Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-04-03

But hope where the white flakes freeze nc
Ihopo where winter is over ana gone,
For the cold of the night that went before,
He almost forgets how he made his moan
And almost forgets how thoy closed the door
Aud doomed him to walk in the world
| alone.
KILL OR CURE.
story ot tho Anne, lean Civil war.
"The Major is capital fellow, Doc.
tor" I said, as we sauntered off to
smoke our cigars in the garden, after
an early dinner; "bnt he ought to be
more merciful to us wretched batche-
lors. WHAT with his charming wife and
that exemplary baby, he makes it DIFF.
ticult TO respect the tenth command
mcnt."}
"You admire Mrs. Layton2''
"Admire her! If she were not
Charles wife should fall head over
ears in love with her. I have seen
fairer faces, but for dear, pretty, deli
cate. womanly ways, I never met her
equal"
"You couldn't understand q mans
thirsting for her blood -
"Good gracious! A wretch who
could touch one of her golden hairs
roughly deserves to be crucified."
"And yet for many days she was in
deadly peril a her life. y
"FOr her fortune2''
"She had none."
"Don't tell me, Doctor, that an in
nOcent creature like that could give
any one cause for revenge"
the sort"
~ think I see. Some one madly in
love with her 2"
"If you were to guess till this day
out you would not find the cause. :"
said my friend. "Let us sit down
here, and I will explain. It's no Sc.
you"
"Down here was on a rustic seat
that the majors pretty wife had made
at the end of his garden, close to where
little rill, soon to be lost in the blue
Hudson, tinkled its way through his
grounds.
"During the war, began the doc
tor, 81 served in the army, in the same
regiment with an old schoolmate. He
was as fine a soldier as ever drew q
sword. Hale, hearty, and sound in
mind and body; eager to sec service
and he saw plenty. I thought that he
bore charmed life, till one day he was
carried into n hospital tent in q bad
way. A ball had entered his shoulder,
glanced on the clav;cle (what you cali
the collar-bone), and had gone-sonac
sOhere. That was all we could tell, for
there was no other orifice but whether
it had passed up or down, or taken
some cratic course round about such
as balls will take, we knew not, and no
probing could find out. Well, he
recovered and went north to regain his
strength, and for nearly three years I
lost sight of him. When the war was
over and had begun to practice as a
civilian in New York, met him again.
But how changed h. He was a. living
skeleton, and saw in q moment that
he had become habitrated to opium.
Do you know what that means Well
throw a bucket of water into a piano,
and then light a fire under it, and its
strings will not be more out of tune
than an opium-smoker's nerves are out
of order. He asked me if he might
call on me at my Office, and of course
I assented; but it was days before he
came, and when he did arrive I knew
that hs had been preparing himself tor
q fight with himself. Some foolish
patients come prepared to hide the
truth, some to magnify their ills. It is
part of our business, in serious cases,
to examine mans mind before We ask
about his body, and, hardened as a
surgeon must be, I confess that the
condition of my poor friend frightened
me. There was an expression in Ills
eye that I had never seen in any sane
being aud what made this worse was
he calm, business.like manner in which
he spoke. He told me that soon after
he had (appparently) recovered from
his wound, he began to suffer from
pains in his head, which increased in
severity till they became so agoaizing
that he had recourse to opiates to al.
leviate them. But I have not come
to consult you about this he said.
this I can bear must bear, W0ul,i
to God that they were always tearing
me The worst is when they arc not. .
"They leave you very weaka 1 sug-
"They leave me-" he replied, quite
calmly, with burning, all but un-
conquerable, desire to take human life. ~
1 am not generally nervous man,
but / started and looked round me for
some weapon of defense. "Don't be
afraid" he continued with a smile, the
fit is not on me now. should not
have come if it had been. l have been
nearly starved once or twice, not dar
ing to leave my room. ]. can conquer
my madness now; the question is, how
long can continue to do 50. I feel
that it is growing upon me: I feel my
power Of resistance becoming weaker
the craving for blood getting strong
or and stronger. am like man who
has slipped over a precipice, and feels
the earth and shrubs to which he
cilngs, slowly, slowly, surely, surely
giving way with him. have brought
wretched ours out of the street. an6
killed them in my frenzy, in the hop,
4 OF exhausting it on them. 1t is no use
l must have txn.n,s lille.
/. Any human life ~ inquired, 80
some one in particnlar?''
. :" Why do you ask this, Doctor?" Ii,
: cried, getting suddenly excited.
: "No matter; go on"
). "Sometlmes, ;" he resumed, ''it seem
o that 0ny life would do, and sometime
o Doctor, four days before saw you
met, upon New Jersey fcrry-boot,
young girl. So pretty, so refined an,
nice! L followed her to her home
the devil that has taken possession o
ME led me. She went in and soon cam
= out again into her little garden, ant
tended her flowers, poor child Doc
tor, if 1 had had a pistol with me
: should have shot her. You may smile
but some day soon shall take pisto
on purpose aud shoot her."
. 1t was clearly no use arguing will
him. The best way with such peopl,
o is to admit the facts and try to worl
round them.