The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-07
,,tatsa b. Special Arrangement. Copyrighted 1885
A MAD CAREER.
A Story by Sylvester Baxter.

have been graduated from college the previous
month He was rich, an orphan and without
relatives; was great favorite in his class, the
picture Of health, but. unfortunately subject at
rare intervals, to attacks of epilepsy Owing to
this infrmity he seldom went out alone, always
taking to have the company of friends
One evening, however, he came into town with
his chum, who lived in the city intending to 60
10 the theater. On the way they stopped at his
friends home, and found serious illness in the
family; therefore, as a favorite actor, for whom
he had "a particular enthusiasm, was playing. he
decided to go alone. On the way to the Cam
bridge car, while crossing Beacon Hill, ne was
seized with one of his attacks. 1t was in quiet
street of dwellings, and unfrequented. His
spasms were unobserved, but a policeman
afterwards found him sitting on the curbstone.
helpless dazed and unable to give any account
of himself" as stated in the report to headquar
tiers. The inference was that the young man
: was intoxicated. The policeman summoned
brother officer and the two hustled the helpless
student away to the station house, where he was
thrust into a cell for thenight In the morning
he was taken into the municipal court and
raigned with the motley group which, in the
phraseology of the newspaper reports, is known
as common drunks," and always forms the
major part of the days business in that institu
ton. THESE offenders. like the pawns in game
of chess, are disposed of with prompt dispatch to
clear the way for the more varied cases that, out
of the cloud of wrong and wretchedness ever
brooding over large city, formulate themselves
Into tangible transgressions-dark shapes of sin
that here begin their rapid descent into the pit
of hopeless misery The two policemen testified
in few words that the young man had been
found intoxicated in the street; he could not
walk alone when they took him to the station
and they perceived the smell of liquor in his
breath The poor fellow had in reality, never
saken a drop of ardent spirits in his life.
"One dollar and costs" was the penalty, spoken
in the same mechanical tone with which the SEN
tence had impnged upon those four shabby walls
many thousand times before; it is wonder that
the words are not found engraved there as drip
ping water wears away the stone upon which it
falls. While the young man hesitated, medita
ting reply in explanation. an angry snarl from
the veteran offender next in turn, who was i'm
patient to get through formatv made monot-
onous by repetition, together with a scowl from
She judge, intolerant of infringements upon the
discipline of the court the part of raw re-
eruits so to speak, sealed his lips 1.-The
officer cautioned him not to make fool Of him
self, adding ''of course swell like you hasn't
given your real name" The young man paid his
fine, sick at heart, and anxious to get out of the
miserable situation as possible In his
innocence he had given his name, and the affair
was the talk of everybod who knew him. or
about him. mary OF whom had never heard of
his physical afiiction which caused it.
The shock consequent upon the night in the
CELL, the feeling of undeserved disgrace acting
upon sensitive nature, combined with the
strain produced by hard study for his examina
tlons-all this proved too much for him, and his
mind gave way.
His delusion was that he fancied himself some
body else. His naturally vivid Imagination,
though dsordered, supplied most plausibly all
details of the personal history of the assumed
identity, so that strangers who had encountered
him had been deceived For instance, one day
at restaurant-table he met a newly-landed En-
-glish traveller and represented himself as one of
the owners of large ranch in Colorado; he had
come East to negotiate the sale of lot of cattle
for shipment to Liverpool, and was go
ing back that evening. He invited his
new acquaintance to stop over and see
him there on his way to the Pacific,
naming the railway station and describing the
; locality, fifteen miles back on the plains telling
minutely how to get there. He painted
picture of ranch life so glowing that the
Englishman accepted the invitation, and
y the next week stopped at the station named only
TO find himself with bag and baggage alone on
\ the plains after sunset, with ranch of the
kind ever heard of in the neighborhood He
was forced to pass the night at section house.
the only building for miles around, :'bunking"
with gang of track-laborers. 1t got out among
the young mans friends through an indignant
communication sent by the Englishman to a
Boston paper, denouncing American methods in
practical joking
A feature of the Young. mans rnaduess
that every three days he would assume a new
identity These circumstances were not all re-
lated in the newspaper article; learned them
through inquiries which, some time after, had
peculiar reasons for making.
In the afternoon newspapers of the next day
there were brief accounts of the probable drown
young gentleman from Australia who had been
living in Boston for several months with
his uncle, Alexander Henderson. promi-
nent in the wool trade Young Henderson
had been encountered and spoken to the
Nantasket boat the previous afternoon, but had
seemed melancholy and distracted; he had not
replied. but had turned away and gazed out
over the water circumstance which struck the
reporters informant with surprise, for Hender-
con was of cheerful and companionabe dispo-
sitlon, and he could not account for the change
The missing man had last been seen leaving the
train OF the Beach railway at Strawberry Hill,
and making his way towards lonely part of the
shore near point Allerton. A thunder storm was
coming up and everybody had left the beach
After the storm his clothing was found lying on
some boulders at the foot of bluff, soaked with
rain. but apparently just where it had been
thrown In the pockets were found gold watch
and some money. The circums tances indicated
Suicide. The papers Of the next morning had a
little more about the matter. Young Hender-
sons body had been found off Cohassett the day
before, whittier the tide had carried it, and it
/ had been identified by his uncles book keeper
He had probably swan deliberately out to sea
with the intention of drowning himself His
uncle had gone to South Amerc that very day.
There were no near friends to attend his funeral
and il was altogether most melancholy affair
Now, as am George Henderson, from Aus
tralia, 1t is evident that did not drown myself
The whole story is a singular one
Ny uncle was in the wool business as the