Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 261, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1915 — FOIK We Touch In Passing [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FOIK We Touch In Passing

By Julia Chandler Marnz

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THE EXCHANGE The-Man-of-Geniua had such, a tremendous faculty for understanding The Woman’s thoughts even before she expressed them that it made her marvel. "Nothing like It has ever come into my life before,” she told him appreciatively. “As a girl I spent half my time In explanations to my mother, who never seemed able to understand my motives even after I had spent hours in laying them bare. Then when I married ” “I know, my dear,” answered The-Man-of-Genlus interrupting her recital. I do not wish to hurt you, but one has only to look into the stolid face of that husband of yours to understand. Forgive me for reading things so clearly. It is my love for you that gires me so keen a perception.” The Woman lifted eyes filled with pleading and gave a gesture of protest, but The-Man-of-Genius was quite accustomed to having his own way, ■o he paid no attention. "Life is very full of just such tragedies as yours,” he told her. “Here you are, an exquisite bit of human mechanism mated to a coarse piece of clay animated by reasoning powers and perceptions utterly inadequate for the understanding of a mind filled with beautiful ideas. , And because of some foolhardy words you said before

a priest you persist in living out the farce!” Tears gathered in The Woman’s eyes, and The-Man-of-Genius, seeing, gathered her tenderly into his arms and showered her with kisses, which he had no right to give nor she the right to receive', and when at last she released herself she was quite exhausted with her struggle against the ever-increasing desire in her heart to spend the rest of her life in the perfect harmony of companionship with him. Alone The Woman spent hours in thought. Her mind traversed the past. She had loved The Husband when she married him. He was a fine, substantial man, successful in his business; phlegmatic in his temperament; generous to The Woman even where he did not understand her, and loving her with unswerving faithfulness. She admitted his excellent Equalities of character, but felt his deficiencies in the little niceties of Ufa. And since she had known The-Man-of-Genius the work of The Husband had seemed to her mind so prosaic and inconsequential. How low must he the ambition that allowed a man to be satisfied with the manufacture of hosiery all the days of his life while human souls were wanting to be fed; minds were craving the uplift of their ideals; and hearts reaching out for love and courage in the struggle of the inner life which one must inevitably meet and Uve alone. The Woman could not help but compare the sort of thing The-Man-of-Genius gave the world with the manufacture of stockings. His

music was divine. Tickets for his concerts were in such demand that one had to secure them weeks ahead or miss the treat And always h» seemed to play directly to the heart of The Woman. His violin carried fhe< appeal of his heart to hers as no other medium could have carried it, and when she was alone with him his argument against her right to live out her life with a man who was utterly Incapable of appreciating and understanding her finer nature seemed entirely justified and so at last 1 she yielded to his will, going away to a state where divorces are easily secured upon just no ground at aIL When The Woman was free from her shackles of marriage to The Hosiery Manufacturer she married The-Man-of Genius, and in the certainty of the perfect harmony of her new union she justified herseif for the terrible blow she had dealt The Husband in the pursuit ol her personal happiness until the closer contact with The-Man-of-Genius revealed to her the abominable traits of an artistic temperament. He flew into violent fits of temper at the slightest provocation —or with no provocation at all — and when The Woman protested against the unfairness of his conduct to her he explained it as a part of Ws highly strung nature and seemed eatisfled with the excuse. He subjected The Woman to long periods of cold*

ness and neglect only to make desperate love to her again, and she feO into the habit of watching his swiftly changing moods with fear eating all her heart, and when at last she became certain that she was expected to submerge her individuaUty into his life and its interests she held communion with her soul, and her thought turned back longingly over the even quiet years of moderate happiness with the man who manufactured hosiery for a living, years which now had passed from her life forever.

"Life Is Very Full of Just Such Tragedies as Yours,” He Told Her.