Norwich bulletin., 1910-08-13
twristsn Specially for The RuIIetin.)

(Written Specially for The BulIetin.)
 i sometimes wonder if there is any
 power, this side of Omnipotence. able
 to make Rufus HolIander understand
 what pesky nuisance he often IS
 Rufus is one of those chaps who is
 always at odds with the universe
 especially the human part of it. He
 seems to be of opinion that he has
 been divinely appointed-he certainly
 has no man-giving commissioned
 regulate the affairs of all his neigh
 bors- He feels, apparently, that re-
 Sponsibility for all their manners and
 morals. their ethics and their politics,
 their domestic and their business af-
 fatrs rests on his creakins shoulders
 One result of this, which is not or
 very much importance, is that he IS
 always stirred up and unhappy; anoth-
 CT result, which is of a good deal Of
 importance. is that he keeps his neigh
 bors more or less stirred up and un-
 happy.
 Rufus HoIIanders New England has
 its full proportion Probably you
 know Of at least one within the circle
 of your horizon You may consider
 yourself as lucky as the average if
 there is but one Some neighborhoods
 have two. In that case the atn1os
 phere whereabouts is always compar-
 able to that in the eyclonic center of
 a swarm of hornets It's mighty live
 fy all the time-and more than un-
 pleasant for the unlucky chap who
 happens to get caught in the vortex.
 Human imagination fails to conceive
 Of what would happen if there should
 ever be three at once, in the same
 hello range-the turmoil and the fsrment the row and the uproar. the rumpus and the riot, the bear garden and the Bedlan- One is enough: two are a public infection. three would be q murrain and a plague and a pesti- 1ence- I read the other day, of caucus somewhere out west where the insurgents and the machine men and the suffra gettes all mixed up in determination to rule or perish, and which ended by the prohibitionists getting all the nominations, after the other three sets had become too ex- hausted to do anything but glare. This, suspect, must have been something like
 But to come back to Rufus. He is a man Of more than ordinary native intelligence But it is wholly untrain- ed and cratic. He has some fore sight-can sec a day. sometimes two or three days ahead But he never makes allowances. when looking off to the distance, for atmospheric distor- ton Therefore he seldom sees things right He has a conscience But it has never been pruned or trained, and it has grown into a veritable jungle of scratchy abnormality. Start a grove of white pines and each one will grow up straight and slender and tall towards the making of first class timber Start one white pine all by itself out in the pa sture; let the COWS break off its top and half its twigs; let the sheep nibble' at it; let the lightning hit it gently on one side; askew as it naturally will under such and it will be about he most useless thing in two counties. That's Rufus He sticks out in all di- rections and is very pitchys but that's |, all
 He has a mind, and he makes it up." lust what processes of -ratiocination | ae goes through in this mysterious op- >rstion have never been disclosed to l outsiders He scorns to explain. When l hat mind is made up' 1t is made | Ip' to stay, and, furthermore, it is absolutely clear to Rufus that his par icular makeup Is the only makeup 1 ,f all possible make-ups which any intelligent and honest man can have. | 'Orthodoxy" said Bishop Warburton, l is my doxy; heterodoxy is some other l mans doxy' Rufus is orthodox; alas 1 Or the rest of the world: we're all i leretics. There's story of a dour old | theological ~outs" of his fellow parish | oners with his wife. He pointed out | he manifest heresies of various mem l 1ers of the kirk: not even the preach l sr was wholly sound Then ye think" | 1ueTied his wife. anxiousIy that you l and I air tn only wins sure O heav- 1 m 2-' ~Ah, weel, Jean" said he ref1ec- | lively T som etimes hae me doots | bout ye-" That's Rufus, again, to a | lot
 Whatever Rufus knows, he knows, here's no guess work in him. At least, | hats his own Idea of it. The ''twi- | erfar of dubiety'' never falls across his | ky If an eye winker gets in his eye, LII the rest of the world must walk Ine-eyed till he gets it out. If his lose titilates the universe must sneeze. 1e is Sir Oracle wand when heopes his | ips let no dog bark
 He doesn't mean to be a crank and bigot: indeed, he is very intolerant If cranks and bigots, all who do not gree with him being included in one f those two classes. He means to be and actually thinks he g. He means to go right and actually loes it, according to his own remark .bie conscience Really, there wouldn't 'e any very great harm in him if he idn-t also feel that it was a part of Iis vocation to keep pulling the nose f all humanity towards his concep ion of the true north.n It's his per isrent attempt to steer that somewhat aggiorneration that makes Jim a little too difficult at times.