Red River prospector. (Red River, Taos County, N.M.) 1900-190?, 1907-05-30
A Modern Pantheist
lcopyrisht, BY Daily story Pub. Coz
BY Harry Lilly

Gabriel Dante Swift was crazy.
Gone out of his mind over fool poetry
books, commented the village sage
and barber, Felix Todd, Swift had
oeen caught reading a poetry book, =
loony thing called Keats Endymion,
while the unread morning paper lay
discarded.
Felix had dropped into Gabriers
real estate Office to discuss the news
about the earthquake. Gabriel said he
hadn't heard anything about it
hadn't ee1 the paper yet.
When Felix searched for it he found
Il in the waste basket. He peeped
over Gabriel's shoulder as he stopped
to pick it up, and saw a lot Of silli-
ness about his love dancing before the
gate of heaven. He took another peep
as he arose, and read words that
weren't fit for a good moral man to
read, about arms, a naked waist and
Cupid.
He was going to give Gabriel some
pointed advice, when he noticed some
thing which looked like a set of res
olutions hanging on the wall over the
desk. Let's see what sort of resolu-
tons Gabe's been making he said
to himself, and read:
MY CREED"
There is soul in everything that
bas life.
There is spirit in the waterfalls.
Each lake and river is a person.
llity.
The teachings of the ancients we're
not myths. They are facts, obscured
~ the smoke of our factories.
The shadow of the dollar has hid
den the sun.
Concentration on the material has
killed perception of the spiritual.
The mind of man is all potent. He
who will may see in the fountains the
beautiful inhabiters thereof, and be-
bold the exquisite forms hat dance in
the waterfalls.
The secret is concentration of the
will"
Felix sighed, and passed out to tell
his customers about it. Poor fellow,
there was no use in Gliding him. He
was daft. 1t all came of reading
crazy poetry books.
Gabriel closed the volume, disgust
eddy, as his visitor went ont.
Pig" he muttered, His gospel is
the morning paper. He is of the age.
He thinks more of a monster that will
turn out horseshoes at a hundred a
minute, or grind so-called music, in a
broken voice, with a nasal twang,
than he does of a sunrise on the wa
ter; or all the glorious harmonies that
swell through the forest naVes.
Opening his Keats again, his eye
caught the following:
GLORY and loneliness have passed away;
For II we wander out in early morn,
No wreathed incense do we see upborne
Into the East to meet the smiling day
( No crowd of nymph soft-Voiced and
young and gay,
In woven baskets bringing ears Of corn.
"%Incense!" he repeated, The only
incense which the modern man toler.
ties rises from a tobacco pipe; and
uymphs, if they appeared, would have
10 wear corsets. Fancy a wood nymph
with an h%our-glass waist; BAH"
He slammed the door of his office
and wandered out in search of a wo
nan who was young, fair, and didn't
YEA corsets.
Concentration of the will" he nut
tered to himself, Concentration OF
the will" AS he came to a bend in
the path from where could be seen q
tr%ee-stump, cut level as a table, he
thought of a day, two months ago
when as he turned the bend with al
his force of mind and spirit concen
trated in a single resolve, to see one
on the many forms of conscious life
which, he was fully persuaded, inhab
tied the wood; a wood nymph, slow
ly, and gracefully, had glided on.
from between the trees and seated
herself on that very stump. Stealth
lily, he had approached the shy, beau
tiful creature as she sat braiding heI
hair in the morning sunshine, and wa
delighted to find hat he had beer
mistaken.
Forgive me, l thought you we're
nymph," he said, foolishly, as hi
step, rustling among the dry leaves
startled her.
"Oh, Endymion!" sne sighed, anC
stopped in confusion. Pardon me
I've been dreaming over Keats" sh'
stammered, taking a drab volume
with gold lettering, from her bosom
You and ! belong to the same fel
lowship. l, too, have wandered will
Endymion," he replied, taking a bool
from his pocket.
The level stump in a break in tn,
woods became their trysting place
where they mingled love and panthe
Ism. But to-day, no graceful hgurl
with its flowing drapery met hi
gaze. 1t was not the day or hour o
their tryst. Like the devotee O
some footlight beauty, he beheld tn
empty stage and 1t vas garish.
In a mood of depression he crosse
to the sward and passed into tn
wood by a path he had never take
before. He entered through a Eat,
way and knew not that he was trei
passing. Emerging from a thick pin
wood into a basin formed by the Ell
vironing hills, his reverie was broke
-. ~. --.-l - N.qla-- -