The news & observer., 1905-11-05
BY II. IL. GRAY.

but where and how? Where before
did you meet him, what passed be-
tween you when there came this un-
forgettable flash from the dark? MyS-
terry Of life, caught and held beyond
the grave by fear Of death! you touch
it like the wing Of a bat in the
night with a quick repulsion, yet the
touch is of a shuddering softness, of
silence which is like a crying in
the gloom! And what does it mean
that the recognition is that of an
evil? that it is an enemy and not
friend that springs at one from the
crowd? Or, in the economy of life,
do we pass the sympathies with a
selfish Indifference and, with equal
selfshness, preserve the impress of a
hate? Here and there in a crowd one
runs for a second on individual faces.
seeing them like flashes of tiny light
in the dark. Most of them are good,
now and again there is the smile of
one who carries his love of the world
upon the lapel of his coat, yonder is
woman whose eyes are like live
Goals of soul-d desire, whose white and
placid brow shows a tenderness which
is the equivalent of the religion OF
humanity. These we smile at in re-
turn and forget with a start when
we see the face that wings it's threat
into our eyes. That picture, ugly and
sinister, we carry away in all it's col
ors. in all its neverto-be forgotten
pigments of fear, of distrust, of
ceaseless caution lest it spring upon
us from behind!
Who, meantime, is looking at you?
What have you forgotten, like the
imple-minded man at whom you look
and wonder at his want of divination?
What old antipathies are stirring at
your eyes among these rows of pleas
ant seeming people with whom ones
life is cast? Does someone remember
you, whom you have forgotten? Does
the fool" that you are so ready to
put upon the f1ashlight picture of the
face that you have detected fit you,
also, in q thousand places? What have
you done and where have you been
the while these things were coming
slowly into dead consciousness
Scan the faces that you meet. They
give no answer. Mild and sunny and
dark, happy and Wearied and fatigued,
ugly and beautiful. Behind them all
these flashes of intelligence of forgot
EN- things-these dread and animal
ike antipathies born of the air!
Two men who had lately fought on
sudden quarrel sat in the court
room side by side. SO far as their
faces might have indicated neither
had seen the other before. They were
both young. Both had touched the
dregs at the bottom of the glass. The
light over, neither had interest in the
other. 1t had been an ebulition of
passion, pure and simple, between
them. At the same time the look of
The one was that of concern, that of
the other of Indifference. The one
looked and showed his dissipation. His
face was rough and dry. His eyes
were those of a man who has not
slept. Still he had his nerve. The
other man had more than nerve; he
was confident. His clothes fitted him,
his laundry was clean He looked on
the people who had gathered to watch
him with an air that was half amuSe-
ment. His brown eyes did not flicker
in their regard Such expression as
they showed was that of a man i'm
personally interested, of a piece of
fotsam finding itself on the current,
resigned to it's fate.
His was an alien personality. Man
after man came down from the court
room saying, Where have l seen
him before?" In a way he was
type. He appealed to all the old, for
gotten memories. He was the en-
bodiment of things known before
birth His brown eye, opaque and yet
on light, fired the imagination. The
uIoop III Iie Coi hel VI 'liC lCAC cSS
lid impressed a cynical recognition.
He was as one who could not be an
swered. The man himself was an
accusation. His eye looked one
through and through. The old, long
forgotten things came to the front un-
der his gaze. He was an enemy. Cool,
incOrruptible in his admission of cor
ruptibility. 1t was an indictment of
the multitude that looked upon him.
He was a scOffer at pretense. Before
that all-seeing eye, one quailed. 1t
was honest, it was Unconditional it
was unconscious of its power. 1t laid
charges without knowing, out of its
own iniquity. 1t declared itself ig
norantly. 1t spoke the truth, which
none could dodge. There was a shiver
through the room when it turned