Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1912-09-05
CHAPTER x.-(continued.)

Have you ever climbed a n
early In the morning while 1t was yet
dark and having gained some domi-
nant crest stood staring at the far
horizon, the empurpled east, while the
dawn came up like thunder" Or
better still, have you ever stood with
in the cold, dark reeesses OF some
deep valley Of river ar pass and
watched the clear light spread its
bars athwart the heavens like nebu-
ious mighty pinions along the light
touched crest of a towering range, I'M
I'll all of a sudden, with a leap almost
of Joy, the great sun blazed in the
high horizon?
You might be born a child of the
dark, and light might scar and burn
your eye balls accustomed to cooler
deeper shades, yet you could no more
turn away from this glory, though you
might hate it, than by mere effort of
will you could cease to breathe the
air. The shock that you might feel,
the sudden surprise, is only family sug-
gestive of the emotions In the breast
of this man.
Once long ago the gentlest and ten
derest Of voices called from the dark
to the light, the blind. And it is given
to modern science and to modern skill
sometimes to emulate that godlike
achievement. Perhaps the surprise,
che amazement, the bewilderment, of
him who having been blind doth now
see, If we can imagine it not having
been in the case ourselves, will be a bet
ter guide to the understanding Of this
mans emotion when this woman came
suddenly into his lonely orbit. His
eye were opened although he would
not know 1t. He fought down his new
consciousness land would have none OF
It. Yet it was there. He loved her!
With what joy did Selkirk welcome
the savage sharer Of his solitude! Sup.
pose she had been a woman Of his own
race; had she been old, withered, hid
eous, he must have loved her on the
instant, much more If she were young
and beautiful The thing was inev'
table. Such passions are born. God
forbid that we should deny 1t. In the
busy haunts of men where women are
as plenty as blackberries. to s Fal
STATS simfle, and where a man may
sometimes choose between a hundred
or a thousand, such loves are born, for
ever.
A voice in the night, a face in the
street, q whispered word, the touch
Of a hand, the answering throb Of an
other heart-and behold! two walk to
gether where before each walked
alone. Sometimes the man or the WON
an who is born again of love knows II
not, refuses to admit it, refuses tt
recognize 1t. Some birth pain mus
awaken the consciousness Of the new
life.
If those things are true and posi-
BILE under every day conditions ant
to ordinary men and women, how
much more to this solitary. He hat
seen this woman, white breasted likt
the foam, rising as the ancient god
dress from the Paphian sea. Over tina
recollection, as he was a gentleman
and a Christian, he would fain draw
curtain, before 1t erect a wall. H,
must not dwell upon that fact, h,
would not finger over that moment
Yet he could not forget it.
Then he had seen her lying prone
yet unconsciously graceful in her aban
donment, on the sward; he had caugh
d glimpse of her white face desperate
" 1uptossed by the rolling water; h,
had looked into the unfathomabl,
depth of her eyes at that momen
when she had awakened in his arm
after such a struggle as had taxed hi
manhood and almost broken his heart
BIZ had carried her nnconsciously
F.astly white with her ~pain-drawl
face, stumbling desperately over tn
rocks In the beating rain to this, hi
home. There he had held that poor
bruised slender little foot In his hand
gently, skiIfully treating It, when h
longed to press his lips ~passionatel,
upon it. Last Of all he had locke,
into her face. warmed with the re
light of the fire, searched her wear.
eyes almost like blue pools. in who's
depths there yet lurked life and light
rb7o 1a- golden hair tinpad orin