The Washington times., 1920-07-10
,contIaued from Yesterday

ttOnuuueo IrOm hessebosyr
It is drama, comedy. farce. trag-
edy, this inevitable awakening; IL is
the alternate elucidation and deep
ening of mysteries; Ii Is a day or
clear. keen reasoning succeeding a
day OF illogical caprice: an hour
aquiYer with undreamed-of mental
torture followed by an hour OF spir-
itual exaltation; II is the era Of mag
nincent aspiration. of inexplicsble
fear, OF lofty abnegations, of ilcrce
egotisms. OF dreams and OF convic-
tions. of faiths for which youth
dies. and. alas, II is. q day of pitt
less development which leaves the
shadowy memory of faith lingering
in the brain. and. on the lips,
smile. -' ..
And. amid such emotions. such
impulses, such desires, fears, as
pirations, hopes. regrets. the aver
age boy puts on that Nessus coat
called manhood. And he has in
his temporarily dislocAted and un-
adjusted brain, neither the time
nor the patience, nor the interest,
nor the logic at his command recess
sary to. see and understand what
Is happening under his aspiring and
heayenward-tilted nose. Only the
clouds enrapture him; where every
star beckons him to respond In
passion of endeavor.
And so he begins tho inevitable
= climb toward the moon--the path
which every man born upon the
earth has trodden for or only a lit
tile way. but the path all men at
least have tried.
In his freshman year at Harvard,
he got drunk. The episode was
quite inadvertent on his part-one
of those accidents incident to the
vile, .claret-colored punches" offer
ed by some young idiot in :honor"
of his own birthday.
The, Cambridge police sheltered
him overnight: his fine was over
subscribed: he explored the depths
of hell in consequence of the affair.
endured the agony of shame, re-
morse. and self-loathing to the ply
sical and mental limit, and eventu-
ally recovered, regarding himself as
a reformed criminal with a shatter-
ed past &c.. ..,.
However, the youthful gloom and
melancholy dignity with which this
clothed, him had a faint and not en-
tirely unpleasant flavor-as one
who might say, II have lived and
learned. There Is the sad wisdom
of worldly things within me-" But
he cut out alcohol. 1t being the
fashion at that time to shrug away.
an offered cup, he found little diff
ficulty. in avoiding it,
In his sophomore year. he met the
inevitable young person. And after
all that had been told him. all that
he had disdainfully pictured to him
self, did not recognize her when he
met her.
1t was one of those episodes
which may end any way. And it end
ed. of course. in one way or anoth-
or. But 1t did end.
Thus the limited world he moved
in began to wear away the soft
rounded contours of boyhood: he
learned q little about men, nothing
whatever about women. but was in
clined to consider that he under
stood them sadly and perfectly. He
wrote several plays, novels and
poems to amusc himself; wrote ar
ticles for the college periodicals.
when he was not too busy training
with the baseball squad or playing
tennis, or lounging through those
golden and enchanted hours. when
the smoke of undergraduate pipes
spins magic haze over life, cnvel-
opinE books and comrades in that
SAQulSltc anu Solliy ~Cp
which never tears, never fades in =
memory while life endures.
He made many friends; he visited
many homes; he failed sometimes,
but, more often he made good in
whatever he endeavored.
His father came on to Cambridge
several times-always when his son
requested it--and he knew the sym
pathy of his father in days Of tri
umph. and he understood his faith
er's unshaken belief in his only son
when that son, for the moment. fall
tered.
For he had confided in his father
the episodes Of the punch and the
young person. Never had his father
and he been closer together in mind
and spirit than after that confess
sion.
In spite of several advances made
by Chiltern Grismer, whose son, Os-
valid, was also at Harvard and a
popular man in his class, John Gle
land remained politely unreceptive;
and there were no social amenities
exchanged Jim CIeland and Oswald
Grismer did not visit each other,
although friendly enough at Cam
bridge. CIeland senior made no
particular effort to discourage any
such friendly footing, and he was
not inclined to Judge young Girls
mer by his father. He merely re-
manned unresponsive.
In such cases. he who makes the
advances interprets their non-suc-
cess according TO his own nature.
And Grismer concluded that he had
been a victim OF insidious guile and
sharp practice, and that John Gle
land had taken Stephanie to his
heart only after he had learned that,
some day, she would inherit the