St. Landry democrat., 1882-04-22

scription of his nights tramp, he ex-
planned that he was hunting for me.
His malady, for such it had now be-
come, had assumed alarming symptoms,
and we sought by some means to at
least alleviate the difficulty. We took
the precise course, or rather allowed
him to take it, that only aggravated the
trouble. He went to u college prepar-
atory school located at Hillsdale, Mich,
and straightway became the one object
of interest for the whole institution.
His freaks became daily more eccentric.
At one time he remained in a somnam-
bulistic state for fifty-six hours, during
which time he was a guest at a seminal
~ soiree, and of course the cynosure of
all eyes. 1t was during this brief pc
Rod, and while asleep, that he wrote me
a letter in answer to u friendly one
which but a few days before | had sent
him. 1t began and ended with abuse,
and was filled up with invective. Only
a few weeks previously, as David and
Jonathan, we had parted, and so far as
1 knew, our friendship was still firmly
cemented. ! was therefore not a little
stunned at the reading of my friends
vituperation. The writing was on three
sides of a sheet of note-paper, and con-
cluded with: Z" on need never answer
this letter. I shall never receive any
thing directed in your handwriting. An
enveloped thus addressed to me will be
returned unopened.'
On the last page of the sheet he had
used the cork of his ink-stand in black
inc the paper around several lines, rep
resenting tigure-heads most grotesque.
In one corner was a Mephistophelean
portrait, done in black ink, ornamented
with the mythical horns and forked
tongue, and directly under it the sug-
gestive, not to say personal, inscription
in capital letters "YOU."
Once out Of this sleep, the young man
lapsed Immediately into another, until,
finally, studying began to make insan-
ity appear inevitable. Indeed, his SOM
nambulism already had all the charac-
| Urged by his friends, he returned to
Mosherville, when, only a few evenings
after, he went to bed as usual, and in
usual spirits, only to awake in the
morning in a semi-unconscious state.
This was some time in September. He
did not recover his wonteu reason till
early in December. During the day,
he would read and write some, perform
q little labor, eat heavily, and all the
time act precisely as he had done when
on his nightly somnambulistic excur-
sions. Retiring to bed, he would sink
into death-like stupor, from which it
ir,rrc-il,la TO
length, one morning in December, after
having passed night of most profound
silence, he awobe, and began life
where he had left it three months be-
fore. He sat down to write a letter,
and dated it in September On going
out into the air, he was amazed at the
frigidity of September morning, and it
was with the utmost difficulty that he
could be persuaded finally that for three
months the world had been moving on
by him unheeded, that while he had slept,
early fall had glided into winter, that
indeed, he was a quarter of a year older
than when he last went to sleep. Lest
there should be another somnambulistic
lapse, my young friend was carefully
guarded from any kind of mental ex-
ercise, and from any possible physical
fatigue. He began then to mend, and
continued to mend until recovery was
accomplished. When last heard from
him, he was a successful Methodist
clergyman in Buffalo, a thriving little
town in the interior of the State OF
Illinois. g. Mortimer Roe, IN Potter 5
Magazine.