The New York herald., 1922-04-23
By HAROLD CALENDER.

~ has since produced mover
that shows beyond doubt
that he has been a child wrote few
years ago an essay called Were You
Ever a Child?" 1t was a highly
pertinent query. 1t expressed what
more than one speculative young
ster has wondered (somewhat incred-
ulously) about the grownups with
whom his lot, quite without regard
to his preferences in the matter has
been cast.
One knows this to be so II one has
been a child. In moments OF critical
examination. which took place more
often than self-centered adults i'm
agined, one was driven to the con-
clusion that these singular elder OBJ
jects-tired. fed up, over-sophisti-
Gated, stolid, Unconditional and conse-
quently uninteresting-were born
that way. This severe judgment was
not so far amiss: for IL they weren't
born so they themselves had prac-
tically forgotten that they weren't
II suddenly asked, Were you ever a
child?" one of them would have re-
piled Cf he were perfectly candid):
why. let me see; yes. I suppose SO;
stands to reason. doesn't it?" He
would have arrived at a conclusion
by inference.
Such reasoning was. though. far
from convincing. For there was
strong evidence to the contrary. The
fact that stood like Rock of Gibral-
tar and defied all such specious
sophistry, the thing that virtually
proved they had never been children
was this: they persistently misun-
derstood children. How could any
one who had been himself a child
make such grotesque errors in inter-
preting the tastes and trying to sat
isfy the yearnings OF children?
Rather were they a race OF con-
querors in an alien country. Through
some evil and unaccountable fate
they had us in their power. They
were the stronger-physically We
had to bow to their will If we valued
our lives: but how many times
while perfunctorily surrendering for
expediency's sake, did we, like Cali
leo at the Inquisition. remind our
selves under our breath that in real
ity we knew the truth was on our
side. No child OF Israel under
Pharaoh suffered such ignominious
subsection. II we sometimes lied a
little and resorted to other subter-
fuges, that was only the guerrilla war
fare that inevitably springs up wher
a nation or race is physically but not
morally conquered. II was what. ac-
cording to Ibsen. happened in th'
case of women in the dark periot
before their emancipation from ar.
bitrary male rule.
Such are some OF the Fundamental
truths, verifable in later years. tina
the active mind of a child divines.
II.
II is doubtful whether at any tim
in the life of the average adult the III
xtellect expands so swiftly or takes il
so much that is new and vital as |
does in childhood. Surely no one
ever quite so spontaneously busy il
later days He's just into every
thing; don't know what to do wit
him" Serious business of gathering
data on the known and hitherto un
known universe Extending tn
sphere of knowledge. Little adven
lures in epistemology.
William James had occasion to re
KIDNAPPING CLARENCE. BY LOU
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THE STORY OF GEORGE VASE