Fort Mill times. (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, December 12, 1912, Image 9
? N the left, Just past
Mk If)) the weather hen's
J!I nest, and not more
t.han two steps from the
box where they keep the
yvj^Y\V^V cuckoo, there Is the long
V/r/Z t\s% bed where roses bloom all
\ /1 '-he year round. And they
grow like this bo that
jp\ Columbine may always
have one t0 stick In her
*?-1>?hair and that odd. 'mock
ing, 8oft-hearted cynic PierColumbine.
rot may cull one now and
Again to twiddle between his teeth.
If you know the way, and the Cheshire car will
let you. you walk down the garden path, past the
# butterfly lime, and arrive at the neatest little
cottage In Olympus.
Now this is the dwelling place of the Harlequin
set?Harlequin, Columbine, Clown and Pantaloon.
It is one cottage in a lktle colony on
the lower slopeB of Mount Olympus (Vhere the
high gods dwell: Jupiter and the like), and Is
most Important because it contains the oldest
inhabitants.
The Clerk of the Weather lives a little higher
up. The Four Queens and Kings live in a square
of pagoda-like houses, and are w-aited upon by the
Knaves. Pierrot and Pierrette live In romantic
seclusion by a pool In a tumble-down place covered
with blue roses. And away behind the
fields of stars where the flocks of clouds graze,
there is another village where the. Seven Princesses
live, and the Third Son and an Ogre, and
a Talking Rabbit, and all those peculiar and
beautiful people who are entangled in our minds
with the memories of night nurseries, and the
scent of our mothers who bent over us in wonderful
toilettes, and told us to go to sleep, or
they'd be late for dinner.
When it gets to be about Christmas there is
a sort of aroma of excitement on the low?r slopes
of Olympus, and, especially in the house where
Harlequin lives?a delicious sense of something
exciting happening.
Columbine opens the lid of the well that looks
down onto the world, and there comes up a murmur
of children's voices, and you can hear the
quaintest things being said about the hanging
up of stockings, and about Santa
Claus and tl)e likely width of chlmnevs,
and the running power of
reindeer. And there is a iremeuuuuD /j?9HH|
rustle of colored pi.per, and a great
run on almonds und raisins, and lHjHCnV.
quite respectable citizens stand In jJBEMI Ym
front of shop windows gazing at -*
dolls and dolls gaze back at them, ott SBfe3
so that the citizens go back forty ?*<
years at a rush, and the rush Is so r& |||j|Oa
great sometimes that they get tears 'W
In their eyes; for memory Is quick- jv
er than motor cars, and the road It
travels Is often dark and broken. ?
So Columbine leaves the top of
the well open all day and all night. &
and all the people In her cottage
sleep with their windows open, so u
that the sweetly laden air comes up 3?
and gives them wonderful dreams.
It does more than that. It waves IjL i|||p$
the branches of the Christmas tree m?m$;
that grows at the bottom of the /? . ; ?.
garden, near the sausage frames.
and very soon candles begin to bud (Z;
on its branches.
Now when the candles begin to* W3bU<
get ripe, which happens at the same . Ly sHSBSI/.,
time that geese and turkeys hang t
In rows In shops and grow rosettes
all over them. Harlequin takes an
old. oaken pipe from a cupboard un- 2$
der fche stairs, and they all sit round ftv
while he puts It to his lips and (sj
blowsAs
he plays, dreams come to them 0\
of their ancient days, for Harlequin ^ ^
Is first cousin to Mercury, and wears Tj P
a black mask to hide the light of
his face when he visits Columbine,
who Is Psyche, the Soul; the Clown
Is Momus, the Spirit of Laughter; %
and Pantaloon Is Charon, who has
that grim work of ferrying the souls
over the Styx. _
There's an odd link of memories ^
and of things held all through the
centuries, but the most charming Is
this: Columbine Is a flower-like person,
and there Is a flower called Columbine, and
It is so called because It Is like four doves with
outspread wings, and the French dove is colombe,
and the dove Is the symbol of the soul. So the
world Is never allowed to forget beautiful things,
even if the burden of history Is borne on the
back of a flower. And the god-like glow and glitter
of Mercury's limbs still shows In the glistening
sequins on Harlequin's clothes, parti-colored
as they have always been, to show how he covered
his nakedness with rags.
All this, beautified by the essence of Time, like
things put away In a cedar chest, comes back
when Harlequin blows on his pipe that air the
shepherds learnt In Greece from Pan.
The next night Clown will take out another
kind of pipe, a long churchwarden of white clay,
and All it with tobacco, and then as the fragrant
clouds roll up into the rafters, memories come
of all the great people of the Harlequinades they
play down in the world, all inspired by them, and
they see the figure of Tariaton. who was the first
clown, and Invented the very clothes they now
wear, hand In hand with Grlmaldl, that great
clown And they seem to see all the great Italian
Harlequins, and the dainty French Columbines,
and the old dandles of fifteenth-century Venice
whose clothes Pantaloon wears.
Do you know that elderly gentlemen In the
World smell that magic tobacco, or something
like It. and they forget their paunches, or their
bald heads, and they sit and dream of the time
they went to their first pantomime? Was it
"Cinderella." or "Beauty and the Beast"? Or was
it that splendid thing
"Mother Goose." or that enKS,
trancing production "The
Yellow Dwarf"?
^ii Such things are conjured
m \ up by Just that one pipe of
tobacco smoked in the cottage
on Olympus, and on
that night a gentle breeze
blows up through the well,
laden with the poignant,
~~ eternal memories of child ?
? hood, and the candles on
Pantaloon. the Christmas tree are
0
I
all ready to be lighted. They are bo ready that
when Pantaloon looks out of his window before
making up his face for the day he sees that
the candles have burst Into flame-floweiu In the
night.
Then Columbine takes out a pipe, and she puts
some magic soap Into nectar and stirs it round
with the bowl of the pipe until frothy suds appear.
And then she blows bubbles that float up
and out of the window until they reach the
Christmas tree, when they turn Into great, glittering
glass balls. sorts of colors, and show
pictures of the world all colored and shining.
The children in the World look up and think
they see Harlequin and Columbine floating down
as gently as feathers, but they don't say so because
their elders would only tell them It wa9
the clouds. But it is Harlequin and Columbine
and Pantaloon end Clown follow soon after.
bringing the C h r i s t mas
tree with them.
Now their ~ "V- work begins,
each to his If own J?b and
Columbine to ."''fTfigv { ' hers. Clown
to preparing & ; the laughter
that ra u 8 t spring up in
this season. \<M gr and ripple as
easily as a v I' barley field
in a breeze. 1 Harlequin to
his magic. Jt 'or common
things must ^<ff'1' appear beautiful
n o w. i and a penny
must buy the Pierrette wealth of the
Indies. And ' Pantaloon to
stirring up old memories In dull people, so that
uncles must remember all their nephews in remembering
when they were nephews themselves,
and had a peculiar hunger at ChristmaB.
Columbine is awfully practical. Her sentiment'
extends from the Joy of watching the making of
baby-clothes to the pleasure of remembering to
put nice soap In the spare rooms. It is she who
sees that children get the right presents, and
when they don't it is not her fault, but the fault
of some stupid person In a shop.
Ti- la aha whn atiecentfi the secret delight of
keeping presents hidden at the bottom of the
wardrobe; and It Is she who suggests the secret
delight of peeing at children when they are
asleep.
^ ^a^s<s Vjt
There are Pagan Saints who find Arcadia everywhere.
Pan pipes as much In the crowded city
as on Mount Ida when the sun Is high. And
Columbine finds roses where the world sees
thorns; and Harlequin finds magic in motor
'buses; and Pantaloon* digs away for pleasant
memories in the most unlikely places, and finds
them bright and clean, and as good as new
These half-gods of mine (and yours) come
down at Christmas to correct the bilious attitude
of the rest of the year
They come to sow those
8 e e d 8 that grow to flowers
1q the still Innocent
hearts. They - By are l^e ,n^u*
ence that makes you
give a man ft fifty centB
instead of a B quarter. And
the being j"S who says
that the bus- . ine8S of llfe
weighs more .j*' ^ian Bf>n*
timent had better hang
up his stock- ing on Christmas
Eve. and p. see what It
feels like to err0 ' find nothing
but a hole In It In the morning.
And uhen it is dark these four quaint figures
flit through the country, city, town and village
Jike conspirators. Harlequin tapping doors and
windows with his magic wand. "Open, open!"
he cries to the Spirit of Christmas. "Let the
rich uncle reward his needy nephew, and the
unforgiving father his repentant son. Mothers,
forget to be jealous of your elder daughter's
growing beauty. Children, forget your spite and
naughtiness. Let's be old-fashioned Let's believe
in ghosts. I'll tell you ghost-stories, stories
of yourselves when you were children and played
Pirates on the stairs.
And Clown savs as he taps on the doors with
his red-hot poker:
"Open. open, you old grousers! And let the
Spirit of Fun come into this house. Romp a bit.
and lose your twopenny dignity, for pompous
stlfTness makes the gods laugh."
Pantaloon, taking his 'urn. taps with his walking-stick.
and sayB:
"Open. open, and let in the flood of memories
of the good old tlmea! gs
Holly and mistletoe and
robins, and church bells &*\
sounding over the snow. fflBjSX
And hampers all packed to jflj^K/
be sent away, and plenty fifegfw
to eat at home. ||?0
And then Columbine U&S
steals up to the windows. ?|gl
and taps them with the
rose from her hair, and Vf3
she whispers: ~ 1 V " '
"Open, open to me all
you who have no children Harlequin,
and no friends and no hope, and I will be the
warm, nestling thing you covet for your frozen
hearts, and you shall feel my soft cheek against
yours till the tears come and your heart takes
life again. You shall give Joy to other people's
children. And if you have no friends who have
children, are there not a thousand, thousand chil- I
dren who have no friends? Go to them, and give
*n ua?i will Ko roun rH pH al
I lie III an y%ju tau, auu j\j u nm uv ..? ?
most more than you can bear, for there is a link
between those who suffer. Are there not some
you have forgotten or neglected? This lonely
man. that lonely woman whom you have left uncared
for, perhaps for years. Put on your hat
and your coat, and put your heart on your sleeve,
' so that all may know your errand."
To see her pleading before black, sombre houses
where a thin light shines under a blind; to see
her face pressed against the window of some big
mansion where a man or a woman sits alone with
hearts like stone; to see her tr^rs as she essays
to melt an aching heart Is to see something so
touching and beautiful that one almost wonderB
the doors and windows are not instantly opened
to admit the spirit of love she begs for so pitifully.
"Look at yourselves. Messieurs et Mesdames
Importance, and remember the funny little things
you used to be when you b't at coral and bells
and wore bibs, and thought everybody In the
world had enough to eat; when you hated to go
to bed early, and crept downstairs in your nightgowns
to listen over the bannisters to the voices
in t..e dining room; when no Jam for tea was a
tragedy. And when your mother's knee was the
throne of justice and mercy, for you buried your
head there with her hand in your
^ hair, and forgot to be afraid of the
Columbine has her own very partuctilar
work, and she calls it In
W i *ier m'nd Secret Delights. She calls
'1 because she delights in making
up odd names for emotions, as,
11111*% I 'U 'or instance, when she pointed out
t u-n lnvpra In mp nnp rinv in the
^ spring, who were seated under a
/ ;te hedge, yellow-flushed with prlm<
Fi roses; they were holding hands and
vof$| looking at the hills beyond Just as
vyiifi some wonderful thing was about
f0 conie over the hills to tell them
W'ffHsli * what their feelings meant. And the
'&[ peace was so great and the momert
w&?$j|g so held that the World seemed to
tj have stopped breathing, and semey-fe
1r?\ thing superhuman to have poured
wtSBfi i !q\ out a cup of stillness. And she
f?gj uS called it Liquid Velvet. A Liquid
mm I ? Velvet moment. And I understood
z&m i jffl It Ib Columbine who watches that
ypk' $6 beautiful comedy of the newly mar/?l
rled, who steal about their house
Ofl hand-in-hand, fearful of waking the
very new servants, fearful of creak/ft
lng the boards as they gaze enrapM
tured on the very new furniture.
J'jW looking with Joy on the very new
(?) pots and pans In the kitchen, turn.*?,
ing the electric lights up and down
t7j) all over the place to see the effect
> In their new bedroom. And he has
a dreadful brooch for her hidden
V. where be keeps his razors; and she
Wk &lw has knttted him a t,e ,ie wi" have
to wear Hut It 18 an yen ecu/
beautiful
Someone wrote the other day that
people who read are more interest^
ed. nowadays, in business lhan In
love, and I'm so sorry for that man.
He is more blind than I thought
anybody could be Business may be
the means to an end. but Love is
???J the beginning and the end. And It
Ib Just at this season that Love
makes business: hence the shops full of gifts
Imagine a poet writing:
"Cent, per cent, the moon Is rising,
Watch the stocks upon the bank;
Rubber shares are too surprising,
Speculators are surmising
Who the deuce they have to thank!"
No one can get a heartbeat out of that, and
whatever your business man says, he knows he
gets all the good In his life out or neario^ais.
So this Christmas Spirit creeps about the world,
mocked at, scorned, but alive yet. And you who
feel these things may one night see this quaint
quartet at work, perhaps for a second at the corner
of your street, perhapB just vanishing down
the drive, or moving swiftly down a country
lane. And you may say wonderlngly: "It is a
cobweb, a moth, and the branch of a tree, and
the starlight makes them look like?like something
I remember."
Itut I tell you who they are?Harlequin. CNum
bine. Clown and Pantaloon. And If you hear a
child's laugh ring out suddenly, and It brings a
new. quick emotion, one of them has conquered
you!
The spirit of rhrlstrnas doesn't cling to presents
In proportion to their cost?unless ynu are very
rich; and if you are very rich the voice of the
Jeweler and of the furrier and of the motor car
maker will seem to you as wise as the word of a
happy poor man. though he were a nhilosopher.
Pimple and genuine and glad?strike these notes
and the chimes will be
very melodiously for you
and for tho?e whom you try
to make happy. And remember,
you can't feign
Christmas without being t/Xff
caught as an Impostor.
both by your own con
science and by the feel- wdl
Ings of those about you. /V\ rr"
The very vrlue of Christmas
is that it puts the genuineness
of everybody to an
unerring test. Clown.
I
\
ta?Ml
i\jp?ATO
Navy to Test Battleships
WASHINGTON.?Corrugated battle*
ships will be the subject of tests
this winter by Naval Constructor Da*
I
vid W. Taylor, on duty in the bureau
of construction and repair, in the na- '
val testing tank at the Washington
yard. Four vessels for the merchant
service have been built in England on
this plan. Two outward curves, 23
inches deep, run the length of the
Bhips between the load line and the
bilge. Between the convex curves is
a concave surface of equal depth.
This partial application of the tube
principle greatly increases the
strength of the hull. So much
strength is added that the stringer
plates may be dispensed with. This
Increases the space available for bulk
cargo. In addition, however, it is Bald
that the corrugated hull saves fuel
and lessens the effect of waves on
the steadiness of the ship.
English reports Indicate that a corrugated
hull will save 16 per cent, in
fuel over the cost of driving a smooth
hull of equal displacement. Two models,
of equal weight and dimensions,
each about twenty feet long, will be
Postal Deposit Savings
POSTMASTER General Frank H.
Hitchcock made public the other
day the latest available figures showing
that the deposits in postal savings
depositories have now reached the
sum of {28,000,000. The system was
inaugurated January 3, 1911, but
most of the deposits have been made
within the last year.
The deposits represent 290,000 individuals,
making an average of $86 per
depositor. The system is now operat
eu ill l~,ffd puaiUIULI'D, 111 c?ci; v/nt I
of the forty-eight states, including 644
branch postofflces.
According to the figures compiled i
by the controller of the currency the ,
total amount of the deposits in the
savingB banks of the country in 1911
was $4,212,583,598. This amount was
deposited in 1,884 banks by 9,794.647
individual depositors, and the average
savings bank account for each depositor
was $430.09. Comparison of these
statistics shows that the average
amount held by each savings bank
depositor was about five times the average
amount held by each postal savings
bank depositor.
According to the report of the controller
of the currency, the postal sav- j
Army Officers on Detach
IT is now estimated at the war department
that more than 60 per
cent, of all army officers now on detached
service will have to be removed
from their present posts at
once, owing to legislation by congress
during the last session. This means
that more than half of the officers now
serving as military attaches at American
legations and embassies abroad,
as Instructors In the military academy
at West Point, as instructors In the
Army Service schools, as Instructors
of state militia organizations and as
Instructors in various military academies
in foreign military schools will
be ordered back to their regiment^.
The law. as one officer put it. is
"excessively mandatory," Inasmuch as
Spanish Minister Rejoices
JT was stated In an authetic quarter
the other day that the Spanish minister,
Senor Don Juan Riano, has 50
suits of clothes and a correspondingly
large number of accessories. Spacious
and perfectly equipped quarters
are required to accommodate this
wardrobe, and in selecting the new
legation special attention was paid to
this feature.
The present legation. In New Hampshire
avenue, has commodious dressing
rooms and closets for each suite
but such an outfit as Senor Riano's in
order to be easily handled and ac- j
ces3ible has to have a room to Itself,
and. if possible, one built for the purpose.
The garments are cJassifled, and
that they may be easily found an in
ventory is fastened on the door. According
to the most advanced authori
ties "wet" and "dry" rooms are neces
6ary for the complete wardrobe The |
"wet" room removes the creases and j
takes the place of sponging; the "dry"
room hardens the costume in the lines
It has taken.
Whether Senor Riano's new home Is ,
With Corrugated Hulls
constructed here, one with a corrugated
and the other with a plain hull.
Each will be attached to the traveling
crane which spans the experimental
tank at the Washington navy yard,
and the resistance of the models to
the water when pulled at a given rate
of speed will be accurately registered
on the delicate gauges attached to the
crane. If the corrugated hull presents
less resistance to the water the fact
will be Instantly indicated on the
gauges No vessel of this type has yet
been constructed in this country. The
first corrugated vessel was built in
England in 1909.
Capt. G S. Macllwaine of the British
navy, recently asked the admiralty
to make a te6t of corrugated ships.
He spent a month on the Baltic in a
ship in which the ordinary stiff bilge
keel is replaced by a keel bearing
deep horizontal corrugations. His observations
convince him that the corrugated
ship is vastly superior to the
ordinary type in strength, stability,
speed and carrying capacity. Captain
Macllwalne claimed that the Idea of
the corrugated ship was worked out
by Arthur H. Haver, a naval architect.
The seventh vessel of the kind to
come into existence is now being built
for Norway. The British officer says
that a corrugated vessel is earned
about twenty per cent, further with
the same amount of coal than a plain
ship of Bimllar dimensions. This in
a warship means either increase In
effective range or increase of armor,
armament, etc.
Show Average of $86
ings bank of the United Kingdom in
1910 held $112,668,566, out of a grand
total of $1,076,265,509 in private and
postal savings banks. In round numbers
the postal eavings deposits in the
United States are about one-half of
one per cent, of the combined deposits
in postal depositories and savings
banks, while In the United Kingdom
the postal savings constitute about
1 Vi per cent, of the combined deposits
in private and postal savings banks.
In France, according to the latest
available figures, the postal savings
in 1909 aggregated $316,456,866, or an
average of about $57 for each depositor.
Postmaster General Hltchcok's figures
show that 7,357 banks have qualified
to receive postal savings funds.
ed Duty to Be Removed
it requires that any officer responsible
for a failure to obey it to the -full
shall forfeit his pay and allowances.
Consequently every officer who has
not served at least two of the last six
years in command of troops will have
to re'urn to his regiment before December
15. It has also been found by
the law officers of the war department
that about a third more of the officers
on detached service will have to bo
removed within six months. A large
number of officers on detached duty
in Washington are caught pretty severely
by this order.
It is said that there are officers who
have not been with their commands
for years, as they have had pull
enough to keep them in easy Jobs hero
in Washington, where they can do
their stunts and not half try, and fill
in the rest of the time doing society
acts.
Washington society without Its
army and navy officers is mighty slow.
There has always been feminine influence
to keep plenty of the young
men on detached duty in Washington.
Of course, this order of congress la
oougaiory.
in Fifty Suits, Etc.
provided with all inest- com.oris is
not known, but that every means has
been adopted to keep the minister the
"best dressed man in town." as ho
was considered in Paris when connected
with the Spanish embassay
there, is certain.
And it may be mentioned In this
connection that as much care is exercised
in the selection and proper
preservation of the so-called accessories"
<cl.s tn the actual suits These
accessories" include many articles
of personal adornment little known to
the ordinary man, but are considered
absolutely necessary in mind of the
Spanish Don Of course, under this
head, may be considered firBt, the
very latest 111 hats, gloves and ties.