-days that
ought to be gotten out of it. One of
tbesa ;s the habit of having what Mr.
Al Fairbrotter would irreverently