American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1878-06-15

come ITOUl iIdTH, out we nave nOI
travelled all night. Our governor makes
il point never to over-fatigue any of
his patients. It's part of his system; so
we broke our journey at Edinburgh"
His patients, would as soon have
suspected my opposite neighbor of being
n criminal as an invalid.
Indeed" say. "Might inquire
what is his complaint"
My taciturn friend touches his head
in mysterious way, and | am just in
time to stop a low whistle indicative of
surprise, and to turn it into another
"Indeed."
"What particular form does his
ahem-complant take?"
l am beginning to hope he is not vio-
lent.
Generosity
Generosity"
Yes, sir. You see he gets all sorts
of schemes into his head for the relief of
suffering of all kinds; and his friends,
fearing he might make ducks and brakes
of his money, have put him under the
care of our governor"
"Is he wealthy?"
every"
care his friends quite disinterested P"
swell, l don't know. But at any
rate they are quite right. He might fall
into the hands of unprincipled people,
who would help out his schemes to fur
Their their own"
What is his latest plan p''
"WeH, sir, his last idea was, that
ambitious people who had failed in their
were roughly handled by the critics,
artists whose works did not meet with
the appreciation they expected, actors
whose genius was not universally recog-
niZed, and such like-were n great bore
to society, and in their turn were in
clined to shun the world; so he proposed
building a retreat where all such could
retire to seclusion-a kind of Agapem-
one, you see, sir"
elf he had found scanty population
for his rural settlement, it would never
theless not be for the lack of such peo-
ple."
s'Just so, sir.''
"Do you consider his a hopeless
casep"
81 fear SO, sir. He's one of the quiet
sort, you see. More violent cases are
often easier to deal with. Our governor
turned out rare wild one quite cured
the other day"
"What was his treatment"
"Letting him have his own way. It's
part of our governors system; but it
was rather risky in this case"
l feel interested, and l intimate as
much.
"Well, sir, Captain b had been
down with the yellow fever IN the West
Indies, and it was such severe attack
that the doctors gave him up as a bad
job, and handed him over to the black
nurses to do what they could for him
They pulled bim through, but with such
sttohS doses of quinine, that before he
was convalescent his reason was gone.
His was suicidal mania-about the worst
kind we have to do with. for the patient
always has his victim handy if he can
only get the means. They had a rare
job to get him over to England; and
when he was first put under the gov
ernor's care, he was about the
worst case we had. The governor
studied him carefully and found
that letting him have his own way was
the only thing that did him any good
He was very fond of bathing; and by
and-by, when he began to mend little,
he was allowed to go to the river near
our place. OF course l always went,
too, land kept pretty sharp eye on him.
However, this did not suit him; so one
day he goes to the governor and says:
: DR.. -, it is not congenial to my feel
ings as a gentleman, always to have that
fellow with me when take my bath; l
l would much prefer privacy The
governor tried to put him off; but the
had bad effect on him
Now, one of the governors 1heorie, is,
that at a certain stage of the complaint,
if you can humor patients they have
every chance of recovery; cross them
and it is gone. Captain B. says
he, Il know that if you pass your word
to me you will keep it like a man of
honor; so if you will give me your word
as an officer and gentleman that if let
you go alone you will return to me in
an hour and report yourself, 1 will let
you CO. Captain B gave his word
rs required, and every day he used to
do the same, always coming to give his
word of honor and returning each day
to report himself, proud of being trust
ed. 1t was rather risky treatment for
suicidal patient, but it succeeded. He's
as well now, sir, as you or L.
"There was another case we had,
quite different-''
have settled myself into a listening
attitude; but my friend has suddenly
leased. Looking up, find my opposite
leighbor has just awakened; and his
attendant having perhaps no other topic
IF conversation than his professional
which he no doubt rightly
considers an inappropriate subject to
discuss before one of his charges, has |
elapsed to his perusal of the Scotsman,
Tor do l hear another word from him
ill he bids me good-day at York.
Grantham, Granthamr'
l have been following the example of |
he penprous Iunafic and takinn a nan