River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-11-03
THE THINGS
THAT ARE ~
EFF. III. LANCASTER
Copyright, 1904, by Daily story Pub. Co.,


significantly.
"You have been thinking it over! To
be a deep thing or whimsical?
Rather deep-earnest, at any rate" "
''To pivot on man or a woman
woman. But you had better pivot it
on a man, for you don't know thing
in the world about women"
Nothing; except that there is no
telling from what point of view woman
will approach an issue"
"The things that are, are hard on a
woman" he muttered, thoughtfully.
'But a man has greater reverence for
them"
Madison studied the poem, by his
expression neither accepting nor reject
ing her assertion. He looked tired-and
he was. But, Indian like, had taken up
this additional task to convince his flag
ging energies that they were not so near
" spent as they seemed to be. Had
taken it up and carried it across the hall
to Daisy Dunbar's den. Being wont to
come 70 her because she had enough
common sense to take a man in his
mood Not many women had that much,
he fancied. Also he had on several oc-
casions found this practical young per-
son very present help in rush. Pres
emily he sunk his lean jaws into his lean
palms and said, still staring at the poem
spread out before him: Il need not only
title. but first line and last line,
and a plot
'You have your last line in the quota
ton"
POSSIBLY. We put our trust in things
that are Yes"
You have your first line in the quota
ton"
Madison looked dubious, his tired
mind not yet reaching to the spring of
hers.
why, of course you have. A first
line should catch the attention What
more strikingly beautiful, or beauti-
fully striking than this?" And slowly
she read the lines upside down:
go, pipe your song and dream your
dream,
And feed your soul on things that seem;
But be our haven near or far,
ooh, yes; that way. Perhaps"
"And you have your plot in the quo
tation."
"How?"
'In it's pathetic perversity isn't it the
overheard Cry of the human bearing
witness to the well-night futility of
Heavens best planned pleasures for
man? If you pivot your story on man
strike out in few of your strong
strokes hero gifted beyond the ken Of
most men, and throw across his path the
unusual woman-the woman who can
comprehend him in all his moods and
phases, then against the high, white
light of his love for her paint the story
of his struggle against the ascendancy
of the things that are, flashing across
the gloom of it the fitful flares of mans
Unborn horror of ridicule, his abject
terror of doing the unusual; and sink
him at last to the sullen commonplace
of the tangible. Marry him to the widow
who wore violets in her bonnet and
mourning of the type most approved of
man. There's your plot"
Madison had been staring steadily at
the poem from under bent brows When
Daisy made an end he pulled out, and
showed toward her without speaking,
the editors Instructions: "You will I'M
derstand that we want something with a
touch of to-day in it: natural and real"
There is no touch of to-day in what
you have been saying" he grumbled.
Nothing natural, nothing real"
And instead of being exasperated by
his disgruntled ingratitude, Daisy only
replied in a tone of thoughtful convic-
ton:
well, yes, there are several touches %
and lay back in her chair contentedly
studying the contrasting shades of the
blue blotter on the green baise while
Madison sulked because the subtle
analogies of her sharpened perception
were but as blurs to his tagged out
faculties.
''You have been plotting the thing to
pivot on woman" he broke out, frac-
tiously. ga man has no such horror of the
unusual as you imagine. In the natural
sequence of things he would marry the
woman he loved and let the widow and
her proper mourning go to the bow
vows. 1t is only the weak that fear
criticism"
Most men are weak" Daisy muir
INJURED, abstractedly. With a scarcely
perceptible movement she turned on a
tiny gas jet at her elbow, lit cigarette.
turned off the flame. and fell to smok-
ing quiet continuity of cigarettes that
betokened abstraction, certainly, but in
no wise limited at Impotence, disap-
pointment or disdain. Her poise pro-
voked Madison. There was enough
Adam in him to resent apparent COM
fort in others when he was himself IN
comfortable. He pushed the literary
litter about with impatient fingers and
cut into the peace OF her sixth cigarette
with wantonly displayed disgust:
do you believe that smoking is good
for q woman?"
Daisy shook her bent head: 81 have
no cigarette creed" She drew the sew
enth deeply and asked courteously:
''Why, are any of your friends thinking
of adopting the practice?"
'They would not be my friends very
long if they did"
And still her great patience rested
mistaken in its depth and against its
quietude Madison saw grow, with slow
shame, the size of his uncalled-for cut.
He got up, thrust his hands into his
trousers pockets and went whistling
around her tvnewriter with ifs loaded