Evening Star Newspaper, April 19, 1931, Page 91

“THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE” A New Story Cosmo Hamilton FPHILOSOPHER,” said John Pitt waving his hand in the air, “is a man who has achieved the art of remaining undisturbed at\ the troubles of his friends.” All the little clever people round his table laughed. “I see,” said Morden Roden, who was re- garded as & failure by them because his novels sold, “but when trouble stalks into his house and takes the easy chair, what price your philosophy then?” He put this question because Christina Venning had just read from that day’s paper a paragraph packed as tightly with trouble as a bomb with TNT. In leeringly sug- gestive words it conveyed the news that Panglos, the notorious woman hunter, had left every cent of his money to his “beloved Hyacinth.” ‘Would Pitt be able to apply to his own case the art of undisturbance when it was disclosed that the mysterious legatec was the girl who was to be his wife? Pitt replied to Morden's question from the modernist point of view. “Trouble among the intelligentsia,” he said, “has no place. Passions, prejudices, principles and pity, the four old- fashioned ingredients of which trouble is made . up, are quite unknown to us. We regard life as & mere experiment, a fairly amusing adventure, durizg which we leave all primitive sensations to the normal herd. We refuse to be made to feel. Everything serious bores us. Our motto is: ‘Nothing matters,’ and so life is as funny as death, and all we want to do is to be witty and raise a laugh.” There was a round of applause. 66 'HIS to Morden was a ghastly and poisonous creed. The spirit of the age had not got under his skin. But he realized the absurdity of argument with the young “philosopher” and let the matter drop. When, however, he looked at the lovely Leigh Stopford, the future Mrs. Pitt, there was an expression of such rebellious challenge on her face that the tragic figure of trouble seemed already to have arrived. He Hked and was sorry for Pitt. He greatly ad- mired Leigh Stopfordé. And as it happened Panglos had been his most intimate friend. There was drama in the fact that he was the only person present who knew of what he had called the beautiful friendship of Panglos and this girl. During the last few years of his life he had shared a house with Morden, and it was to the book-lined room in which he wrote his plays that Leigh had slipped unnoticed every afternoon. In his flowery way Panglos had called her “a faith, a reliance, a refuge,* and had treated this secret friendship with a sort of reverence. It was only now, as Morden watched her and saw that she intended not to say that she and the beloved Hyacinth were one and the same, that, reluctant, a query as to the pure beauty of that friendship hung before his eyes. Just as the inquisitive Christina was about to fire a question Leigh sprang to her feet, ran her arm through Morden’s and with an odd smile at Pitt went out into the sun. She sald, “You are asking yourself why I suppress the fact that I am Hyacinth. You think I have somé- thing to hide from Jack which had better re- main untold. But if you imagine that my rela- tions with Panglos were like those of other giils, why do you side with me now and want to make Jack human by telling him the truth? - No. I'm not a clairvoyant or a mind-reader. I have a woman's intuition and feel that you're my friend. Answer my question, please.” He said, “Jack used to be a friend of mine eand I am devoted to you.” i “In spite of your suspicions?” “In spite of everything.” She gave him a grateful hand. *“I needed this,” she said. “It brings me to the cross- roads. I'm not going to marry a man whose creed I heard just now without putting him to the test. If I'm not to be taken seriously I'm not to be taken at all. Before we go to the altar Jack must face the fact that something does matter—and that something must be me.” I’r was Christina Venning who forced the issue that night. She said, as dinner began, look- ing at Morden with a sudden cunning smile, “Here’s the man who can solve this mystery. Here’'s the man who shared a house with Panglos, knew all his women and, of course, was well acquainted with the beloved Hyacinth.” To6 Leigh's delight and astonishment Pit} was Interested. He said, “Yes, come on Morden, epring it. Tell us who she is.” “You know her as well as I'do. You met her ifn my room. The first time you saw her she wore a little blue hat. You wrote a sonnet about it which was rather nicely done.” - THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 19, _1931. Every one could see that, coming out of his fog of indifference and undisturbance, Pitt threw back his thoughts. It was no more diffi- cult to look into the mechanics of his brain than those of an open clock. Leigh! The girl was Leigh, his future wife! But in front of the intelligentsia he forced himself under control. In fact, no one had ever seen him so amusing or so absurd. It seemed to Leigh and Morden that the unexpected identification of the Panglos girl 1éft him, after the first great shock, ’ “He whipped a gun from his pocket.” with as little decent feeling as he had had be- fore. Was he too far gone? Was his “intelli- gent” ncutrality to emotion an accomplished fact? Later, up in her room, Leigh sat for over an ~ hour watching the lights go out like tired eyes in the valley far below. H<r heart was heavy and her spirits at zero point. She felt that she had been an unwilling witness to the suicide of cne who had been, when she loved him first, normal, warm-hearted, generous and free from April IsYear’s Most Ill- Fated Month Continued from Eleventh Page dent Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers and civil war in American started.in earnest. For four long years the North and South fought each other, then came another April, This time Gen. Lee’s army was without food and ammuntion much as Maj. Anderson had been at Fort Sumter. Lee had retreated from Richmond to Appomattox Court House, where he surrendered to Gen. Grant on April 9, 1865. The Civil War, like the War of the Revolution, had begun in April and it ended in April April, 1865, started as a month of rejoicing, everybody was glad the long, hard war was over, the Southerners were even allowed to take their horses home to start the Spring plowing. But the spirit of peace lasted only 5 days. On April 14 President Lincoln was assassinated in Washington, and for some time afterward the country was in a most deplorable condition. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee im- mediately took the oath of office as Presi- dent, but both Congress and the Lincoln cab- inet were hostile to him. The President was finally impeached and the trial took up the entire month of April, 1866, but Johnson's enemies in the Senate lacked one vote of hav- ing the necessary two-thirds to convict him. ‘These were the dark days of the carpetbaggers, the scalawags, and the ghostly Klu Klux Klan. Finally the period of the reconstruction passed and the country became happy and prosperous once more. Peace reigned until Apri), 1898, when the United States entered into another war. Ever since the discovery of Cuba, by Columbus, the island had belonged to Spain. But the Cubans had been oppressed by heavy taxes and cruel treatment, and there had been many insurrections and revolutions. American sympathy was on the side of the, Cubans; they were not only our next-door neighbor, but Americans owned large planta- tions of sugar and tobacco on the island which had been ruined by guerrilla warfare in the insurrection of 1895. ) N February 15, 1898 the American battle- ship Maine was blown up in Havana Har- bor while she was anchored there on a friendly visit, and 260 men went down with the ship. Yet, despite the fact that public sentiment in the United States demanded war with Spain, actual warfare was not declared until after President McKinley senf his famous message to Congress declaring that, in the name of humanity, the war in Cuba ought to stop. Then on April 19, 1898, on the anniversary of the battle of Lexington and also of the first bloodshed of the Civil War, Congress passed a series of resolutions which amounted to a virtual declaration of war against Spain. That started the Spanish-American War. A few months later Cuba was free, but war was not officigfly ended until April 11 of the next year. The eountry again settled down to a period of peace and prosperity, the Aprils passed one by one—19 of them. Then came April, 1917, and we were plunged into the greatest of all wars, tHe World War. The Central Powers of Eu- rope had been at war with each other since 1914, but in January, 1917, Germanty started her famous unrestricted submarine warfare, which imperiled American vessels of all kinds. The European situation became more and more serious and on April 2, 1917, President Wilson called an extra session of Congress, for already eight United States vessels had been torpedoed and 48 American lives had been lost. On April*6, 1917, Congress passed a resolution de- claring that a state of war existed between Germany and the United States. The World War belongs to this generation; its tragedies and_triumphs are so well known that it is not necessary to chronicle its events here. From this short summary it is easy to see that the fateful month of April has witnessed the start of more wars, fires, earthquakes and shipwrecks in the United States than any other month of the year. A careful study of the history of the other nations of the world shows that this fact is peculiar to America only. This strange fact, however, has its advantage, in that it makes historical events easy to re- member when we can pin so many fatal dates in our history on the month of April, Feeding in Elk Area. NATURE has a way of providing a remedy for the ills she sometimes brings to man if the opportunities for remedial measures are seized. There is the case, for instance, of the elks on the elk reservation near Jackson, Wyo. There has been little snow this year in that region and as a result officials in charge of the reservation fear that the hay fields will suffer greatly during the coming Summer through lack of water. As the hay is used for Winter feeding of the elks on the reservation, the problem would seem to be serious. The remedy for the lack of snow, paradoxi- cally, lies in the lack of snow. Because the Winter was open the elks foraged for them- selves this year in the more remote mountain sections and displayed a complete indifference to the hay which was spread temptingly in the usual feeding grounds. As a result the hay which was cropped for this year can be held over for next year if lack of water curtails this year's cutting. 3 The open Winter had another effect this year in that it brought hundreds of tourists in over the open roads to see the elks in their natural habitat. They,also found out some- thipg ef the rigors of Winter in this area, for the epen ground was frozen to a depth of thirw feet. w \ the affectations of the modernistic gang.;-Thd test had failed. She would break off her ene gagement and never see him again. Someond opened the door. “What do you want?” sh@ asked. : Pitt shut the door and locked it. Her hear§ leaped at the sight of his face. It was whi with rage. There was nothing of the modern: in his new expression. In the angle of his jaw, the honest set of his shoulders, he was thq simple primitive; not John Pitt, the fake phie losopher, but the man Jack Pitt who strodé across to where she stood and seized her by thé arm and who didn't give a damn as to whethef he hurt or not. (Neither did she. Ther¢ was joy in her heart.) “Now, then,” he “what were you to Panglos?” Go on, out with it.” And he shook her so that her hair fell ovef her forehead like that of a foreign pianist in g moment of ecstasy. s Hope, excitement, delight, rushed to her head like wine. “Why should I tell you? You'r§ absolutely nothing to me.” “Nothing to you?” He shouted the wi “I own you. You're mine. You belong to me He drew her against his chest and kissed her-w honestly, healthily and with the passion of th¢ normal man. He hurt so much that she Thearly screamed with joy. “What were you i@ Panglos? Come on, out with it.” . : ia L Snlmhu_mlu. “Why do you want ¥ know? You've never wanted to know anyw thing about me before. You didn't care.” Shi threw back her head and laughed. Reveling if§ this marvelous recovery, this unexpected brealss down, she made up her mind that every and stone of his affectation should fall about hi§ ears, He backed away from that laughter. *T you that I love you,” he said, “and that m! respect and admiration have grown about feet like the great stones of a plinth.” “I don’t believe you,” she said. “I've seem B proof of it.” s “Proof? Under all conditions, sane or mfl playing the silly ass or going on with my job, love you and am yours.” He seized her drew her to him and kissed her on the mouthy “Um-m,” she said to herself, for that wag what she wanted. “Proof is always need: daily, hourly proof. As to what I was Pangles, who loved and proved his love, you have rothing whatever to say. This is youg house but my room, and if you don't get oull I'll ery for help and have you flung downe stairs.” She said this on behalf of every livi woman and pushed Jack Pitt away. And she hadn’t been convinced already of his comm plete and absolute cure what he then proceeded to do must have clinched that gorgeous fact. Like the typical he-man on whom he ha@l poured such scorn, the hairy-chested primitiv who hack down trees with axes to clear t undergrowth, see red when moved to rage and jealousy, demand purity of their wives sweethearts and thrill to sentiment, he whipped a gun from his pocket and held it to his, hip, (8he adored the sight of it) “Now, thenX Bloodshot his eyes were and his voice hoarsé, “If you don't tell we what you were to Panglog and what you did in his rooms this is the end of the whole business for you and me. Go on.” “I promised never to tell.” The gun was col® on Rer breast. “It’s an absolute secret,” sh@ sald. The thing quivered over her heart. “Tell me the trut® or Y'll finish you and b | the gun in my mouth.™ - “He was my father,” gh, said. The gun was pitched thsough the win with a crash. And with @ a#y that was h in the valley he possessed her lips. “Um-m,” she said, while ler tears fell. *§ badly needed that.” ) (Copyright, 149) ’