The Elon College Weekly.
The Weekly' Directory'.
BURLINGTON (N. C.) BUSINESS HOUSES.
Buy Dry Goods from B. A. Sellars & Sons.
Buy Furniture from the Smith Furniture Store.
See Burlington Hardware Company for Plumbing
Get your Photojrraphs at Anglin’s Studio.
Go to Holt-Cates Company and B. A. Sellars &
Sons for Clothing: and Gents’ Furnishings.
See Dr. R. M. Morrow when in need of Dental
Work.
Real Estate, Infurance and Loans, Alamance In
surance & Real Estate Co.
Barber Shop. Brannock & Matkins.
Dr. J. H. Brooks, Dsntal Surgeon.
See Freeman Drug Co. for Drugs.
ELON COLLEGE. N. C.
Do your Banking with the Elon College Banking
and Trust Company.
For General Merchandise see J. J. Lambeth.
For an Education go to Elon College.
GIBSONVILLE, N. C.
Dr. G. E. Jordan, M. D.
HIGH POINT, N. C.
People’s House Furnishing Co.
THE BROWN SPOT.
(Continued from last week.)
And now the second has come within
reach of him and stops. A heavy hand
falls upon the shoulder of the old man
who turns suddenly and starts back with
hands upraised and a look of horror on
his face. He stands thus a moment and
then falls to his knees with clasped hands
extended toward his somber visitor, as if
in entreaty. But in vain. The evil
look on the dark face is intensified and
an expression of mingled scorn and triumph
appears. The tragedy is soon enacted.
I see the Hash of a glittering blade in the
moonlight; the feeble old man is quickly
crushed to the floor; the shining steel in
the hand of the visitor passes swiftly
across the throat of the prostrate figure
and he lies motionless. The deed done,
the assassin stands gazing at his victim for
a moment then hurriedly stoops and
places rhe bloody weapon in the grasp of
the dead hand and closes the stiffening
fingers about it. He then rises and
passes out through the door at which he
had entered. An irresistible impulse
prompts me to follow him. He passes
down the long dark stairway to the land
ing on the second floor. Here, turning
to the door on the left, he enter enters
the parlor. He hastens to the wide old
fireplace, lifts a stone from the hearth,
draws out a dark leather bag, and care
fully replaces the stone in its former
position. From here he passes out the
door opening onto the long porch in the
rear of the house and disappears in the
darkness. I return to my room. The
motionless form of the old man has
vanished, and all is still with the oppress
ive stillness of the mid-night hour. I lie
down upon my couch, but sleep is far
from me, and I toss restlessly to and fro
awaiting the slow coming of dawn.
But at last the gray light of dawn be
gins to dispel the darkness, and I hurried
ly rise and dress, glad of the fact that the
dreadful night js at an end. I lose no
lime in hastening to examine the hearth,
from which 1 had seen the midnight as
sassin snatch the leathern bag and flee.
1 lay hold of the same stone expecting to
find that my experience of the preced
ing night was only a violent attack of
nightmare or a dreadful dream, but lo!
the stone is easily displaced and I look
down into a small square cavity. Cer
tainly some direful secret was revealed
by my ghostly visitors.
I mention the matter to no one, partly
through fear of being laughed at, pjurtly
to avoid frightening my mother and sis
ters. Six years passed by and the oc
currence was almost forgotten when,'
through the aid of a teacher’s ag»‘ncy, 1 |
secured a position in the western town in
which the unknown heir resided. Upon
my arrival in the town I was directed to |
the residence of Mr. H —, the president j
of the board of education. I rang the;
bell and a maid invited me into the re- '
ception room where 1 awaited the master
of the house. Suddenly the door open
ed, and a glance at the face of the man
who entered rendered me speechless. \
Here was the original of the ghostly
midnight assassin. The hair and mus
tache were no longer black, but the deep
set eyes and cast of countenance were
the same. With an effort I regained
control of myself and presented my card.
I was greeted with a smile that was meant
to be friendly, but to me, thinking of that
dreadful night, it seemed satanic. Our
business was soon concluded and 1 retired,
glad to escape from the source of so many ■
unpleasant recollections and direful sug
gestions.
I entered upon my work and soon
became acquainted with many others in
the town. While talking to one of these !
acquaintances one day, I casually made
known to him the location of my former
home. He was at once interested and
asked me if 1 knew anything about the
estate and fortune willed to his fellow
townsman, by a relative in the vicinity of
my home. 1 told him that my father
was the present owner of the estate, but
that as for the fortune connected with the
legacy, I had heard nothing of that. His
interest and surprise increased together
with my suspicion, as he informed me
that the president of the board of educa
tion, ex-judge and the richest and most
influential man of the town, had received
from the death of his eastern relative, a
large sum of money which had made
possible his present position of influence
and authority. I wondered at the sus
pension of eternal justice that had per
mitted such a condition of affairs to exist;
but before long my wonder ceased, and
1 realized that the Fates are still inexor
able and that ones sins are sure to find
him out.
I awoke early one morning to hear the
shrill cry of the newsboy: " Morning
Dispatch. All about the H— Mystery.
Dispatch. " 1 hastened to the door,
eagerly called the boy to me, purchased
a copy of the Dispatch and opened it. I
read the startling headlines, in heavy
typeSuicide of Judge H—. Leaves
a Confession Revealing his past." Mur
der Will Out." Sure enough, there it
was just as 1 had known it all the time.
There was the revelation of that hurried
Eastern trip, proir to the receipt of the
legacy, a confession of hands stained with
the blood of his own kin in order that
his evil ambition might the sooner be satis
fied. But after all his honors had been
bought at a fearful price. With increas
ing age, the weight of sin had become
oppressive beyond endurance. Legions
of furies drove sleep from his pillow and
life had become a burden too wearisome
to be borne. The end was strikingly
like that other, also the work of his hands.
The body was found lying in the rich
sleeping apartment, near an open window.
The gorgeous carpet was dyed with a
purple stream that had poured from a
gaping wound in his tnroat, and the hand,
rigid in death, still clasped the keen
edged razor as if it would bear the fa
miliar weapon of destruction with it for
possible use in that unknown realm into
which the soul of its owner had fled.
First Impressions of Seventeenth
Century Poets as seen in their
Writings From Donne
to Dryden.
It was both entertaining and instructive,
that course of reading, 1 set myself to
some months ago. Till then, English po
etry of the seventeenth century was to me
really an undiscovered country. Starting
with John Donne, (I 563-1 63 I,) 1 pass
ed down the long line to John Dryden,
(1631-1 700.) It is a delightful journey,
I assure you, and here are some impres
sions,—first impressions they are—which
I noted along the way.
John Donne’s Satires.
I have just been introduced to the first
of the so-called metaphysical poets, John
Donne, through his satires, —seven in
number. But for a second reading 1
should have passed him by without an
impression strong enough to be remem
bered. Upon a second reading how
ever, I am attracted by the evident vigor
of his mind, rich in conceits, powerful in
denunciation of voice in many places
both high and low, and beautiful in its
expression of faith tn the church and in
God.
1 have never before met his like in
poetry. Cold and intellectual, he is not
a poet of the heart. His style of thought
reminds me of Swift, and the field in
which his mind dwells and his manner of
expression resembles Browning in these
respects.
Donne’s Sonne/s, Epithalamions, and
Elegies.
In these poems we have not the mys
tical, but the amorous and sensuous.
They were evidently written in young
manhood.
Donne is not so difficult to understand
here as in the Satires. Yet his conceits
in both betray the same mind. The
Sonnets, supposed to be addressed to his
wife before marriage, are full of noble
passion.
If any denounce him as too sensuous
in the epthalamions, let them look more
closely, especially at the " Epithalamion
made at Lincoln’s Inn." Here is vivid
description arousing, not hot lust, but
sinless, passionate purity, and commending
perfection in a holy desire for wifehood
and motherhood.
Donne’s Religious Poems.
There appears to have been two
sources of Donne’s inspiration. In youth
it rose from lust and the passion for wo
men ; but in age, he is inflamed by a
different fire, a burning desire for God
and righteousness.
In the " Divine Poems" there are
evidences of the scars left by the fires of
youth, as unmistakably as the woman
had of Dante when she knew it was he
because of the marks of hell fire on his
face.
Running through the " Divine Poems,"
is a note of grief, regret and sorrow,
because of youthful vices. The words,
" melancholy," " discontent," " grief,"
" mourn," " repent," " tears" and their
kind are evidences of this sorrow. In
the fifth of the " Holy Sonnets" in writing
of his life as " a little world," he says:
Pour new seas in my eyes, that so I
might
Drown my world by weeping earnestly.
Or wash it if it must be drowned no
more,
But, O, it must be burnt; alas! the fire
Of lust and envy burnt it heretofore
And made it fouler; let their flames re
tire.
And bum me, O Lord, with a fiery
zeal
Of thee and thy house, which doth in
eating heal."
Again in " A Litany," he thus refers
to the passions of youth ; " Half wasted
with youth’s fires of pride and lust."
The more I look into Donne’s poems,
the more I feel the throbbing of a great
soul behind them and catch glimpses of
a great spirit looking through their cloudy
imperfections.
William Drummond.
Drummond was educated for the pro
fession of law, but turned to literature at
about the age of thirty, when his first
poem was published, a pastoral elegy on
tht death of Henry, the ninteen-year-old
Prince of Wales. The rising tide of
church quarrels henceforth tossed Drum
mond and many of his contemporaries on a
stormy sea, till the execution of Charles
1., I 649, when grief for his unfortunate
sovereign, crushed his tired life and he
died a few months later.
Somewhat versed in seven languages.
It’S Good Work That Counts!
See if the
Sanitar/' Barber Shop
Can Please You.
BRANNOCK & MATKINS, Prop’s.
G.E.JORDAN, M D
Office Gibsonville Drug Co.,
GIBSONVILLE, - N. C.
Suits and Shoes that Satisfy
PARTICULAR DRESSERS
THE HOLT-CATES COMPANY
Main Street, Burlington. N. C.
People’s House Furnishing Company'
Wholesale and
Retail
Mantles,
HIGH POINT, N, C.
House Furnishers and Jobbers
Grates, Tile a Specialty.