Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-11-16

sent straight to him from the post
office as the police had directed. 1t
was fitting that he should upon the
ball with a lie about this, and add
thereto any other pleasant fancy which
fertile imagination dictated.
Gessner does not cable u.s." he
said at that moment of the repast
/ when the glasses are first filled and
the tongue is loosed. 81 suppose he
| has gone over to Paris again as he
limited might be the case. If there is
no news tomorrow, we must recon
| slider the arguments and see how we
stand. You know that am
PERFECTLY willing to be guided by him
and will do nothing OF my
own initiative. If he can pro-
cure the old mans freedom, | will
be the first to congratulate you.
Meanwhile, am not to forget that we
have box at the opera and that
Huguenots is on the bill. When |
am not In musical circles, confess
my enjoyment of Huguenots. Meyer
beer always seemed to me grand old
charlatan who should have run a
modern show in New York. He wrote
one masterpiece and some Ave miles
of rubbish-but why decry great
i work because there are also those
| which are not great. Besides. l am
not musician enough really to enjoy
the Ring. If 1t were not for the pref
ty women who come to my box to es-
cape ennui, would find Wagner
intolerable. y
| Alban, very quiet and not a little
excited tonight different from this
opinion altogether.
my father was musician" he
said 81 believe that he had not been
parson, he would have been great
musician. l don't know very much
about music myself, but the first time
that Mr.. Gessner took me to hear on!
of Wagner's operas, seemed to live
In a new world. 1t could not have
been just the desire to like it. for l
had made up my mind that 1t would be
very dry There is something in such
music as that which is better than all
argument. shall never forget the
curious sensation which came to me
when first l heard the overture to
Tannhauser played by a big orchestra.
You will not deny that 1t is splendid"
Undoubtedly it's fine-especially
where the clarinets came in and you
seem to have five hundred mice run
ming up your back | am not going
to be drawn into an argument on the
point likes and dislikes are
purely individual. To me it seems
perfectly ridiculous that one man
should quarrel with another because
third person has said or written
something about which they disagree.
In politics, Of course, there is justifca-
| ton. The Have-Nots want to get
money out Of the HAYES and the peck
cts supply the adjectives. But in the
arts, which exist for our pleasure
| why, might as we'll fall foul Of you
| because you do not like caviar;
, golden-haired women are to me just
} little more attractive than the
[ angels. But, of course, that does not
J speak for their tempers."
| He laughed at the candor Of It, and
> looking round the brilliant restaurant
, where they dined tonight, he began
/ to speak in low tone Of Russian and
Polish women generally.
+ 1.-THE Polish ladies are old-fashioned
{ enough to Hove one man at time
: In their own country, at any rate. The
!. Russians, on the contrary, are less
3 selfish. A Russian woman is OTTER
the victim Of three centuries Of sup
t pressed female ambitions She has
$ large ideas, fierce passions, an excel
Y lent political sense-and all thess
! must be cooled by the wet blanket u
! a very ordinary domesticity. lr
2 reality, she is not domesticated at al
= and would far sooner be following hel
/ lover-the one chosen for the day
down the street with q flag. Here
t you have the reason why Russia.
! woman appeals to US. She Is rarel!
), beautiful- some of them would them
/ selves admit the deficiency--but she !:
> never an embarrassment. Tell he
V that you are tired of her and 70,
will discover that she was about tt
e stagger your vanity by similar con
. fidence In these days of revolution
i she is seen at her best. Fear neithe
Of God nor man will restrain her. w,
less Of the spirit in Russia than II
any other country in the world. Her
4 in Poland it is a, little different Som
a OF our women are as the idealist
f would have them to be. But ther
3 are others-or the city would be IN
h tolerable."
!, AlDan mao uVed TOO long IN WOTl
Il of mean cynics that this talk shout
n either surprise or entertain hin
g Men in Union street spoke of wome
Y much as this careless fellow did, rare
S ly generous to them and often e,
r ceedingly unjust. His own ideals h
d had confessed wholly to none, not eva
to Anna Gessner in the moment I
il their greatest intimacy. That fine ole
s world notion Of the perfect woman
9 hood, developed to the point {
d idolatry by the Celts of the West, bu
5. standing none the less as a witness
o the whole worlds desire, might r.
r main by as a. memory of his youth
= he would neither surrender it nor az
l. NIT that 1t was unworthy of men
l. homage. When Sergius spoke of hi
it own country-women, Alban could 70
p give him all other estimates. An
l. this was as much as to say that tn
Ii image of Lois was with him eve
n in that splendid place, and that som
81 sentiment of her humble faith an