The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1908-09-03

one who has stolen from the graves
of the dead something of value, and
as punishment he or she is forced
from certain time of their life to
follow the dead on their silent mis-
sions and trips thru the dark nights,
and to know the fate of his life and
his dear ones, and the time of his or
her death or the death of any of those
who are near and dear to them. In
the eyes Of all the people such man
or woman is accursed by God; and they
are feared and Stunned often more
than lepers. Such q subject could be
done something wonderfully great
with in the shape and form of liter
ary understanding by the right man.
And Jonas Lie was the right man to
handle such subject. How he paints
the life of the man who is the leading
character in his book. The Clairvoy-
ant with his broken violin, with the
sad sounds and broken harmonies and
tunes. Tie sad, lonely, Stunned man,
with the eternal fire of the musical art
burning in his soul. A man, who
could have been something of great
man, probably one of the few worlds
masters Of the divine violin, if mis-
step in life had not put the curse of
the Clairvoyant upon him and broken
his life and cracked it, and buried his
prospects and hopes, as his violin were
broken and cracked and out Of tune,
and wept and moaned and shrieked
and pined and sorr0wed, when he let
the bow float lightly over the strings
and create in uncanny dreamtOnes the
broken imaginatiOns of his broken
soul.
But there is another book, that when
i l first read it made so strange an inn
y preston ON my mind that for rnonthe.
Il dreamt of it at night and mused over
it at day. 1t is "The Life Convict"
1t paints the life histery of child of the
proletaire, the child never blessed with
mothers love or fathers tender
smiles, the life that never knew what
it Was to be caressed by hands that
vibrated of true love and never heard
, friendly, sympathetic words steal into
} hungry heart and a burning mind;
, the life always hungry, always in rags,
r always in dirt, always Knocked and
r kicked and scolded; always suspected
Z of everything bad and evil and devil
. ish and inhuman and wrong; always
= mistreated and misused, prosecuted
r and cursed; always in the way OF
0 others; and nevertheless ii, spite OF
all this tries and tries honestly to be
2 something, to be man, to achieve
r to rise in life's wild whirlpool above
e the water that sucks and sucks anC
8 drags and drags him down, down
Il down, and at last has to give up, be
IS cause no helping hand was ever reached
It out to him over the whirling waves
# and he became fiend in human shape
h whose hands are against all and al
Is hands against him, and the society
D. that never lifted a single straw to hell
"a this poor human brother in his homes
b struggle to become man, now sill
i. in and in great joy sends him to pris
d on for life. And SO has the Christian
d community done its duty and feel prou,
ID of itself and its wonderful ways il
Is dealing with the unfortunates on life
n outskirts. "Be mercifuP" is a heaven
% ly gospel, if it only could be practice
8. a little by those who preach it.
lg Well, Jonas Lie is no more. He fe
re into final rest Sunday the 18th of Jul!
o. And it is q peculiar coincident tha
I'd he died in the very room where ono
b. the gifted artist, Mr.. Skredsvoig, painte
of his famous picture, "The son of man,
that now decorates one of the wal
ry in the national museum of arts i
to Christiania, Norway. Skredsvoig pain
il ed Christ as he is pictured for us b
or the eyangelists-am man of five feature
a mild of face. infinitely tender eye
in walking like blessed heavenly ang
ut among the poor and the outcasts; hea
tn ing the sick, cuasoling the weepin
an and hopeless-ar3und his person
ng multitude of cripples of both sexe
ok and children, lame aud suffering an
,e- sick-and he helps them all, sinne
lce and saints, good snd bad; be hell
las them all, hears them all. listens
re- them all, and with his words and XII
ny deeds makes the geol better and Il