Life — February 16, 1899 — page 9: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“GREAT MOHAMMED! IT'S QUEER HOW QUICKLY BIG GAME CAN GET OUT OF RANGE.” tho broad and leisurely quality of a threo- volume novel — but it all counts in tho picture, Val is too fino a girl for the fate awarded her at the end, Her oagerness, her dis- cernment, her appetite for life itself— pecause there is so much “to see, to feel, to flud out about! Enough to last a mil- lion years. . . . Nomatter what comes, {t can't help boing frantically interesting «+ « just because, don't you see, it will bo happer.ing tome, That makes it quite bow—mikes it tremendous,” There is tho gist of her philosophy, and if she had not como up with a handsome, ricb, and a@nemic cousin with a New England grand- father, she might have lived it out to the very end —exultantly, bravely, deflantly, like her grandmother Gano, But the marriage of first cousins with consumption on both sides of the house causes all the trouble, and raises the“ open question,” whether it is not often the part of wisdom to commit suicide for the good of the race? There you are, gentle readers; there is fine material forthe highart of fiction! Mr. Ibsen bas not the monopoly of all the first- class ghosts of heredity. Weean raisea few good American varieties, However, hty few of us havo the long nos, and if we don’t know our ancestors we peed not worry about their diseases, If this kind of flection continues to prevail, the only happy heroes will be those who aro low-born, Men and women without ances- tors will be eagerly sought after, because they may marry with a heart and mind free lineage of tho from apprehensions founded on the sins or weaknesses of their fathers. In the meantime, Nature goes right along killing tho right ones for her own best poses, and Jetting live the fittest.” We may not think so, but Nature is not doing these things according toa plan arranged by us—for to her a thousand years are as one day, Ethanand Val no doubt meant well, but thoy were very silly—poor little yrains of sand, thinking themselves a breakwater to turn aside the ocean! Droch. Roses. °M taking roses home with mo to-night; l Red roses, costing half my weekly pa: They'll give my wife perhaps an hou! delight, And then she'll cast them carelessly away. What fools we mortals be! Long years ago I plucked, with careless hand, wild roses red, And tossed them to a maid I used to know. To-Cay I found some rose-leaves, faded, dead, Hid in a little corner where my wife Keeps sundry treasures stored; a note or two; A young man’s photo; not, Itrust, like life; A toy; a trinket: and a baby's shoe. I'm fifty now, and counted somewhat gruff; My Ogure’s portly and my hair is gray. Bab! Ono would think that I was old enough To scorn the mad joy of a bye-gone day. And yet I felt unreasoving delight To And those withered rose-leaves lying there; And —well, I'm taking roses home to-night ; And all the time I wonder, “ Will she care?” Geraldine Meyrick. A Protracted Gift. CHILD who was delighted with the gift of a candy cat, said to her mother at the end of the holidays: *T saved it and saved it and saved it, till it got so dirty I Aad to eat it.” A Last Resource. ING'S DAUGHTER: Mercy! Do you allow that half-grown girl to read Zola and Ouida? Tue Motnen: I must do something to keep her away from the newspapers. Opera. OMPOSER: Of course I can't write opera that everybody will be pleased with. ManaGen: [don't ask you to, ANT ask you to dois to write opera that every. body will pretend to be pleased with. Preeeson: Sox is so wonderfully entertaining, my dear. Mus, Proressor: Indeed! In what way? “Why, he listens to everything one bas to say, and says nothing one has to listen