“Building. You are going to be ‘him that hath.’ Build with your possessions. Begin the foundation now. Build.... Build as a producer, or as a healer, or in any way that makes for progress, keeps you growing, develops forces for construction, and gives the other fellows a chance to do their best also.... Not for yourself alone, but for all who may climb by your ladder of opportunity.”
Maynard Holt, writing to a friend here, spoke of him as a good fighter, and when this person said that he would not have been able to fight at all, but for the little hand of a lady on the next plane, Maynard returned: “I know you fought hard, though in darkness, before you found that hand. That’s one reason we count on you now. A man who will fight continuously in darkness is a ... a ...” The pencil paused, and after futile efforts to proceed, retraced its path, apparently to cross out again and again the last letter. We were talking and paid no attention to its movement, but when it ceased again, we discovered that Maynard had drawn a five-pointed star. Then he proceeded: “... luminary of force himself, when light breaks.”
There were many interesting characterizations, both of persons on this plane and of those on the next.
“E—— is a fine force, but A—— is a force multiplied and refined to power,” was said of one couple.
A striking example of the determination of our “fantom friends” to convey their meaning despite obstacles, was indicated when some one had told me, during an interview, of a boy’s objection to his mother’s activity in one of the recent “drives” connected with war work, on the ground that it “made her conspicuous.”
“M—— is an entirely tra ... trem ... tr ... normal and tra ... tremulous youth, where his mother and sister are concerned,” was his father’s humorous comment.
Apparently, in this case, the connection was imperfect, no intimation of his meaning reaching me, and only by altering the form of his sentence was he able to get it written.
“Miss T—— has much to learn and much to suffer before a teaching based on unity of force or purpose will reach her forcefully,” we were told, on another occasion. “She must learn the shallows of self before she can sound the depths of individuality, in the larger and eternal interpretation of the word.”
Following one of the numerous discussions of Germany and her purposes, a question about a man of German parentage brought this reply: “B—— is American. The national taint of docility is not in him.”