The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-11
WHY MEN AND
 WOMEN DISAPPEAR 0vertaken By Some Vague
 RestleSSness LONGING TO GET AWAY Just a Desire to Break Away From Old Associations and Scenes IS
 Often the ysReason
 To Be Given.

r +ha s+ Louis Post Dispatch. ..,-
 ona can hardly scan paper now wi'a a-
 t aino a notice about some nieln VI wonoan who has suddenly olsappe. end Vet many of these cases oo nos
 +her way into the newspaper. 4,. ,,,b- The police know more .nan neonle who uo about the numbers or peop,1I +;vas no s,or+ed missing by their relasiVes ale . srssnds And 1t Is no ne" piiaSe os socia1 life For many years tIa,r bave zone wandering away lIon. baye ho,,,a circles and most or them never come back. .xosa missing
 Ilas What are the hidden causes P1op, roront them to steal away i,oA .. wn'th WI .t,.t should be dear to them m nle sror, their own little world or ou's " nleasure. family and frienos ,n the The answer is not to be louho ,ben
 .,oa1 assumption that most or 'nen' cynlcai u1sos.t aSS raa sons for disappearing nave 1v remarkable thing about mans +basa missing men and Womeh S tho+ trev have been. as Tar as s.I,a tnowledge goes, entirely ,.- aro, that they have not been ueSpls @ hava ,.- seed financially, and that they navo 1sa5ing quiet steady lives, out srd,, bannv and not burdeneo "i.li r,ora of those cares than most or os carry in our pack.
 IT Is this which makes tileil .ate;no and mysterious. The public ana the nolice demand motive. W,. Wra. L be teen m to?" they say, and aWaie ra-elat3ons They look for a clew aho when they find a hat and a coat oy r,verside or on the sea heach 'ie seems clear enough, though no pouS 's found s ub. noor so,l can only say, My husband hao notbirp to worry him. He was always n,as good to me and devoted to the cnli- hren:'' or a distracted father says: MY daughter was of the happiest olspos.'ioi,' Iam sure she had no secret love anairs' Some terrible accident must Aoso
 pened to her"
 R,t inc truth is that in many of these ooses of missing people there is no mo five recognized in the philosophy or policeman. The secret IS psycno,oisa .",.
 If we do but think little, we mus. odn,it that in our hearts there is at t,mes A strange restlessness, which we do not understand, and could not ex- nlain. We have longing to get away. anywhere and anyhow. It Is tnis naturai instinct which has made our .,, .rave and explorers It is this "wandergelst which makes many men of today-spor- ,rg mon. Journalists, fddling fellows ,o,,s,c halls turns" the tramps on the highways of life go wandering ai"ays' from one city to another, unable 10 set file down, or tO stay fohB III OiAS P-' They want to get away from the 1a- ro,liar things of life to the unfamiliar They want still more, to escape from themselves
 rh.+ this is one of the strongest in- stncts in nature, or ieast III hu.l'an I4 ,l nsycbology-the desire to escape. It IS the secret of much fretfulness and rest .,assness of modern life for with many of us 1t is thwarted instinct It Is so difficult to get away, so dl1ncuit 10 es- cape from the self of which we are very tired.
 Tn the old days it was easier. The rout,ne of life was not iron-bound. But now so many men and women mii- lions of them, are prisoners as It were, fin narrow cells. Respectabfl1ty mas swallowed them up and cramped their limbs-the respectable middleciass life or getting to an office every morning at the same hour by the same train, Of meet ing the same people with the same ideas
 The instinct of escape breaks out some times in surprising ways, and among people most content, it seemed, with inc h,,mdum outing. For instance, a do- mestic servant who had lived in model respectability for 20 years with an old maiden lady suddenly rebel1ed against her narrow life and escaped with the grocer's young man.
 But there are some people, poets, per- haps, though they have never written verse, and philosophers. though they have not read Herbert Spencer. who be- come too introspective by breeding in the secret chambers of their own heart. Their family and friends do not know of their ceaseess self-communngs: out wardly they live an ordinary life; in- wardly they are morbidly excited and profoundly troubled.
 They have made a failure of life per- haps Their ambitions have been scat tered and their dreams dissolved Re- lision gives no answer to their ques- tionings There Is nothing new for them or satisfying in literature The world