Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1903 — MENTAL [?]NSION [ARTICLE]

MENTAL [?]NSION

Hard to Realise tbe Ulfficklty at Keeping- a Natural Pose. We never know how active our Imaginations can be <lll we let them 'out or till they get the better of us for Borne reason. V 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 reuch it, wherever it was. Yet, aftej. 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 of wanting to run when bullets fly are by no means difficult to find. But a young soldier in Brooklyn confesses to a more queer experiences His regiment was in camp and had been ordered out for dress parade, as usual. Wheu lined up for inspection, every man as still as a ramrod and not a w' te glove moving, this young man, a lieutenant, began to ask himself: “Suppose I should slip, or anything, to brr.k the quiet? Suppose I should fall?” The idea of falling kept growing in his mind till before the inspection 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 is to stand absolutely still and yet appear interested and at ease. Artists’ models succeed at ft. especially those in Italy, and will hold a pose not too difficult for an hour. Actors, when they group about the man lu 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 the 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 th# supes. They pre not used to it When they are put urn der the strain, and when as Roman warriors they must stand at the back without winking while Brutus or Virginius or some other ponderous person unbosoms 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.