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({WNU Service
We
ILBERT was at least twenty-
six before he first began to
realize that some of the moun-
tain tops toward which he had
directed his footsteps were not going
to be so accessible as he had dreamed,
Gilbert had come from an achieving
family. His father, up to the week of
his death, had been one of the most
important barristers In town, His
mother had practiced law In a highly
successful way up to the last year of
her life. His brother, at thirty, was
already a surgeon of more than local
importance, His sister, a college grad
uate herself, had married one of the
outstanding bio-chemists of the world.
So it was by background, environ-
ment, example and possibly Inher-
itance that Gilbert, even before he
was finished with college, should turn
his footsteps resolutely toward acom-
plishment,
It is true that the subject of law
had never particularly interested him,
He had not a systematic mind. The
conception of ideas interested him
more than their execution, and if he
had any preference at all, it was for
lying for a large part of the day be
fore a good fire, or a sun-kissed
meadow, and reading.
But a man cannot foster such In
clinations if he hopes to get ahead in
this world, Gilbert knew that. Unless
you had a marked talent of one sort
or another, the safest road to achieve
ment lay along lines of one of the
substantial, remunerative professions,
Medicine, Law,
With his slender talent for writing,
the best he could probably hope for
would be 8 Journalistic or editorial
career,
And so it was that Gilbert turned
to law. It was not that he did not
bring a fairly average equipment to
this work. He had a good mind, even
an unusual endowment of Intelligence,
ind every law office of the city was
open to the son of his father,
The secret of his fail
ie
long
ire to progress,
about the, time he was twenty
franiclne tal
iunan i
gixX, was na tal
one, 1..8 heart was not in his work
intellectually, he
successful lawyer Emot!
for the blpe
heen tak ry
boy first trip
yearned the
that Kind of life, with perh
ind :
that he
writes, from impulse
subtle yet a net
wanted to be a
yearned
where he had
on his
for
pt
wae
sweet
pencil at his beck ane
could write as a dil
rather than am.
wt ny
i
ition or necessity,
The instinct to struggle was not In
Gilbert, and yet, surrounded as he
was by the examples of successful
people, he had not the courage to let
And so for four years after these
first realizations began to dawn dis
quietingly upon him, he struggled
ahead at a profession that was flavor
lesa to him. It was
plead a case with fervor about which
you felt so dispassionately
The claims of set of human
reings against another could not, did
not, interest him. The cunning, devi-
ous, shrewd phraseology of the con-
tract, so fascinating to some types
of mind, elicited no real interest from
Gilbert. The ramifications of the law,
its Interpretations and its practice,
aroused in him nothing more than a
weariness for the rather nurposeless
struggles of mankind against man-
kind.
At on an impulse he vas
never thoroughly able to comprehend
--nor the amount that
went with it—Gilbert resigned his po-
sition as junior partner in a well
known law firm, left superficial ex-
planatory notes to a few of the mem
hers of his family and his friends.
drew out a saving account of some
several hundred dollars and took a
ship going Mediterranean way.
That was the beginning fof fifteen
vears wandering over the hoary
face of the hoary earth. Lingering.
when necessary, in one city, in one
port, in one village or anther, long
enough to lay up, by simple manual
labor, sufficient money to sustain him
for a brief period of the future. Those
of his friends who happened to en.
counter him in thelr travels, described
him sadly as a pale, draggled follow
wandering aimlessly across the face
of the earth,
In a way, that was how Gilbert re-
garded himself, While the new life
was far, far preferable to the old,
and mot a regret lurked In his heart,
at the same time there was also a
futility, an aimlessness, a seeking
after he knew not what. Gray began
to come out in his hair and a stoop
was upon his back. Even the variety
of mew scenes, new faces, began to
pall. The second era of his discon-
tent was upon him,
It was not that the fifteen years
following his decision had been unhap-
py ones. On the contrary, they had
been rich, fruitful, yielding and ud-
venturous. The university of the uni.
verse had been Gilbert's. Figuratively
and literally speaking, he had kept
lean, whetted with an appetite for
life, for wisdom, for experience, for
love. And yet sometimes it seemed to
Gilbert, as he entered a new port,.as
he steamed out of another, as spiced
and foreign wines slid against his
xo
impossible to
one
thirty,
of courage
of
palate, as the sweet, mocking eyes o°
exqtic women beckoned him, as h«
livell and learned and suffered, that
after all he was getting nowhere,
And that, for one who has made the
kind of momentous decision that Gil
bert had fifteen years before, is a dis
heartening realization, He had sac
rificed everything, Well and good, but
only if the sacrifice had been justi
fled,
Whither? was the question that be
gan to engrave {itself acidly into the
heart and mind and the consciousness
of the wanderer. Freedom and wha
to do with it? Lalsure and where to
spend It? The world his playground
and where to play?
He was always coming, he was a)
ways going. Maidens smiled at him
out of their casements, They had
homes, They belonged there.
were rooted to some soil, Everybody,
it seemed to Gilbert, was rooted to
some soil and even though the
the
responsibilities—lis-
along
with
cities and
family men
men, surrounded with
aura of belonging.
he belonged nowhere and yet
was not what was bothering him. He
would not, had he been able to manip-
backwards the magic time-car-
pet, have returned to the life he had
s0 discarded back
youth days. If certaln dissatisfactions,
nostalging were upon him, they were
not those of regret,
He was sick with quest.
Neither must
debonairly
vou
these years Gilbert had been without
the the amours, the gratifl-
cations that have to do with women
He had crossed the paths of many and
they had left their upon
him, Yet, at forty-five, Gilbert,
ure, was still
pastimes,
memories
seeking,
it was in Naples, of all places, when
Gilbert was forty-eight, that he ran
across, in the open market place, a
girl named Chita. She was selling
lemons out of a big beautiful
and she had driven In that morning
with them piled on a donkey eart,
rom the incomparable hilis of Amalfi,
She was beautiful in a brown, Italian
way, ho stripling of a girl, but with a
blown maturity to her. Rich, rather
dusky skin and white teeth
flashed against It.
who !
ie hills of
key eart,
with
thelr
ven
a goat and
sles
try of these
wing to the
calls his study,
in
hine
he
swwehard and, before
hi writes
» sall-specked
Afternoons,
ir goat
finished and he
trees around
number twenty.
grandmother
house until
crone 0
the
The «ald
blesses him each day
some as summer. She Is with child,
Gilbert knows well In what light his
life will be regarded by the world he
has deserted.
fn
(1
PA.
1
— ——————————-
ber that Chevrolet gives you
a
Be
CENTRE
HALL
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failure,
Mirror Superstition
A woman is apt to be made miserable
breaks a looking glass
She believes she will have deaths In
the family, and other bad luck, for sev-
en years. This belief is one of many
popular superstitions which sre not
supported by scientific or other trust.
worthy investigation. but are truth
to those who believe them.
hecause she
tion of the effect
health and outlook of the believer has
been the subject of much investiga
tion. but the general answer seems to
be that some persons give no second
thought to their fortune when they
break a mirror, and seem to suffer no
ill consequences,
“Science” and “Art”
According Jevong, a sclence
teaches us to know and an art to do.
Astronomy, for Instance, is the foun-
dation of the art of navigation: chem-
istry ig the basis of many useful arts.
The arts are distinguished as fine arts
and useful arts, the former Including
painting, sculpturing, musfe, poetry
and architecture, the latter (useful
arts) including the trades. Tue sel-
ences have heer variously ‘classified.
The principal ones are physics, chem.
istry, astronomy, meteorology, mathe
matics, geography, geology, ethnology,
anthropology, archeology, blology and
medicine,
to
Maine First to Can Corn
Maine generally has been acknowl
edged ns the early home of corn pack.
ing In this country, and its claim has
Portland (Maine) paper. About 1830
Isane Winslow began his experiments
igsued and then It was to John Wins.
low Jones, Isaac's nephew,
The first recorded sale of canned
corn was from Nathan Winslow to
Bamuel 8. Plerce of Boston, The in-
voice was dated February 19, 1843, and
was for one dozen canisters of pre-
served corn at $4,
Mishap Helped Famous
Hymn Win Popularity
In the St. Nikolas church at Obern-
mas eve in 1818, “Stille Nacht, Helige
Nacht” was sung for the first time,
The curate, Joseph Mohr, had com-
organist, Franz Xaver Gruber, the
melody. To the fact that the little
organ in Oberndorf had broken down
Is due the widespread popularity of
the hymn. The organ builder, Karl
! been sent for to make the necessary
repairs. He heard the alr and hummed
it in his native country, where it be-
came very popular in a short time.
There were four brothers, by name
Strafer, who went to the big German
markets every year selling products of
the Tyrolese home industry, and at
the concerts of Tyrolese songs they
sang the air which had become so
popular “back home.” Thus the melody
was introduced to the North, from
whence it started around the world. —
Detroit News,
Stockings Might Have
Fitted Lincoln's Hands
Even Abraham Lingoln had to bow a
| Httle to prevailing styles, a fact which
| recalls a highly amusing Incident that
| happened on the eve of a big White
House reception. It was one of those
affairs at which the President would
be compelled to shake hands with
. thousands of people and Mrs. Lincoln
| sent out for a box of white silk gloves,
| both to protect Mr. Lincoln's hands
and to make sure that by frequent
_ changes he would look neat and fresh
throughout the reception.
The gloves came but were far too
small to fit the mighty hands of Lin-
. eoln. An emergency call was sent
| out. All Washington sent gloves but
mone were large enough. Mra. Lincoln
| was greatly vexed and on the verge of
| tears when the President turned to
i her and sald with a chuckle:
| “Better get me some of your stock.
Whole World Enriched
by Poet's “Golden Pen"
Omar Khayyam, Persian poet, wos
born about the middle of the Eleventh
century at Nishapur, Khorassan, where
he died about 1123. As an astronomer
he was known for a revision of the
Persian calendar, and occupied a posi.
tion of Importance at the court of
Mahmud of Chuzni. It Is as the author
of a collection of quatraing, called
the Rubaiyat, that Omar Khayyam
is more popularly known. These poems
~isolated, impulsive, unrestrained and
characterized by rapid transitions from
love minstrelsy to grave argument,
and from a deadly fatalism to ribald
tavern songs—are an interesting de-
velopment of Persian mysticism, There
is little doubt that Omar was not the
author of all the poems which in-
gpired his translator Fitzgerald's
pen. Fitzgerald's translation was first
published anonymously In 1850,
“Rubal”; (or rubary) Is the Persian
word for quatrain or epigram, a
stanza of four lines, the firet, second
and fourth lines rhyming, “Rubaiyat™
means a collection of quatrains,
Ancient Rhodesian Foundry
An ancient iron foundry, buried six
feet in a cavern, has been dug up by
the Italian expedition which is search.
ing for traces of prehistoric man near
the Livingstone rocks In Rhodesia.
Here 3,000 or 4.000 years ngo a su
perfor, intellectual race smelted fron
by primitive methods, such as are now
known to the Bantu people. The dis
covery Indicates the great age of the
Zimbabwe and other Rhodesian stone
ruins, and throws new light on the his
tory of metallurgy. ‘
Pretty Tribute
*I have three grandmothers” sald
little Evelyn White to her mother.
“How do you make that out?’ asked
Mrs. White.
“Grandmother Leach, Grandmother
White, and
umother,”
Tribune.
replied Evelyn.
Formed in Revolution |
The Society of the Cincinnati is an
hereditary patriotic society organized |
in 1783 by the American and foreign |
son river near Fishkill, N. Y¥. The
planck house, then the headquarters
The objects of the
society were: “To perpetuate as well
the remembrance of the Revolution as
the mutual friendships which have
been formed under the pressure of
common danger. . . Since most
of the officers were returning to their
farms, which they had left to fight
for the republic, they named their or
ganization the Society of the Cincin-
nati, after their Roman prototype, Lu-
cius Quintus Cincinnatus, George
Washington was the first president
general. He was elected in 1787 and
reelected until his death, Presidents
general succeeding him have been
Alexander Hamilton, C Cetesworth
Pinckney, Thomas Pinckney, Aaron
Ogden, Morgan Dewis, Willlam Pop
ham, H. A. 8. Dearborn, Hamilton
Fish, William Wayne and Winslow
Warren. The state societies meet an-
nually and the general society meets
once in every three years, The living
hereditary members number 980. The
emblem symbolizes the union of
France and America,
——
Babylonian Lawgiver
Hammurabi was the most (llas
trious of all the Babylonian kings.
He was the sixth of the Amoritie or
West SBemitic dynasty and reigned 48
years between 2007 anw 2020 B. C
Hammurabi promuigated for use
throughout his empire one of the
greatest legal codes ever devised. A
fairly complete copy of the code was
found about the Twelfth century at
Susa Inscribed on a diorite stela eight
feet high. Apparently the stone had
been taken to Elam as plunder by in-
vaders during the later period of
Babylon's deciine.~Pathlinder Maga-
sine.
Houses of the Poor in Korea
Houses belonging to the common
thatched, and have
the walls being made of
small, low and
few rooms,
High buildings were for-
bidden by the oid laws of the coun-
try, but now that no such restrictions
exist there are many two-story houses,
some of them brick, especially In ur
ban districts. A unique part of the
Korean house is Its heating arrange
ment. The floor is made of flagstones
plastered over with clay and covered
with thick oiled paper. Underneath,
forming what would be the joists, run
a series of horizontal flues. Fire is
made outside the room and the het
smoke-laden air cirenlates through the
flues and escapes at the opposite end.
Thus the floor is thoroughly heated.
The Po'house
Dropping down to old Richmond
from Washington, the tourists decides
that literary shrines should have first
attention, so they asked a negro taxi
driver to take them to the Poe house.
After the dial showed two or three
miles of travel, they became doubtful
of their driver, but he reassured them
and soon stopped before a vast hrick
dwelling. “Here's the pohouse™ de-
clared the driver, and over the door
was chiseled, “County Poor Farm.”
There was a $3 fare before they
finally reached the Poe memorial, —Li-
brary Journal.
“Robbing Peter to Pay Paul”
“Fable has it,” according to Brews
er's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
“that this phrase alluGes to the faet
that on December 17, 1550, the Abbey
church of St. Peter, Westminster, was
advanced to the dignity of a cathedral
by letters patent; but ten years later
it was joined to the diocese of Lon.
don again, and many of its estates
appropriated to the repairs of St
Paul's cathedral.” The expression may
have been a familiar one much earlier
than that
Sy.