Connecticut western news., 1873-10-03
A QUEER CASE.

Dr. Pillogus shook his head. Ger
 tain symptoms in the case had mani
 fested themselves, and were declare
 bad. Dr. Pillogus therefore shook hi
 head, and felt that he was justified i
 that somewhat ususual exhibition e
 professional alarm. It is only on tn
 stage that doctors make a practice O
 shaking their heads.
 Dr. Pillogus' patient had made hi
 will in calm and rational mood. Witt
 the customory hberality of dying ma1
 who has money to leave-be because h,
 can't take it with him-he had remem
 bered host of poor relations, who
 without any intention on their part, en
 tirely slipped his memory till now.
 Let me explain.
 MT. Welford was 8 man of about
 torty-ive years. He was habitually
 sedate, like pulpit; and, in other re-
 spects, heavy and amiable, like an ele phant. He was man who had noth ing in the world to do but eat, drink, Sleep and get stupefed over books. Fol forty-five years he had tried to make his life interesting to himself, but only with indifferent success. A painful consciousness of utter uselessness op- pressed him. Now man may be used up, and incapable of new impressions, and yet have large stock of philosophy on hand fer the dull days of life. Every thing depends on the material that is used up. Men are not like gun cotton, what consumes and leaves no trace be- hind. MT. Welford was exhausted rather than used up. It was not that his mind had been filled to overflow ing, but that there was no mind worth speaking about to fill. Every thing crowded and inconvenienced him and an idea would, am sure, have occa- stoned him a painful death.
 So he planted himself in large gar den on the shore of beautiful lake in Western New York, and enjoyed soli- tude with wretched appetite for it's gloomiest features.
 One fine spring morning-and how glorious are our spring mornings, burst ing on the sober face of nature like the coquettish laugh of beautiful wo- man, short but delicious-one fine spring morning he made remarkable discovery in his natural history; to wit, that the birds went in pairs. He brood ed over this curious fact for three years, renewing his observations with each re- turning spring. At the end of that time he formed resolution. He would marry, and did so. The wife he select. ed was pretty, and strongly addicted to true love. At first she respected MT. Welford, then she admired, then she loved him. Finally, she fell down and worshiped him. She made up he1 mind that he was the best man in the world, and she the happiest woman. After which she abandoned herself to inconsolable grief.
 Having exhausted his life with matri- mony, he tried medicine as a step to the grave. Dr. Pillogus poked him in the ribs, and told him he was we'll :: drummed on his chest, and told him he was well; looked at his tongue, and told him he was we'll felt at his pulse, and told him he was we'll. But MT, Welford had made up his mind that he was not we'll, and the doctor failed to satisfy the patient. Doctors should the remedy be in their pharmacopeia scientious Pillogus had doctored MT. Welford so as to have made him sick, he would have declared himself better, for all he wanted was 8 new sensation, and it is certainlyin the power of medi- cine to give you that. But the son of Galen told the truth, and MT. Welford lost all confidence in science. He de- termined to doctor himself; and after study and application, arrived at the cheerful conclusion that he was 8 dying man.
 It was by a species of inspiration that MT. Welford came to the certain knowl- edge of this fact. He awoke one morn ing, yawned, and said to his wife:
 "My dear. I shall die on the 18th of August, at 12 o'clock P. M. precisely" The news came to him post-haste on a He did not for a moment doubt it's authenticity, but in a calm, way prepared for the event.
 The first week he lost what ghostly he had ever possessed; the second week he lost his appetite the third week he lost his pulse (the doctor could find it only after long Slowly, but surely, he de- scended into the ebefore-mentioned Val ley of Death, and wrapped himself in the generosity of it's atmosphere. That is to say, he made his will.
 And 1t now wanted but twenty-four hours of the crisis.
 Mrs. Welford was in agony; Mir. Welford placid and prepared. There was no deceiving him. He had a clock somewhere in his bosom, which beat the minutes of the hour with unfailing precision. Ithad twenty four hours only to run. You might play tricks with it as much as you liked, but you could not make it DO an hour lonper