The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1915-03-02


opposite those figures on the man
underneath, and presto! there You
are. the ships precise location!"
There was ring of triumph In
his voice. and his eyes, clear blue
this morning as the sea, were
sparkling with light.
you must be we'll up IN mathe-
MATES" said. where did you
go to school?"
Never saw the inside of one,
worse luck" was the answer. II
had to dig II out for myself
And why do you think have
made this thing?" he demanded,
abruptly. Dreaming TO leave
footprints on the sands OF timeg"
He laughed one of his horrible
hooking laughs. mot at all. To
get Il patented, to make money
from II. to revel In piggishness
with all night in while other men
do the work. That's my purpose.
Also. | have enjoyed working IL
out"
The creative JOY" l muir
INJURED.
II guess that's what II ought to
be called. Which is another way
of expressing the Joy of life In that
II is alive, the triumph OF move
ment over matter, of the quick
over the dead, the pride of the
yeast because 1t is yeast and
crawls."
threw up my hands with help
less disapproval of his inveterate
materialism and went about maxi
ing the bed. lie continued copy
ing lines and figures upon the
transparent scale. II was a task
requiring the utmost nicely and
precision, and | could not but adj
mire the way he tempered his
strength to the fineness and deli
cacy of the need.
When | had finished the bed, ]
caught myself looking at him in a
fascinated sort of way. lie was
certainly a handsome man-beau-
tiful In the masculine sense. And
again, with never-failing wonder.
u t0fhdl htu tht toNdi tulh w
viciousness, or wickedness, or sin
fulness, I'm his face. 1t was the
face, | am convinced, of man
who did no wrong. And by this
] do not wish to be misunderstood.
What | mean is that II was the
face of man who either did moth
ing contrary to the dictates of his
conscience, or who had no con-
science. | am inclined to the lat
ter way OF accounting for IL. He
was a magnificent atavism. a
man so purely primitive that he
was of the type that came into
the world before the development
OF the moral nature. He was not
immoral. but merely immoral.
As | have said, in the masculine
sense his was beautiful face.
Smooth-shaven, every line was
distinct, and 1t was cut as clear
and sharp as cameo; while sea
and sun had tanned the naturally
fair skin to a dark bronze which
bespoke struggle and, battle and
added both to his sayagery and
his beauty. The lips were full,
| yet possessed of the firmDess, al
most harshness, which Is charac-
teristic of thin lips. The set of
his mouth, his chin, his jaw. was
likewise firm or harsh. with all
the fierceness and indomitableness
of the male-the nose also. Ii was
the nose of a being born to con-
quer and command. Ii just limited
of the eagle beak. 1t might have
been Grecian, 1t might have been
Roman, only 1t was a shade too
massive for the one, a shade too
delicate for the other. And while
the whole face was the incarna-
ton Of fierceness and strength,
the primal melancholy from which
he suffered seemed to give
largeness and completeness which
otherwise the face would have
lacked.
And so ] caught myself stand
ing idly and studying him. can
not say how greatly the man had
come to interest me. Who was
he? What was he? How had he
happened to be? All powers SEEM
ed his, all potentialities, why,
then, was he no more than the
obscure master of a seal-hunting
schooner with reputation for
frightful brutality amongst the
men who hunted seals?
My curiosity burst from me in
a flood of speech.
why is It that you have not
done great things in this world?
With the power that is yours you
might have risen to any height.
Unpossessed of conscience or
moral instinct, you might have
mastered the world, broken it to
your hand. And yet here you are,
at the top of your life, where
diminishing and dying begin, liv-
ing an obscure and sordid exist
ence, hunting sea animals for the
satisfaction OF woman's vanity
and love of decoration, revealing
In a piggishness, to use your own
words, which is anything and ev-
erything except splendid. Why,
with all that wonderful strength,
have you not done something :?
There was nothing to stop you,
nothing that could stop you.
What was wrong? Did you lack
ambition? Did you fall under
temptation? What was the mat
ter? What was the matter?'
He had lifted his eyes to me
at the commencement of my out
h,,r ana faItaunI 80.