Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-12-11


MED by his guardians He appeared to be
in good health generally; shook me cor
daily by the hand, asked few questions,
and altogether comported himself in a
manner perfectly consistent with sound
mental condition. Doctor Bitterdrug,
who was a fussy little man, forever rub
bing together his insignificant little hands,
of whose whiteness he was exceedingly
| vain, and the man Caleb, remained over
with us until the next day, when they de-
parted for the city on the first train bound
southwark.
The. apartments reserved for the use of
| my cousin Archibald were two rooms, a
| sleeping and sitting room, on the second
floor, not far from the one in which my
self slept. He seemed much pleased with
their comfortable and orderly appearance,
and was evidently under the impression, a
| semi doubtful one, that he was at hotel
or large boarding house, where it would
| be advisable for his health that he should
spend the summer season. This idea he
had imbibed, of course, from remarks
thrown out by his friends and Doctor
Bitterdrug; and this idea, also, it was ad-
visable to encourage without appearing
purposely to do so, for there was no telling
how soon his suspicious might be aroused,
if they were not already so, as was indi-
Gated by the following conversation that
took place the morning after his arrival:
"And how was it, Fred" he asked of
me, "that you came to go into this busl-
ness? | thought you studied medicine in
New York. How did you come to give
that up?"
A bright idea occurred to me at the mo-
ment, and availed myself of it at once.
| oh ~ 7 royN1iod ora1acolxy
gave it up. This establishment of ours is
sort of hotel and water cure"
"Hydropathy, eh? Thunder and light
ming! I thought you went in for drugs!'
$50 I do, Archy, so I do, but then
| there's good deal of virtue in water, for
diseases of certain class of the chest,
lungs, rheumatism and so on"
"And you don't believe in it IN cases of
mental arrangement, eh ?" he asked quick
ly, eyeing me closely and keenly.
shook my head. "No, not at all in
those cases, it wouldn't answer"
He seemed immensely relieved at this,
and glanced two or three times round his
room.
"By Jove" he exclaimed approvingly,
"this is jolly. BY the way, Fred, can any
one hear, think?"
"Not if the doors closed" I answered,
rising and shutting it for him.
He drew his chair closer to mine. "I
suppose you have heard of my bad luck on
Wall street, old fellow" he continued; !;
{" the governor didn't mention it in that
note he wrote you? Good old boy He
took all the arrangements of my coming
here on himself Said he to me one morn
ing, your cousin, Frederick Eaton, has
got pleasant house at Middleport a sort
of hotel, and think it would do you good
to go out and spend few weeks with him !;
or. may be, all summer, so took his ad-
vice and came; and SO, since he didn't tell
you of my losses, I'll go over the whole
thing with you myself"
I tried to interrupt him, and to think of
some excuse for leaving him, fearing the
effects the excitement, consequent on the
narration, might have upon his general
health. But it was certain he would take
the very next opportunity to tell me, so it
might as well come first as last. l had
told him | knew nothing of his misfor-
tunes, thinking thereby to please him,
and allay any suspicion he might have of
his presence there at the institution.
at was Fort Wayne and Erie that did
most of the business for me, Fred" he re-
ouuuCO lOob ClCtA q luilllOn
somewhere inside of six months. Think
of that! A snug little fortune, eh? Made
clean sweep of me, clean to dollar.
But that wasn't the worst of it, Fred You
knew was engaged to Clara Nelson?
No? Oh, l forget you've been away from
New York for some time. Well, was
the handsomest girl you ever set eyes on,
Fred, but-well l won't say. She Tilted
me, Fred, Tilted me when she understood
I'd lost my money; went back on me alto
gether. They say she'd done the same
thing with others without their losing
any mony at all; but don't believe it, for
she was engaged to me, and to no one else
that ever | knew. When l sold my
horses, the two greys, they were spank
ing team and no mistake All inside of
six months, Fred; and most of it in Erie
and Fort Wayne"
This is brief synopsis of Archibald
Earle's communication; long, rambling
and discursive, as it was, / can give here
but the leading points, which are quite
sufficient. 1t appeared then that there
were two causes, the loss of riches and the
loss of a wife that had served to unsettle
my cousins reason, but one of these
causes was the consequence of the other.
Which operated most strongly upon him
was question that addressed itself at
once to me, although to the question had
no answer, and for the cause itself no
remedy. / could neither restore to him
his wealth, nor alter the rejection of him
by his lady love. could see that Archie's
vanity had been considerably piqued by
this last, and with very excellent reason,
for he was splendid looking fellow tall,
powerfully built, with q great head of
thick, brown curls, and long, yellow, side
whiskers that were enough in themselves
to excite the envy of many less fortunate
Adonis.
Several weeks went by, and except for
the rambling nature of his conversation
at times, and the slightly wild, unsettled
look of his eye when talking about his
losses and the girl who Tilted him, should
certainly have concluded that there was
a mistake somewhere and that my
cousins entire sanity was matter beyond
question. As it was I trusted that time
would do everything toward restoring that
perfect balance which alone appeared
wanting. To this effect wrote his father
when Archibald had been only week at
the institution, and the old gentleman ap-
peared much relieved ON learning my
opinion, backed as it was by that of Doc
tor Grained.
But now comes that part of my recital
that will go to prove what have already
said respecting cases of insanity. It so
happened one morning of the third week
OF my cousins stay, that patient occu-
pying the same floor, who had exhibited,
for some time back, rather alarming svmp.
toms, became suddenly violent, and had to
be removed from his room to one of an
! other kind set apart for emeroancies liz a