Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1903 — MENTAL TENSION. [ARTICLE]

MENTAL TENSION.

Bard to Realise the . Difficulty of Keeping a Natural Pose. | We never, know how active* our Imaginations can be till we let them out or till they get the better of us for some reason. A major In the army recently admitted that when he went Into action for the first time he was so scared that he did not know which way was north, but he had an overwhelming desire to reach it, wherever it was. Yet, after six or eight battles and after being wounded a couple of times, he regarded battles very much as people hereabout regard the evening fight at the Manhattan end of the bridge, says the Brooklyn Eagle. Cases or wanting to run when bullets fly are by no means-difficult ttt &pd. put ft young soldier fn Brooklyn “confesses to A more queer experience His regiment was in camp and had been ordered out for dresS PArada aT usual. When. lined up for inspection, every man as stiff a ramrod and £ w v te glove moving, this young man, a lieutenant, began to ask himself: ehgVtd slip, or anything, to brf.tk the quiet? T should fall?” Th£ ffiflWfling kept gf6w~ Ing In ms mind till before the"!nsection was over and the regiment was allowed to use its feet once more he could hardly keep on his legs and was in a great sweat of agony from the dread of tumbling over and making an exhibition of himself. People who have never tried it do not realize how hard it te to stand absolutely still and yet appear interested and at ease. Artists’ models succeed at it, especially those in Italy, and will hold a pose not too difficult for an .hour. Actors, when they group about the man in the center of the stage, who is enjoying all the limelight—and how they hate them for It—are required to keep still, so as not to distract attention from tlfe great man’s sayings and motions, and because they must group in such a way as to form a picture and*keep it till it can be realized by the eyes in front. But this enforced statuesqueness is hard on the supes. They are not used to lb When they are put under the strain, and when as Roman warriors they must stand at the back without winking while Brutus or Virginius or some other ponderous person nnbo’soms himself respecting love or politics, they are in a small torture. One such last season who could no longer abide it to listen to the soliloquy by the head man pitched over on his face and had to be lugged out by the arms to the spoiling of the scene.