The Washington herald., 1911-09-10

came, UTUWgWT
at best by some courier ON his steam
ing mud-splashed mount. precious as II
was, It was already grown old and cold
and perhaps long since untrue.
Imagine perhaps being dependent Tor
ones heart news on some cnance soluler
limping back from the wars OF some
pilgrim from the Holy Land with scallop
shell and staff.
Distance was indeed a form of death
under such conditions-no wonder men
made their wills as they set out on
iourney-and when actual physical death
did not intervene, how much OF that
slow death-in-life. that fading of the
memory and that numbing of the anec-
tions which absence too often brings,
was even still more to be feared. Inc
loved face might indeed return. looking
much the same as when 1t went away.
but what OF the heart that went a-Jour-
neying, too? What even of the hearts
that remained at homer
The chances of death and disaster not
even modern science can forestal thoush
even these il has considerably leSsened;
but that other death of the heart, which
comes of the slow starvation OF silence
and absence, 1t may be held to have all
but vanquished Thanks to its weird
magicians, YOU may be seas or conti-
nents away from her whom your soul
loveth. yet ''at her window bid good
morrow as punctually as il you lived
nexB door, or serenade her by electricity
at all hours of the night. If you sign
in New York, she can hear you and sign
back in San Francisco and soon her
very face will be carried to you at any
moment of the day along the magic
| wires. Nor will you need to wait for the
postHian, but be able. to read her flow
crlike words as they write themselves
| out on the luminous slate before you, at
the very moment as she leans her
| fragrant bosom upon her electric desk
3, ,OGO miles away If this isn't romantic,
one may well ask what is!
Love Laughs at Space.
To the telephone alone, surely the
romance of Pyramus and .Thisbe, with
! their primitive hole in the wall, was d
tame affair compared with the possi-
bilities of this magic toy, by means OF
which you can talk with your love not
merely through a wall but through the
Rocky Mountains You can whisper
sweet nothings to her across the sound
ing sea, and bid her sleep we'll over
leagues of primeval forest, and through
the stoniest hearted city her soft voice
will find it's way. Even in midocean
the wireless will bring you news OF
her mal-de-mer. And more than that;
should you wish to carry her voice
with you from place to place, science
| is once more at your service with an
! other magic toy-the phonograph-by
which. indeed, she can still go on
| speaking TO you, if you have the cour-
age to listen, from beyond the grave.
| The telegraph, the telephone, the
"vireIess." the phonograph. the, cleo
| trio letter writer-such are the modern
i "conveniences" of romance; and, should
an elopement be on foot, what are the
fastest post chaise or the fieetest horses
compared with a high-powered auto
mobile? And when the airship really
coraes. what romance that has ever
been will compare for excitement with
an elopement through the SKY!
| Not only, however, has modern SCI
ence thus nut itself at the service OF
romance. by supplying it with its vari-
| ous magic machinery of communlca-
tion. but modern thought-that much
\ maligned bugbear of timorous MINDS
has generated an atmosphere increas-
lingly favorable to and sympathetic with
the romantic expression of human ma
ture in all its forms.
New Religious Factors.
| This more humane temper is the re-
suit of many causes. The disintegra-
t;on of religious superstition, and the
substitution in its stead of spiritual
ideals closer to the facts of life, is one
of these. All that was good in Puritan
lism has been retained by the modern
spirit. while it's narrowing and numb
ing features. its anti-human, seh-mor-
! tifying, provincial side, have passed or
are passing in the regeneratfng sun
light of what one might call spiritual
paganism, which conceives OF naturai
\ FORCES and natural laws as inherently
pure and mysteriously sacred. Thus
the way of a man with maid Is no
lIonger a shame-faced affair, but 1t Is
more and more realized that In Its ro-
i nance and its multifarious refnements
of development arc the law OF the
nrophets.'' the eternal meanings OF
natural religion and social spirituality
Then, too, the spread of democracy
resulting in the breaking down Of caste
barriers. is all to the good OF romance
/ II Romeo and Juliet make Tragedy OF
II nowadays, they have only 70 blame
their own mismanagement, for the
!. world is with them as II has never
been before, and all sensible fathers
land mothers know II.