Bisbee daily review., 1908-07-14
SAGE AND
ROMANCE
BY stuart q. Stone.

The author Of THE Caucasian Ego
and Its Manifestations in the Orient"
uttered an ccstaic little cry. Away
down in dusty, musty corner. in an
octave of 1883 pages of very fine
print, the author of the great Ego
book had found a very great truth.
II was on page LII, and the great
truth was a sentence of SO words
averaging IL letters to the word. and
it related to evolution, or devolutlon,
never definitely learned which. You
see. it was really a most astounding,
soul-satisfying truth, and it was no
wonder that the bookman glowed at
the discovery.
He was writing seven-syllabled
words about Huxley and the Cosmos
and the Indian Veda, when the door
to the room of books-and-books
opened and a fairy walked in. Oh,
of course, 1t wasn't one of those
Goldilocks. Snowdrop fairies that
you cherished when you were inno-
cent, but it was a fairy for sure
four years old. with the prettiest
brownish hair and eyes like the maids
on the life insurance calendars.
Dad" said the fairy. my mudder
wants you to come and go to the show
with us. Well have the bestest time"
The bookman, though, continued to
write great, deep biology stuff, SO
that the fairy child piped her sum-
mons again and then again.
When the bookman finally under.
stood he frowned and stamped his
foot. mo, indeed" he declared, 81
must finish my chapter on The Sig
nificance of the Kink in Human
Hair"
"oh, dad, won't you go?" the little
one pleaded. There will be tigers
and kings"
But even a promise of tigers and
kings could not stir the clammy blood
of the man who wrote and the fairy
turned in disappointment, yet fingered
unseen by the hearth. For the tiger
king show was hard matter to give
up. III leave it to you.
The author sighed with relief, now
that the prattler was gone. and he
rolled up his sleeves for deeper wad-
ing in a stack OF Egyptology books.
He would show the British museum
bunch a trick or two in the Ego line
ali, that he would
The biggest, latest Egyptology book
was on very high shelf, and the au-
thor had recourse to his stepladder
to secure the heavy tome. A smaller
book dislodged itself and fell to the
floor with considerable clatter.
Dear me-" sighed the author;
what great bothers there are in life"
He stopped to secure the little book,
and the title was in red and the cover
was of green, so that the author could
not help but see and read the foolish
words: Lord Durham's Beautiful
Sweetheart" The sickIy sentimental
ity of it all irritated the man of sci
ence.
'Bosh-rubbish- idiocy-"
he grunted. How in the world
did such clap-trap get in here?"
The front cover fell back, and the
scientist could not get away from the
inscription on the fly leaf:
~ Al lIuH Lively
It was the gift of his bride Of the
happy, happy days.
Whats this?" frowned the author,
and he sat in a leather chair and fell
to reading Chapter Ill, of how young
Lord Durham found a pearl Of price in
a cottage by the sea and the Pearl
loved dearly, and finally of how a ty-
rant fate put the lord in a very high
place and the poor little Peal was
left to cry out her heart. 1t was a
moving tale.
The philosopher read on into Chap
ter ", where he attended a fashion
able ball, and in the fifth chapter he
learned of young things kissing. Here
he sighed a real Lord Durham sigh,
utterly different from the Egyptology
sigh of a wee bit back
I'll declare" he murmured, when,
after awhile, he looked away from the
love tale. Il was once something like
this myself"
The fairy-kid, lettering desperately
by the open fire, thought she saw
Change curious softening in her
FOSSIL parent. So she asked again:
Dad, let's go to see the pretty
show?"
The author looked az Egypt and
Veda and Darwin on the table; then
he looked at the pinkish tot by the
fire, and once again he sighed-an-
other Lord Durham sigh.
Tell your mother to get ready" he
announced
The fairy whooped and bounded
away.
And here's a quarter for peanuts
and popcorn" the author of the eau
casian Ego shouted after.
Then the wise author followed the
fairy, but he first took long, linger-
ing gaze at the stack of dreadful Egyp-
tology on the ink-stained table.