Morning journal and courier., 1882-02-22
The Interesting Invalid.

From the London Worldl
The male vaIetudinarian is never interes
ing, and the gentleman who is so frequently
pointed out to one in society as person on
whom the hand of death is already laid, and
who cannot hope to live three months long
err is, for the most part, an impostor and
nuisance You see him after the interval of
year as CHEEKY and as robust as ever The
lethal disease with which he was stricken has
passed away, and you may be permitted to
donbt whether it was ever present. The in
valid to be interesting must be woman, and
it must be confessed that even those languish-
ing ladies, who are always predicting their
own demise, do net improve upon acqualnty
ance, and soon lose their charm. They lin
ger on from year to year, as strong apparent
ly as they ever were, yet perpetually protest
ing that each spring as it passes will be their
last, and remarking with melancholy shake
of the head, if you venture to hint that this
is mere morbid imagining, that you will soon
bitterly regret the cruelty of your own I'M
belief 1t is only their own nervous energy,
they sighingly remark, which keeps them IN
the body. They liken themselves to the Spar
tan boy, whose vitals were being gnawed
away yet who put cheerful countenance on
his fortunes Attempt to console them with
the assurance that the first signs of dissoiu-
ton are vet afer off and you will find that
they repudiate the solace as an insult. There
is another variety of interesting invalid with
whom it is a little difficult to deal. She is a
lady who as a matter of fact, is far from be-
ing in perfect health, and really needs the at
tention of the doctor. But her dominant
boast is certain sweet perversity which
causes her ostentatiously to minimize the
maiady, and to declare that she will have
nothing to say to your physicians and their
nostrums She takes pleasure, which Is in
fnitely annoying to those by whom she Is
surrounded in disregarding and denying her
ailments There is no fortitude in such an
exhibition She does not conceal, and she
has no wish to conceal, the fact; but events
have caused her to look at all things through
a gloomy medium. She experiences malig-
nant delight in persuading herself that she
has neither sympathy nor friends and she is
not probably devoid of the vanity which is
gratifed by the knowledge that she is
standing difficulty to all about her.
There are few such tests of feminine char
acter as the condition of modern inyaIidism.
Illusions are impossible in the case of-a lady
who is confined to her house or her room by
| a disagreeable but far from serious, indis-
position. All her selhshness, her shallowness,
and her vanity are brought out into full re-
| lief She is weak, doubtless, and allowance
| must be made for her weakness; but no pris-
| oner with grievance against the Jail authori-
ties could show more aggressive petulance of
manner. She has a eonsoling consciousness
! that she looks well-well, that is, not physi-
calIy, but artistically. She has involved her
person in an elaborate arrangement of white
| lace and muslin, and has vague sort of idea
| that she might sit as a model for study of
Mary Queen of Scots. The visitor enters the
room. in which she is recumbent on her
couch, with hushed and reyerential tread
He attunes his voice to its most gently SYM
pathetic tones but the peevish irritability of
the spoiled invalid cuts short the sentence,
and renders it difficult to assume even an air
of so!icitude. 1t is as useless to cast pearls
before swine as to obtrude ones condolences
upon this species of patient. You persist in
your sympathetic efforts with praiseworthy
perseverance but it becomes impossible at
last to keep up the pretence any longer, and
you wonder how l. is that a woman, who has
seemed full of charna when in the enjoyment
of health, becomes almost repellant because
she is a trifle out of sorts. Flowers, fruit,
books, pictures-these may be offered to her;
but she rejects them as dross, and asks, with
little sneer, whether you can really suppose
she lacks such obvious ornaments of her
sick-room. Women, generally, are in the
habit of asserting that they can bear pain
and sickness better than men. hat, how
ever is from their point of VIE and the
lady who aspires to the role of an interesting
invalid assumes part which, in the eyes
of even the least exaeting male critics, it is
| far from easy satisfactorily to fill.