The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-12-28

LAST WEEK WE GOT OFF on
the subject Of condolences, and
didn't quite finish saving our
piece on the subject. So here
we are again.
The thing about condolences is
that you can neither approach
these curious events in a skep-
teal manner, and say so what?p
attaching absolutely no import
anee to them: or sometimes a
great deal o. Importance can be
attached to them, perhaps too
much so, and people can profess
to see the workings of a mystic
rious Purpose that might not have
been there at all.
On the other hand, perhaps
some supernatural communica-
ton does indeed take place in
many cases of premonitions, fore
warnings and all such workings
OF the element OF coincidence in
human lives. But the thing is a
mystery. Why should there be
a p|urposeful fore-telling of some
events and not of others? And
why should so many condolences
involve absolutely unimportant
and meaningless incidents-inci-
dents that can never be anything
more than subjects for light hui
NOR md an interesting little
story. Perhaps it is just that
all such curious accidents in
human affairs are merely the
working out of the law of mathe-
MATES and probability. and that
the law chooses to work itself out
in humorous and unimportant
ways just as often as it does in
grave and mysterious circum-
stances.
The thing is, that no one can
say what the answer is.
Accident, or Purpose. One takes
his choice. And whichever he
takes, the person Of the other
view can offer him quite an eff
fective argument. That is why
coincidence is a subject of end-
less interest in human affairs,
and why it is a source of SO many
of the tales and stories and dra-
mas that constitute the litera-
ture of most civilized nations.
Two little stories come to our
mind now, one trivial and the
somber, one of which would
seem to argue for the sheer ae-
oidental nature of coincidence,
and the other perhaps for the
working of some sort OF mysteri-
Gus intelligence, or communiea-
ton, between human beings.
They tell a story in our good
wife's family about MIR. Skeeles
and the funny thing that hap
pened one day in Chattanooga.
Mr.. Skeeles- the photographer
was a little citizen who used
&c come down 10 Mississippi
every spring with his plates,
Tripods. black curtains. flash
powder. order blanks. and one
assistant. They came like
swallows-to quote the title of
a book-and they left like itin-
Grant photographers when
the seasons commissions had
been completed. They could
take plain pictures or fancy
pictures. And their specially
was taking those curious dou-
BILE photographs from slightly
different angles which. when
viewed through a stereopfical
tense. make the subject look
natural as life. Quite a few
families in this town got TO ex-
pect the, yearly visit of Mr..
Skeeles-th the photographer. and
they kept a record of the birth
and growth of their children.
new in-laws. and manv other
natural or curious events. in
this fashion.
Then one year he stopped con-
Spring that year was like
Capistrano without swallows. /
but the town survived it, and be-
gan to find other ways to get
their likenesses immortalized. /
and at last Mr.. Skeeles-the-pho-
tographer became only a memoir.
He had vanished somewhere into