History's ickle Methods "Ever age, antlers from shortsighted wae t09 Sharghailanders dheutsing "whether or not nowadays it would be possible. for Helen of Troy oF Cleopatra to make a ater in wxy large elly, the present fage, even the youth of the present tote being v0 "bla!
The points brought out in the conversation were interesting enough. History, someone suggested, is a queer old dame, wrapping "her shawl snuggly around her and covering up her head in an effort which sunk a thousand ships of being much overrated, ideas of beauty Doing 20 much q matter of personal opinion. Moreiver, we might be feynical' enough to' say that' Helen hada well-developed bump to appear oblivious to the immediate" pudicity, present, She hits here and there pon incidents which strike her National Ballads and Anthems fancy, and so enlarges upon then Even the great English ballads that future generations have no-commemorate some minor incident, thing else to do than to carry on rather than the really important with the tradition of the exc ones, as though history was forever importance of the incidents in trying to make a popular appeal. question, Crecy which must have been quite Napoleon brought into the lime: decent show, and Poitiers which Light at the present time would even for moderns must have pre-have exercised no awe over the sented a sizeable spectacle, and average newspaper reporter regard-Trafalgar, have mot been" com~ Tess of the great general's masterful Hemorated in. historical personality, More than raiding expedition to Chevy Cloopatrs beauty secrets would Chase formed the inspiration, and have been probed into and her por: through most of the historic trait made to appear on cot le85 epics in most countries. 'The song old. cream advertisement, ayin-'e?' Rating" celebrated "a. front olizing eternal bloom, had she engagement of smallish proportions, lived to-day. "Move we' lost rever~" Siu the national anthem" of France fence for renowned personalities? Ord Americ likewise, arose as the Or is it that we are more accustom result of comparatively obscure into the id of notoriety? Or is cidents, as history goes. still more likely: that we can only regard things Ina flattering light after the romantic miasma of the ast has been spread over all. was pointed out that we hi no Ilinds and Odysseys to celebrate the great incidents of the present. After all, the little barbarian chief-tans of Greece so celebrated in than conduct a rai against a third rate Asiatic town which has come down in hushed history as the "topless towers of Troy" And even in those days) there were more impressive incid-to commemorate, ay for ex-the Battles of Salamis by sea Marathon on land. Pericles and Alexander the Great have had no deathies" romance woven about their careers but the rescue of Helen of Troy, from a situation of her own rather irresponsible making, has come down through the centuries as the epitome of romantic possibilities, not to mention epic dramas, 'We moderns would probably have'
shock were we to stand for a moment with Helen on one of Troy's towers and watch the struggle be-Tow. We might even make disparaging remarks about it. And of course we would accuse the fair face One wonders ifa ballad or epic will be written about Lindbergh and his ound the world prototypes, at some Future date or whether something for lees consequence will form the fge's contribution to the romantic literature of the world, "Justo bice boy, Lindbergh, who few across the Atlantic" we state when this feat ts mentioned. But then for all know, Cleopatra was simply a Ted-haired woman of" good family whom, several men. found rather Attractive. Something about her, however, struck the fancy of the garrulous old Indy History. Te might have been merely that she envied Cleopatra's charming eyebrows or her ability asa hostess, and there after set to work with all her mind find main to lend her patronage to the Ptolemy empress, Looking at it from one. light every one has a chance if she Tossensen the ability to get Foffciently "talked: about to make History: think there must. be aomething to it. But 1 am afraid that there are very cynical conclusions Teached at hat hour when the should have been thinking ing home instead of trying to solve the "problems. of history—Jill O'Lantern,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.