Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-10-01
THE MAGNETIC PATIENT.
HARRIET PRESCOTT sPoFFoRD.


a physicians life in former days was
a very different thing from a physician IS
lie IN the present. Then the misery OF
inf citing pain upon others was his to
he fullest extent. Then there were no
such glorious lmmunIties as the nine
teentb century bas given 10 is success
sors; one hardly knew the meaning of
.nRstheSia-an old physician whose
gray locks stTeamed upon his shoulders
once told, with tears of the times when
the surgeon had to hew his way through
a mans flesh, suffering almost as much
as the man himself, and feeling tnat
either ne must harden his heart like the
neither milestone, or else let a hand
shaking with nervous sympathy do as
much Ill as good. E her and its kim
drei compounds he declared, will do
more for humanity than Ga1en or Par
acelsUs, with all their drugs, have done;
for now, while the sealpel works, the
student can explore aud make a thousand
observai ions and discoveries that be had
ueIther he conscience nor the strength
to do when the sufferer felt in every
second of time an eternity of torture.
There is, however, on record one case
of remarkable inseDsibility to pain, be-
| fore the introduction of either ether or
cnInrOform or the lightning-swifGo oXyd.
during IA terrible operation underWhIch
no pat seut had ever before survived
some of the surrounding and accom-
Janying facts of which are not TO be
found in the books of surgery.
1t was the case of Mr.. Everard
K night, a wealthy gentleman engaged
in manufactures and resident near a
celebrated water-pOwer among The hills
of New Hampshire.
A few years before the eliminating
circumsi ances of this surgical IrIum b
Mr.. Knights hOusekeeper had died,
n
some woman who had been living wit b
her aunt 'or the greater part Of the year
took, during the hece Ssary interregDum
tire management of affairs in the luxu-
riou- household so efficiently into her
own hands that Mr.. Knight requested
her to remain and perform the same
duties as long as she pleased. As the
salary was liberal, and as she had be-
cUme attached to the place and had no
other home-reasons sufficient if there
oad been no better-H OrteDse was glad
to accept the proposition, and accord
dinghy remained mistress of the man
sion; while under her administration
everything went on smoothly as if done
by unseen agencies, and Mr.. knight
was made more comfortable than he
had ever been before in all the days
of his life, and Acknowledged as uch by
mum mbet less small acts of kindness;
while theservants, whom she ruled with
50 firm vet so gentle hand, seemed de-
voted TO her and their duty.
Hortense was, indeed, a lady-as in
| this Republican country ladies gO-haV-
ing the refinement of feeling which
constitutes true gOod-breeoing, and
without which a life in courts and pal
aces renders one only vulgar; and i,
while in Mr.. Knights house, her aunt
had learned by khrewd observation, ,
and had taught to Hortense, many of
the little speciallies Of behavior belong
/ not have Otherwise known. She
/ was also tolerably we1-educated-not OF
/ in the snowy accomplishments at all,
1 but in more solid acquisitions, having
| graduated with honor at good country
! academy. When she sat al the head OF
hrs table as he request ed her to do, Mr..
| Knight really felt pride of proprietor
ship in her, and would have been ex-
ceeding1y irare had any body proposed
/ 10 take his young housekeeper away
! from him. She certainly presented al
such times a picture worth looking at
and if it was an art by which she got her
| self up so faultlesSly for her pdrt,it was
an art as good as natures: she always
| wore then a sort flowing black silk, with
| delicate lace ruffies but no ornaments
and her beautiful black hair was band
| ed heavily away from long low fore.
head, and worn in broad plaits thai
| gave her head regal alr-a regal all
wei cOnsorting with the rest of her car
| riage; for, though she were twice &
| hOusekeeler, Hortense never allOWe
auV one to forget that she was also, as
| have said. a lady. She never had any
color, and her great eyes, aided by theil
/ penciled black brOWs, had a singular
way of tightening and darkening, now
bright and vivid, now blots of shadow
that was almost electrifying; but in he
thin lips, her seldom smile, her few
7 words, there was an air of repression
tbat rendered her, to a man of Mr.
| KniQht't uDen and careless tempera
ment, by no means personally attrac
tive as an individual of tar less weigh
of character would have been. Mean
while, she attended to him faithfully
she made his home so delightful to bin
she.gave him so decidedly the benef
of her judgement when he asked for
that he always found some reason fo
seeking her as soon as he was in tn
house. discOntented if he did not SCI
her somewhere around and he had be
gun to rely upon her in a way ths
seemed sadly frAught with danger to al
his s4c0uaintancR who had marriageabl
daughters to dispose of, and but Il fey
wealthy young bachelors on their visit
ing lists.
p rhaps it was not altogether becaus
she made his life so comfortable tha
Mr.. Knight followed her and relied up
on her in this way. He had, once in .
= great while, q dim sort of sensation tha
she exercised undue influences owe
INN, perhaps without knowing that sh
did So herself Did she magnetize him
Som ptimps he was snre she did ID
subject was at that time making som
Impression ON the public mind, and b
said to himself that he would disInis
{ a woman with such powers from b
service; but som how he never fOun
himself able to do so.
One day Mr.. Knight, coming lightI
in from his morning canter across til
meHdows of the interval, gave Hortens
n a rose the first full-blown one of til
= season. It was hardly a suitable actiu
n iowa a subordinate, especially wit
that air of gallAntTy which Mr.. Kr II
found himself irrPsistibly assuming t,
n ward this one. But it was only natu
n al if Hortense forgot that fact, for 81
p was a woman, and one with youth
- her veins. She took the rose and lool
ed gratefully up at him with smi
& thai np-ned her dull eyes into gre
ri gltaming Jewels; and presently, whe
y, he was IN the room beyond, chanciI
90 10 turn as suddenly as though a wbI
perinE voice had commanded him to
s. so. he saw her, in the rejecting mirrC
es neither, indeed, admiring nor smelliI
the blossom. put pressing 1t passionat
q Iv again and agaIn to her lips. Tn
- left Mr.. knight with sort of shive
eSS he felt as though a blow were b
~ ing given to the first rivet of son
chain about TO fetter him, an
80 he Io-ssd $, me clothes into hand-bi
himself and went away on visit
I'd more than q months duration.
On Mr.. knights return from this Q
cursion, before entering his house