Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-04-03


swift man at speaking, his purpose
formed slowly. !.
If only women could be patient
What had it been to pretty Dorothy
these evening hours, this familiar talk,
these friendly words, these long 81
fences, illuminated only by flashing
chances. He never knew.
One day ne came home and found
an angular spinster in pretty Doro-
tby's place. Miss Merle bad engaged
her. She said; and Dorothy was no
where to be seer. 1t was no use TOR
everything to rush over DIR. Tredickar
then. in one torrent of remenbrances
and thunderbolt of decision-renem-
branees of all her sweetness and sense,
of all her charm and delight-declslen
of long faltering purpose. !,
1t was of no use for him to rage and
imagine vain things; nobody knew
ANYTHING of Dorothy, and search as
he might, far and near, high and low,
in all his acquaintance with the coun-
try side, neither he nor anybody else
came across any trace of her.
DIR. Tredickar, for some reason or
other discarded his little dark pills,
now, but he plunged back into his
business with a sort of madness. lie
tried to forget himself in killing or
curing: he never looked at a woman
except from a scientific point OF view !;
he never spoke to his spinster If he
could help it; he studied as if his life
depended on it; practice he had been
on the point of surrenderlsg to the
new doctor he retained, and he rode
far into the night to exactlng people
on out lying farms, and was up IN the
daybreak for his laboratory expert :.
ments and books; he forgot to eat, and
he was unable to sleep.
= OF course such devotion to work
had its own reward in ore way, for
DIR. Tredickar was becoming a com
fortably rich man for a county prac-
titioner, and was reaping a rich har-
vest of fame, that was, however, as
worthless to him as was the breath OF
the idlest breeze.
And so one year followed another
till twenty had slipped away, and the
babies TO whom he had given their
first bolus had babies Of their own
and fevers and consumptions, and am
putations, and autopsIes filled up the
measure of his days; and there seemed
to DIR. Tredickar nothing worth living
for; and, worn with work, irregular
food, unhealthy hurries, sympathies,
disgusts, fatigues, one morning, DIR.
Tredickar discovered that he was
without appetite, without strength,
without hope or wish, looking on
the world as a mass of disease, and
saw, with hardly surprise or regret,
that there was 90 health IN him.
DIR. Triedickar had scarcel Y the en-
ergy left TO set about curing himself ;
he really did not care. He took one
little dose and another, and would
not have taken them if his aged
spinster had not set them by his plate.
AS he looked about his dull and
desolate home he thought that this
" as the time when a man needed a
wife to cheer him, and cursed himself
for not thinking OF it twenty years
ago.
DR.. Fellows came to see him and
told him he must do 50 and so, and he
did, and grew more listless and melan-
choly. Then Or. Harvey came, and
he said he must do this and that; and
he did, aud he felt so much worse
that he went himself to see DR.. Field.
And then all three had consulta
ton, and one said it was the spleen,
and one said it was the kidneys, and
he himself was sure il was the liver
And as they could do nothing that
had not already been done, they sent
him off to the Springs to see what the
earth could do.
The Virginia Springs did DR.. Ire
dickar no good-hot, or cold, or sui
phur- and the Canadian Springs did
him no good, and the Maine Springs
did him no good, and the Vermont
and Arkansas Springs were equally
worthless in his case; and at last he
was on his way to the Saratoga
Springs, helpless, listless, wretched,
failing generally, and ailing particu-
larly, and from mere force of habit
trying to get well, and yet not caring
whether he did or not, with no object
and no aim-slmPly actuated, as it
were, by the instinct of self-ereserva-
ton.
He was within the two hundred
miles Of Waukesha, when he encount
cred A Hen in the cars-an old class
mate whom he had not met for years
and of course they each had a
world to say, and the first topic was
health.
Gong to Waukesha2" asked
Allen.
"Yrs," was the reply.
"Well," consollngly, 'itll do you
no good. tried it. tried them all.
| was in precisely your condition. And
look at me to-day soune. as drum
Now let me tell you-you cant cure
yourself! You've nearly gone
through the springs. There is moth
left but old woman's notionsl Sup.
pose you try theme Now lot me tell
you, Tredickar, there's person in the
next town-a sort of doctor-quack,
of course-she'S cured a good many
people-she-sh shield just as lief tell
yeu-she cured met
Nonsense, Allen"
mo nonsense about it. Bald fact
She cured me; she's cured thousands
made comfortable fortune doing it.
She has some wonderful noSLrumS,
and for all / know, a healing Gift"
Natural bone setter" Pshaw
How can men be such fools2' cried
our impatient doctor.
Now look here, Tredickar. Science
can't help you, that you've proved.
Why not give quackery chancei II
can't make you any worse than you
are"
mo, it can't make me any worse
than | am" said the doctor, gloom
lily.
Then you get off at Jarviston and
go to Mrs. Taylor'S and see what she
can do. If she can't help you she'll
say so. If she can, you don't care
where cure comes frona, as long as il
is cure. Rather die the old-fashion-
ed way, a good allopathic death, than
live by the aid of an old woman's nos
trum, would your"
And the end was that Dr. Tredickar
got off at Jarviston and sought Mrs.
Taylor's presence.
1t was comfortable, matronly pres
ence, he found. but he wasted no sec
ond glance or thought upon it. while
he detailed his symptoms, and dwelt
on them, just SIS he had so often been
impatient with his patients for doing.
Aud when he paused, she said, in a
low voice:
Il think l can help you if you will