Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-06-20

questioned on the subject. II worship
the gods Of material pleasure. Why
not? You are inconsistent, you civil
lied people. You are all worshipping
my gods more and more every day,
for to concentrate your thoughts is to
worship. But l show you the faces of
the gods you worship, and you cry,
'Pagan!' You are all kneeling down
to the earth gods, but you do not know
1T. You have forgotten what worship
Is, you civilized people. To sit in
church on Sundays, and think how
you will spend the week, while man,
who knows you do not listen, reads
and talks to you-that Is not worship.
The gods you adore during the week,
they are your real gods, and you
should not be afraid to look at their
faces"
Not that is was necessary for Veeda
to make excuses for her paganism;
religious people are not nearly as
much down on pagans as they are on
Christians who worship God in a diff
ferent manner from themselves. Your
low church parson has some hopes for
the heather, and certainly no more
lhetb luS uSSlolSlhCl las "
the stag; but he feels that the Roman
Catholic is hopelessly damned-and
serve him right! The Roman Catholic
reciprocates; and the Methodist and
Baptist regard each other with sceptic-
ism mingled with disapproval, while
they extend to the heather good
natured liberation, and find excuses
for his ignorance. AS to how the
heather regards the many creeded
Christian, he is too polite to say; but
if he buys his beads wrapped up in
copies of newspapers which have
dealt with the dislike Of one kind Of
Christian to have his children taught
religion by the same kind of Chris
tian that teaches some other kind of
Christian, he may be excused IL he
grows too finicky in his choice Of
teachers, and goes in for good, sound
orthodox Mahommedan or consistent
Buddhist.
Lord Ancestor had taken violent
dislike to the Cobra, and declared she
gave him bad dreams; but he felt
that Lady Kitty was saved from mar
rying his friend-for the Cobra would
never uncoil from around Vandraken
and he would sink deeper and deeper
into the mud of materialism and the
slime Of the underworld, till the world
above lost all meaning for him. He
was shocked to see how easily things
happen to help a man downwards,
how the forces which are operating
in the direction of degeneration seem
to be always on the alert to grant
any reasonable wish which may tend
to keep a man earth-bound, while the
spiritual forces only whisper from the
stars in faint, agonised voices, and are
seldom ready with the lucky incident
the fortuitous chance, to turn the tide
in their direction. Here was a young
man who had wished that for five
years he could sin without limit I'm
mediately some wretched thing had
prompted him to mention Won larsen
helm. Won Tarsenheim having made
limitless sin possibility, the young
man had come to Paris, and found 6
woman who seemed to have beer
calmly waiting during several month:
for Just such victim
Lord Ancestor tried to shut hi.
eyes to what Vandraken's life with he
must be-the awful degradation of it
its soul-soiling effect For while Lore
Ancestor was man without Greco
or a religion, he firmly believed tina
there was an unknown quantity con
nected with life, and god or gods
a power or powers, who juggled will
men in some great game-whos'
stakes were beyond mems little com
prehensions
The world was clearly either an &C
cident or a design. If an accident, i
could not have lasted SO long withou
smash; if design, there must b.
a designer-and why had he designed
one kind of animal entirely beyond al
the others, and different in life, /
that animal was to be equal In death
1t seemed to him that the odds wer'
all in favor of some sort of after-life
and so he worried about Vandraken
and tried his best. but without effect
to neutralise the chain of conse
quences his idle words had laun chez
| into creation.
| He had not been able to come t
Paris with Vandraken, but had follow
ed a fortnight later, to find the Cobr
in full possession, and the palace al
ready the talk of Paris. Then, afte
staying a week, and finding he coul'
/ do nothing he had returned to keel
an engagement to shoot in Scotland
! 1t was one of those house
where the hostess paired he
guests with studied III
difference to the moral code; but a
she was too slap-dash to keep closet
| in touch with the tickle amours c
/ all her friends. she sometimes cor
| fined in a remote Highland castle, i
the same corridor two souls wit
but a single thought, and that though
how to see each others face no more
Lord Ancestor found that Lad
Donoyle had, as usual, been assigne
/ to him. They met in the corridor
and laughed over it.
THE fire of temptation agar
Rivie." laughed Lady Donoyle, 0
their way down to the drawing room
/ through the endless stone passages
| Its funny that our hostess, who
the most tickle of women, credits tn
rest of us with such boundless fidelit,
This is the fifth year she has tried
! lead us astray"