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Show f Who Was' 1 1 Who? I :: : . Dy Louise M. Comstnck ALICE BEN BOLT TPIirOItH'S "a slab of the granite so i gray" In one of those tiny old cemeteries Just off the main auluino-hlle auluino-hlle highway two miles east of Ta;:e well. Va.. under which, they say ".Sweet Alice lies"; the same timid, brown-haired Alice of that familial song. "Hen Holt." It doesn't matter that the name carved on the tipsy old stone Is not Alice, but Olivia, for Olivia Wynne, a ftirl who lived In an old brick house Just up the road from the cemetery and died there oarly in the Nineteenth century Tr; conn tryside has long cherished tt-e legend that Alice and Olivia wern (he sunie girl. The story Is an old one, of the eoun try girl of sheltered life who fell In love with the stranger with the eltj ways, this time an Itinerant music muster, who was engaged to teach her the not unromnntlc an of playing the inelmleon. There were plans for a wedding, the stranger's departure to "make arrangements." the girl's lov Ing dreams ovet her trousseau and the fatal letter revealing the perfldl ous music master to he already mar rled and a man of considerable fani lly. Olivia riled, as a true heroine of t,he period must, of broken heart. In 1X42 Dr. Thomas Dunn English of Pennsylvania visited his Intimate friend ("apt. William Edward I'eery then owner of the old Wynne home stead, was captivated by the legend, and subsequently wrote the words ot the familiar ballad. They were later set to music hy Nelson Kneass and the song achieved lasting fame when Pu Maurier Introduced it Into his novel, the famous "Trilby." ABELARD AND HELOISE IN TME Paris cemetery of I'ere-I.a-' chaise, on summer Sundays, the sentimental still lay wreaths on Ihe tomb ot two lovers, who died almost 800 years ato nut are hero and heroine hero-ine of a love story which still lives on in the famous "Love Letters of Abelard and Heloise." Ahelard was u hrllliant and handsome hand-some young professor who by the time he ;vas twenty-five was attracting thousands to his open-air speeches for the rights of the Individual to make his own intellectual investigations. In time he came to verbal blows with the venerable St. Bernard himself, who stood for traditional authority and strongly condemned the young radical. In 1117 Abelard was hired by the canon of the Rpiscopal school in Paris to tutor his beautiful niece Heloise, then lust seventeen. The pair fell madly In love and fled together to Brittany, where there was a secret marriage. The relatives of Heloise followed the couple, found and separated sepa-rated them, and the canon further hired men to Invade Ahelard's rooms and brutally mutilate him. Ahelard In despair entered rhe monastery of St. Penis, and Heloise. at his Instigation, became a nun and foreswore even her memories of him. Ten years later Heloise learned thai his retirement had not brought her lover peace and wrote him the first of five famous love letters in which is revealed rhe tragedy of two noble souls who tried to forget each other hut could not. Ahelard died in 1142; Heloise twenty years later. HARUN AL-RASCHID ALMOST as thrilling as Slnbari, or Aladdin, or any of the fascinating fascinat-ing tales by which Schehazerade through a "Thousand and One Nights" entertained the caliph of Bagdad arid saved Her own life, is the story of the caliph himself. The caliph of Ihe "Arabian Nights' was Harun al-ltasctiid. ruler of Bag dad dining Its palmy days In the Eighth century. His story Is made up of the very stufl of romance: harem Intrigues, poisonings, splendid gilts, hideous torments, with which his high handed slaughter of many hrides after a single night ot marriage is quite ! compatible, though not authenticated tiy history Schehazerade. who won his permanent affection hy her trifts 1 as story-teller, was a lady of high i Dirth lliinin al-Kasctiid was son of the j Caliph Mahril and a freed slave girl. : who ordered his own com-uliines to ! kill tier eldest son. the rightful heir. In order to set her youngest and favorite fav-orite in the throne of an empire then extending from Spain to India At first, under the wise admlnisi ration ot his grand vizier. Vahia the Marine-cide. Marine-cide. the empire nourished and Hanin. devoted hlniselt to luxury, pleasure and the arts I. met a quarrel hetween the caliph and the harmecides led to the execution ot Yahla his foui sons and all then descendants, and the ultimate downfall ot the empire In reliellions disorder The caliph him self died in a mannei quite unuortln of a fair story hero- d apoplexy I 1 Western Newsnaner Union.) |