THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1882. THE CASE OF YOUNG WINTER

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2642, 26 September 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1882. THE CASE OF YOUNG WINTER

Young Mr. Winter has awoke a Hokitika to find himself famous, and -e hope for his own sake he will not gaue his own absolute importance by the sr that his temporary disappearance Is made, because, were ho to do so, ho word, unless a very humble minded young nr.n, be unduly puffed up with a pride iat might tell against him in future. It wtld indeed bo well that he should rocogise the fact that disappearances always mate a sensation. The most frequent dappearances are those of children of teder years, who either lose their way o are seized with a sudden longing to see mce of the world. The children that lose ternselves are puzzled by the strange ghts and Bounds that meet them outsie of their own nurseries, and a temjrary aberration of intellect is the isult, which renders them incapable of filing their way home again. If the can apeak, some kind Samaritan take them back into their mothers’ arms; id if they cannot speak, they find their wato iho police depot, where the policemen’wives pet them, pity them, and feed the. until they are claimed. For the omen) those infants, too, became celebrad, lik# Mr. Winter. They are mentions in the daily papers with full particula - as to their costumes, color of hair, ancjeueral bearing, much as Mr. Winter’appearance has been given gratis to tl public. The tender years of these childm, however, quite secure them froi undue elation. But when wa come texamino the reasons why people of moi mature age vanish, we shall find tbat/hils the bulk of them do so for very soli reasons, there are cases in which pc?le have put their friends and t) public

ta infinite trouble and anxiety for no 9^} er reason than from a mere whim. A celebrated instance of this was the case of the Rev. Mr. Speke, brother to the well known African explorer, who, for no other reason than that ho was tired of thp monotonous flow of every day life,, made off into an out-of-the-way rural district and lived there for a length of time until he was discovered. He had a good living, and a numerous family, but his sense of his own responsibilities were somewhat weak, and he felt himself entitled to vary the current of his career by the eccentric conduct we have alluded to. John Parry, the comedian, who was well known and highly appreciated a few years back, was also given the same way. Although one would have thought that an actor’s life was varied enough, yet he chose to think otherwise and disappeared. He too was hunted for over the length and breadth of England, and was discovered at last wandering about Wales engaged in the exciting pastime of playing a hand-organ. But then Mr. Parry’s intellect was apt at times to become slightly unhinged, so that there was some excuse for him. The reasons given in fiction for the disappearance, for either a longer or a shorter period, of individuals, are very numerous, but they, are generally hardly as strange as those which obtain in real life; indeed the gentlemen in question usually absent themselves from their homes much against their will, and when they return either behave in such a gentlemanly way that our sympathies entirely go with them, or they find themselves in such a dilemma that we can only pity and not blame them. Mr. Enoch Arden staid away from his true love simply because he could not help it, and when he reached his native village, with its fine full flavor of salt and rotten fish, he at once took np such an elevated moral position, that the most envious critics have been unable to turn him oat of it Lord Brackenbury, in the interesting story written by Mies Edwards, which once appeared in the pages of this paper, took it into his head to vanish because the young lady whom he was bound to marry liked hia younger brother best. Lord Brackenbury consequently turned a large sum into diamonds, made qnietly off one fine day, bought a yacht, changed hi* name, married an interesting Italian girl, allowed his brother to claim the title and estates, and behaved altogether in such a disinterested manner, that the reader cannot help highly admiring him. The disappearance of Rip Yan Winkle was on the whole the most noted one that we know of. The tale is too well known to comment on. His reappearance at the village where he once lived happily has bsen placed before ns most touchingly on the stage. Father Na-Cuddy’s story, who hailed from the

“old side,” is less known. He was a priest much given to the good things of this life ; he lived near a trout pond, and was not innocent of the taste of the fish. Moreover, he possessed a remarkably fine cellar. One day, after a good wholesome dinner, which had been drawn from the lake, and at which the worthy Father had imbibed no small quantity of his most crusted wines, he was allured by a siren along the bank of the pond. The Father, corpulent as ha was, followed her with eagerness. Now the piece of wa er was a circular one, and puffing and parting after his vain pursuit he reached once more the point from which he had started. But he found all changed. "Where the monastery had reared its shtely halls, was to be found only a heap of ruins; the garden was utterly neglected and overrun with weeds; and me poor old woman was gathering water cesses in a neighbouring brook. “ Where an I ?” exclaimed the bewildered Father, “Do yon know me ?” he asked of the old voman. “ Not I,” mumbled she. “What mt Father Na-CuddyF” “The only lather Na-Cnddy I ever heard of was a ricked old man who disappeared full two lundred years ago, before our Harry the Sighth put down the monasteries 1” From the above instances it may be

nferred that the reasons •which induce people to vanish in fiction are generally ziore creditable than those which indnce individuals to do so in every day life. i When we say “ more creditable ” we mean that the fictitious characters do not overlook the fact that a man cannot ' vanish without putting his relations, i friends, and indeed the public at large, to an infinity of trouble and anxiety. , Mr. Winter might apparently just as well ; have told his friends that he was going away to another place, instead of hoodwinking everybody in the ridiculous way in which he has. He does not seem to possess a due consciousness of the obligations which belong to every member of every civilised community. However, he is young, and has plenty of time to grow wiser. Had he acted as he ou s ht to have done his name would now be less in men’s mouths, but it would have been all the better for that. If he lives to a green old age—as we trust he will —ha will look back at this particular period of his life with some considerable regret.