Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-09-02


1.-TWO dreams have persistently haunted the
l. imagination Of man since dreams began.
You find them in all mythologies, and, per-
haps most dramatically, in the Arabian
Nights: the dream Of the Water of Immortal.
ity. and the dream of the Golden City.
Within recent tiues-that is, during the six
teenth century-both were lifted out Of the
region of fairy lore, and men as far from
"dreamers," In the ordinary sense, as the
'conquistador" Ponce de Leon and Sir Wal.
ter Raleigh raised them into the sphere Of
something like Elizabethan practical politics.
Whether or'not Ponce de Leon did actually
discover the Fountain Of Eternal Youth on
the Bimini Islands concerns us but in
cidentally here. At all events, he seems to
have died without drinking OF It as death
on the scanold was the penalty for Raleigh's
failure to discover FL Dorado. So practically
had the courts OF Elizabeth and James re-
garded the dream Of the Golden City, and
so firm had been Raleigh's own belief in It.
Though Raleigh's name is most conspicuously
and tragically connected with II, of course Il
had been Spanish Adventures for several
generations before-exploring that Spanish
Main which they had already, and in
romance forever, made their own-who had
given that dream Its local habitation and its
name. Martinez had been the first to tell
how, having drfted on the coast Of Guiana.
he had been taken inland to a city called
Manoa, whose king was in alliance with the
1ncas. Manoa. said he. to opened mouths and
wondering eyes. on his return to Spain, was
literally built. walls and roofs, houses big
and little. Of silver and gold. His tale.
garnished with many other mysterious mat
tiers. soon speeded expedition after expedition.
dreaming across those
"perilous seas
In fairyland forlorn."
All came back with marvels on their
tongues. All had caught a glimpse of the gild-
ed domes Of the city, but that was all. Con-
zales Ximinez de Quesada from Santa Fe de
Bogota was "~warmest." perhaps but he too
failed. Many a daring sailor since has vainly
gone on a like quest. Even in our prosaic
times-in the true Elizabethan spirit, that.
for all their romance, actually animated those
enterprises of old time-when men sought
real gold as now. not "faery-gold"-an enter
prise, with a prospectus, shareholders and
those dreams now known as promised
dividends, has made It its serious 'incorpo-
rated business to go in quest of f. Dorado.
But, elaborate as all previous expeditions
and enterprises have been, and dauntless
as the courage Of the individual explorer, one
and all have failed-till now. Till now, 1
say-for at last FL Dorado has been discov-
cred, and It is my proud privilege to an
nounce, for the first time, the name of its
discoverer-Dr. Clifford Smyth.
Doctor Smyth has chosen the medium of
fiction for the publication Of his discovery,
like other such eminent discoveries as the
authors of Erewhon and Utopia. but that
fact, I need hardly say. in nowise invalidates
the authenticity and serious Importance OF
his discovery.
Though truth be stranger than fiction. 1t
has but seldom Its charm, and, to use the by
gone phrase. Doctor Smyths relation of hap
penings which we never doubt for a rapt
moment did happen reads as entertainingly
as a fiction" In fact, the present writer
who confesses to the idleness of keeping au
courant with the good and even merely ad-
vertised fiction Of the day. recalls no fiction
in some years that has seemed to him COM
parable In imaginative quality with The
Gilded Man, or has given him. in any like
degree, the special kind Of delight which Doc
tor Smyth's narrative has given him. For
any such thrills as the latter part of the book
In particular holds. he finds that his memory
must travel back, no difficult or lengthy
journey, to Mr.. Rider Haggard's king
Solomon's Mines'-a book which one sees
more and more taking it's place as one of
the classics of fantastic romance. the kind OF
romance which combines adventure with
poetic strangeness though. at its ~publlca-
tion, superior persons" with the notable
exception of that paradoxical most superior
person and man Of genius. Andrew Lang
disdained II as q passing thriller
Perhaps It is not indiscreet to say that
one circumstance Of Doctor Smyth's life gave
him exceptional opportunity for that dream
Ing on his special object which Is found to be
the invariable incubation. so to say, preced-
ing all great discoveries. For some years
Doctor Smyth was United States consul at
Carthagena, that unspoiled haunted city of
the Spanish Main, which, 1t may be recalled.
furnishes a spirited cha pter in the history OF
Roderick Random. ESQUIRE, OF HIS Majesty 8
Navy. He was, therefore. seated by the very
door to that land Of enchantment, which, as
we have been saying, had drawn SO many
adventurous spirits under roaring canvas
across the seas, in the spacious days. He
was but a short mule-back journey from that
table-land raised high In the upper Andes
where Bogota. the capital Of Colombia. Is
situated, tho region around which all those
"superstitions" retalled by Indians to those
early adventures center. Descendants OF
the same India 9 still tell the same stories.
and still the acreage prosaic mind laughs at
them as "superstitions." Ell Dorado! as "
any one could take II seriously nowadays!
Has not the term long been a picturesque
synonym for the City of Impossible Hap
piness, the Land of Hearts Desire, the
Paradise of Fools, and all such cities and
realms and destinations and states of being,
as the yearning heart OF man, finding no
where on the earth he knows, imagines in the
sun-tipped cloudland of his dreams. and to-
ward which he pathetically turns his eyes,
and stretches out his arms to the end?
But what II FL Dorado were no such mere
Pigment OF mans aching fancy. after all
what II the FL Dorado. so passionately be-
lieved in by those eminently practical Eliza
bethans, did all the time, as they surmised.
exist upon this solid earth. and should still
quite concretely exist there7
Is 1t not likely that such might be the mus
ings of a man situated as was Doctor Smyth,
in the very heart of the mystery, a man of
affairs, touched with imagination, as all
really capable men Of affairs are; and, as
he listened to the old Indian tales, and talked
with miners. and all manner OF folk acquaint-
ed with the terrain of the legend, what could
ne do but fall under the same spell that had
laid it's ghostly hand on the mighty heart of
Raleigh centuries before. and follow its
beckoning, as the other inspired madmen be-
fore him?
But, as we have seen. his doom was to be
different. For SO long generations Of dead
wen had come CRYING, like those three old