Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1909-08-25
A WISE DEDUCTION,
BY E. A. MICHEL

t@opyrlgnt, 190S, by American Press ASso-
ciationI
There lived in Asia Minor a man
named Kalaidjien, a great philosopher.
who spent years in hunting for the
source of evil. At last he settled down
TO the conclusion that all the troubie
III the world came from woman's van
1ty. Kalaidjien about the time he
made this discovery was presented by
MS wife with daughter He gave
orders that the child should be brought
up with a limited number of compan-
ions and attendants, none of whom
should ever refer to her personal an
pearance and on no account should she
ever be allowed to look upon her face
in mirror.
Moira-that was the child's name
grew up to be very beautiful WON
an. By and by a young man came
counting her, or rather asked for her
from her father. TO the request the
latter replied:
years of study, Tatios"-that was
the suitor's name-"have convinced me
that the source of evil is in woman's
vanity. For that reason have guarded
my daughter that this fiendish spirit
should not be permitted enter into
her. No one has ever ". her that
she is beautiful, nor has she ever seen
her face reflected. She shall be your
wife on your promise to carry out this
policy which | have begun
The lover consented, and the couple
were married The brides mother at
the time of the wedding secretly pre-
scented her daughter with a mirror; but
hoping to avert the consequences
against which Kalaidjien had so long
guarded, she told Mora that whenever
she looked into it she would see her
mothers face as it would appear in
heaven. Shortly after the wedding the
mother died, and the daughter found
the mirror an inestimable treasure.
The mother, In order to insure the Sc
cret Of its possession being kept, had
told her that If she revealed it she (the
mother) would grow old and ugly in
heaven and be cast out into hell. MORA,
greatly dreading such a consequence,
carefully hid the mirror in a secret
drawer in her cabinet, only opened by
key which she kept on her person
Once a month her husband was
obliged to go to a distant city on bust
ness, and then MORA would take out
her mirror and reverently feast her
eyes upon her mother in paradise.
Meanwhile Tatios kept up the sur
yeillance over his wife that her father
had instituted. In western countries
this would have been impossible, but
not so in the east, where every man is
master of his own household. Under
the influence of a beautiful face which
looked out at her from the mirror af
fectionately MORA every year grew
spiritually more and more beautiful
though physically she passed her
prime, like other women, and her phys
zeal beauty began to wane. But she
saw only in her reflected face the spir
itual and did not recognize the decay
Of the physical.
When Tatios was about to go on one
of his journeys he decided to take his
wife with him, Mora, fearing for the
safety of her treasure, locked it in a
box and, taking it to temple, gave it
in charge Of priest to keep till her
return. 1t happened that Tatios saw
her go out and, being suspicious, fol-
lowed her and watched her carry the
box into the temple. He said nothing
at the time, but brooded over the Sc
cret which his wife had apart from
him and on her return to his home
went to the temple and demanded the
box. The priest would give it to no
one but her who had left it, so Tatios
demanded that she go to the temple
and open the box before him.
MORA was in agony that her mother
could look at her no longer and, be-
coming ugly, would be cast out Of
heaven. She told her husband her
secret and, as he was unmovable, went
with him to the temple and gave him
the box with the key, and, opening it,
he took out the mirror. Knowing that
all the care he had for many years
exercised had been aborted, he was in
great anger.
Woman" he said, ''you have been
looking at your own face. When you
first saw it it was young and beauti-
full. Now it is old and faded. Look
undeceived by your fancy, and see
that what I tell you is trueY'
MORA, convinced that she was look
ing at her own reflection, ceased to see
in it a spiritual beauty, viewing only
the image of an old woman. Angered
with. her husband that he should have
spoiled the charm, she cursed him.
At this point the priest said to the
husband:
ooh, Tatios, you have been acting
on the assumption that evil has its
source in the vanity of woman. Look
rather within myself. Believing that
her good mother looked down upon her
from heaven, your wife has been kept
pure in the contemplation of her own
image. 1t is the use made of beauty,
not beauty itself, that brings good
or evil and mans mastery of it, for
mans selfish desires must always bring
evil. You have destroyed a source Of
good within your wife, and she has
cursed you"
The husband, seeing what he had
done, bowed his head and begged for
giveness of his wife. She forgave him
through the influence of her past con-
temptation of the good as seen through
the beautiful. But the spell had been
broken. The wife, no longer sustained
by the mother who had so long looked
at her from heaven, at times gave way
to the peevishness Of age, and her hus
band saw that the inestimable treasure
he had thrown away was not to be re-
covered. Yet from that time under the
influence of new philosophy he was
a better man
But it was he who bore the burden
Of being amiable instead of his wife.