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THE SUNNY SOUTH
Sweetness and Light.
Put a pill in the pulpit if you want practical
preaching for the physical man ; then put the
pill in the pillory if it does not practise what it
preaches. There’s a whole gospel in Ayer’s
Sugar Coated Pills; a “ gospel of sweetness
and light.” People used to value their physic,
as they did their religion,—by its bitterness.
The more bitter the dose the better the doctor.
We’ve got over that. We take “sugar in ours”—
gospel or physic—now-a-days. It’s possible to
please and to purge at the same time. There
may be power in a pleasant pill. That is the
gospel of
Ayer’s Cathartic Pills.
More pill particulars in Ayer’s Cut ebook, ioo pages.
Sent free. J. C. Ayer Co., Lowell, Mass.
“His air of an artist is as the manner of a
king, which, in your opinion, you possess,”
broke in Maud Cummings, banteringly.
“There is a difference between the natural
and the assumed, you know.” Miss Cum
mings’ niece and Mr. Pierpont were not the
best of friends.
“I think he has a fine face,” remarked Mrs.
Cummings, mildly. “He has, no doubt,
inherited talent, as it is not probable he has
had lessons; but wasn’t your decision rather
sudden, dear?” Mrs. Cummings knew Jack
was as good as adopted.
The young woman smiled.
“You are always accusing me of being
hasty, aunt May. I like to decide matters
without so much waste of time. I want to
interview Mr. Cole, however, before I come
to a conclusion. As I can not be a genius
myself I want to discover one, and think I
have. I believe Mr. Cole’s opinion will coin
cide with mine. If the boy’s talent is devel
oped he will become famous. I will devote
the money I have been piddling away to his
benefit.”
“You do not know anything of him,” said
Mr. Pierpont.
gj “I beg your pardon, but I do. One doesn’t
have to study a character forever to gauge it.
I will trust his face for himself and his work
for his talent.”
Miss Cummings did not love Mr. Pierpont
and never had, though she thought so. They
had studied art together and become close
friends from like tastes, but now she was be
ginning to perceive that they were unsuited.
He was overbearing and dictatorial; she was
a woman fond of having her own way and
ruling others. Hers was not a subservient
nature, and Pierpont’s domineering manner
irritated her sometimes.
A week later Jack was sent for, and Miss
Cummings took him to Mr. Cole’s studio.
The boy was lost in admiration of the works
of art before him. For the first time in his
life he felt thoroughly at home. Mr. Cole
was delighted with even his crude work, and
surprised to learn be had not received in- .
structions from any one. He agreed with
Miss Cummings. So Jack’s career began.
Miss Cummings and Mr. Pierpont gradual
ly grew estranged. He considered her too
whimsical, and endeavored to persuade her
against certain ideas, which he did not fancy,
with the result that she released him from
the engagement. She was glad the knowledge
of their incompatibility had come to her in
time. A release was not what he desired.
He had loved her truly, but he wished her to
be different—less independent, perhaps, and
always ready to yield to his wishes. Miss
Cummings understood and resented this.
She avoided the catastrophe which she fore
saw.
He was piqued and married soon a girl who
had adored him long and was willing to sub
merge her views as to all things in his. Con
sidering their natures, it is not unreasonable
to suppose they were happy.
Jack’s road to fame was comparatively easy
and not long. With friends of affluence on
one side, and his talent on the other, success
came early. The critics smiled on him, and
the world called him a genius.
At the beginning, when he was about six
teen, he had begun to love Miss Cummings.
She read the secret in his eyes and laughingly
told him he must not fall in love with her as
she was engaged. Jack had blushed and
stammered. To him it was a rebuke and he
thought she was gently reminding him he
must not be presumptuous. He was of a
reticent nature, and too inexperienced even
to tell her he could not help it. She had not
meant anything more than her words im
plied ; she spoke lightly to the boy, not to the
artist.
He painted scores of her pictures in every
style and poise; her image was always with
him. Gradually the feeling wore away, and
he came to look upon her as a sweet, older
sister. He knew he could never repay her
for the kindness she had done him, and his
gentle reverence touched her deeply.
■ Finally, Jack went abroad to complete his
studies. The day after he sailed, Miss Cum
mings sat in her room studying two photo
graphs —one of the bashful boy, the other
of the handsome genius. After all, had he
not grown to be her ideal of a man ? Others
had come after Pierpont, and gone their
ways. They did not reach her standard nor
her heart. There was always some defect.
She told her intimate friends she meant to
remain single and lead a free and untram
meled existence.
“I am coming home soon. I wonder if
you will be surprised to hear I have a sweet
heart. I have loved her a long time, and can
not help thinking of her always. I believe
it is better for a man to marry, and with her
I will be happy. I have painted her picture
and sent it to you, for I know you will like
to see it. To me, it is my only success. It
represents my life work, ani I have called it
‘Sweetheart.’ ”
Miss Cummings smiled as she read the
lines, and between them, as she thought. She
waited impatiently for the picture. Was not
the face she expected to see a very familiar
one—her own ? When it came, alone in her
room, she untied the fastenings tenderly,
lingering over the task smilingly, as one who
enjoyed the sweets of anticipation.
At last it was done, and lo! the face of her
lovely, young niece smiled upon her. It was
Maud Cummings’ counterpart.
Jack’s masterpiece fell to the floor. Miss
Cummings suddenly felt herself grown old.
HAD PERPETUAL YOUTH.
Ninon de L’Enclos Retained Beauty and
Power to the Last—The Most Remark
able Adventuress in History.
INON de L’ENCLOS was not
only the most noted woman of
her day, but so peculiar were
her characteristics and so re
markable her life that the im
partial historian is compelled
to give her a foremost rank among the most
famous of her sex and to assign her a leading
position among the most powerful factors
that influence the destiny of the race.
Although the exact date of her birth is not
certain, there is no doubt that Ninon de
L’Enclos was born near Paris in the spring
of 1615.
The mother of Ninon de L’Enclos came of
good family. She had one uncle a bishop
and another a judge. From the age of twelve
the ambition of this woman was to take
vows and enter a convent. But, family con
siderations proving stronger than religious
connections, at the age of fifteen she married
Colonel de L’Enclos, a Parisian man of the
world and a roue of forty-five.
From first to last, Mme. de L’Enclos
was not only a model wife and mother, but
she was the most pious and ascetic woman of
her day outside a convent, and men like
Voltaire have boldly asserted that it was this
peculiarity of the mother that produced reac
tion in the daughter and made her one of the
most notoriously attractive and corrupt
women in history.
But despite the sophistries of the brilliant
French philosopher, it is now well under
stood that Ninon’s father, Colonel de L’En
clos, was the one person who shaped the life
of this woman, though, in doing so, he found
no opposing or refractory material to be
manipulated. Ninon de L’Enclos was a
woman at fourteen. Saint Evremond, in de-
NTNON DE L’ENCLOS.
scribing her, says: “No artist would call
Ninon beautiful. She is of my own age, and,
as children, we played together. Her height
is under the medium for women, but she is
lithe as a fawn, active as a sprite and full of
captivating vivacity. No man, capable of
emotion, ever saw her without being enslaved
by her inexpressible powers of fascination.
Her eyes are a grayish brown, with strange
flecks in them, that flash like fire. Her mouth
is large, but is full of even, white teeth, which
she delights to show. Her nose is irregular,her
brow, broad and low, and her back head large,
the whole covered with a glorious corona of
hair,brown in the shadows and gleaming with
love fires in the light. Her hands and feet
are shapely, white and strong ; and her cheek
bones high. Ninon is far from being a beau
ty, but oh, by all the saints, St. Anthony in
cluded, no woman since Eve had. the‘?power to
fascinate men like this woman ! I loved her
as a boy. I loved her as a man ; and now that
I am grizzled and near the grave I love
Ninon, to whom the gods have given the gift
of continuous youth and perpetual charm.”
When Ninon was fifteen the candle of her
father’s life, which had been burned at both
ends and the middle, went out. She could
have lived above want, but she had tasted of
the sensuous enjoyments of the Parisian life
of the day, and so sneered at the prospects
of a quiet, rural home with her pious mother.
Like all women of her class, who have
turned notoriety into fame, Ninon de L’En
clos had a phenomenal intellect, particularly
developed along artistic and linguistic lines;
but she appeared to be wholly wanting in the
reasoning faculty and the powers of fore
thought.
At a time when English was not popular
in France she learned to speak the language
and to win the praise of Bacon for her ac
curacy. In all the Armada there was not an
officer fresh from Castile, who knew or spoke
Spanish better than Ninon. German, Italian,
Portuguese, and Flemish were among her ac
complishments. She was a practical cook, an
artistic painter, and, in designing, gave les
sons to the costumers of Mantua.
Ninon played the harp like Apollo and
wrote songs that would have done credit to
Sappho. She was skilled as Ovid in the arts
of love, and she knew the tricks of states
manship as well as Richelieu.
No crushing want or overwhelming neces
sity drove Ninon de L’Enclos to her life of
brilliant immorality and heartless indiffer
ence to right. With open eyes and all the
consequences in sight,she deliberately entered
on that career that meant ruin to so many of
both sexes.
Gifted with what seemed perpetual youth,
she entered on a life of dissipation that
brought no physical penalties to herself.
Thousands, trying to imitate her, went down
shriveled and blasted in the furnace of pas
sion, from whose flames she came ever un
scathed, and without even the odor of the
smoke.
It is said that at the age of fifteen Ninon
knew more about Montaigne, the idol of lit
erary France, than did any member of the
Academy, and that no singer, dancer or act
ress in the capital was at all her equal.
Bright, brilliant, cultured,and fascinating,
there was no single man in the kingdom
whom she could not have married at this
time, had she been so disposed, but dispas
sionately, deliberately and without the gla
mour of social seduction, or the temptations
that press virtue in want, she made up her
mind to play the role of adventuress, and to
market gifts that might have made her a model
in her own time and the glory of her sex
through succeeding ages. As soon as her
career began, in 1631, all gay Paris was at
her feet. She became the queen of pleasure
and the goddess of joyous dissipation. Among
her first victims was the famous Gaspard de
Coligni, the foremost soldier and statesman
of his time, and he was soon succeeded by the
equally noted Comte de Chatillon.
Not the least remarkable thing in the record
of this wonderful adventuress is the fact of her
temporary fidelity. With countless lovers,
she never attempted an amorous intrigue,
never had more than one at a time, and to
him she was as loyal as a virtuous woman,
and she was the first to tell him of a change
in her fealty.
When Ninon was eighteen, it is said her
good, pious mother died of a broken heart.
She showed not the slightest evidence of grief
at her mother’s death ; indeed, she became
the founder of the unemotional school, of
which she was herself the first exponent and
best illustration.
She fitted up a house which the inheritance
from her parents could not have supported
for a year, though quite sufficient for the
wants of an ordinary life; and Ninon’s salon
was but little less noted than that of the
court, with the difference that to her abode
men, and women too, came, certain of pleas
ure, and feeling that they were favored be
yond the favorites of the king.
Her residence became known as a “palace”
and her gatherings as “court receptions,”
and to the latter flocked not only the foremost
men of France but of the civilized world.
Ninon had a loathing for handsome fops,
and though these worshipped her, she would
not permit an introduction. “I want intel
lects, not animals,” she said to Saint Evre
mond. “At heart I hate men 'hate the
world, but though a man of daring and talent
were ugly as our priests paint the devil, I
could down on my knees and worship him.
And if he were pre-eminently brilliant, I
would kiss his feet or let him lay them on
my neck, and feel that death in such associa
tion would be glory.”
Ninon was phenomenal, not only in her
worship of intellect, but in her utter want of
maternal affection. Before she was thirty-five
she had two sons, but she left their care to
their fathers, nor even showed the least desire
to see them again. This want of natural in
stinct eventually led to one of the most tragic
events of her life, one of the most tragic
events, indeed, in the life of any mother.
Before Ninon was thirty the Marquis de
Villarceaux, Marquis de Sevigne and the
Marquis de Gersay, the great Conde’s first
lieutenant, were among her slaves and wor
shippers.' * The famous Due de La Rochefou
cauld, Marshal de*AJIjLfct and Marshal d’Es-
trees were iher milimi*%^ i^ol|. E\^n the^
church contributed its share ^Taircwrvr&a-*
mirers, chief among whom were the Abbeys
d’Effiat, Gourville and Le Chantre.
When Ninon was fifty-four, she looked half
that 'age and was still the most brilliant
woman in France. At this time a young
officer of twenty, the natural son of a man
close to the king by blood, fell in love with
her, and, in his ardor, begged her to marry
him at once.
Ninon asked the young man to a private
meeting. He came. “Gentle as a spring
zephyr, sweet as the violet bud and cold as
the icicles on the mountain cliff,” she told
the young officer that she was his mother,
and, when, in his horror, he demanded
proofs, she quietly produced them. Wretched
beyond expression the young officer hastened
to his quarters. When the bugles sounded
in the morning, he was found dead, with a
purple bullet mark on his white forehead.
“Boys will be fools,” was all Ninon said
when she heard of the awful tragedy, and she
held a brilliant reception in her salons the
night of the funeral. This one startling
event proves the woman’s character entirely
wanting in the strongest and noblest attribute
of her sex, maternal affection.
In striking contrast with this, was her sym
pathy for the poor and her horror at the
suffering of animals.
Ninon might have been wealthy, but she
paid no heed to the morrow, and want never
appealed to her in vain. She was punctilious
about paying her debts, and Saint Evremond
called her “the honestest woman since Eve.”
At a time when most people are preparing
for the grave, Ninon de L’Enclos, still young
in appearance, tireless in effort and fascinat
ing as when in her teens, was the social
leader of Paris. Gossip had ceased to discuss
her errors, the envy of rivals had long been
silenced, and fashion, philosophy, art, and
war united in admiration.
When she was eighty she was prevailed on
to establish an “Academy of Manners” in
Paris, and to this flocked not only the young
of/the throne and nobility, but the social
leaders of the kingdom. Foreign embassadors
felt it quite as incumbent on them to visit
the salons of Mme. de L’Enclos as they did
to attend the formal receptions at Versailles.
Ninon de L’Enclos might have lived to
one hundred instead of ninety had not an ac
cident hastened her end. Before her death,
which occurred Oct. 17, 1706, Queen Chris
tina came from Sweden to see her. “In her
coffin,” writes Voltaire, “she looked like a
beautiful woman of twenty-five asleep.”
Alfred R. Calhoun.