Madison times. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1884-1???, 1888-01-14
DENSLOW'S CURE.


wouldn't ha' brung it to ye,"
The speaker was tall. gaunt Ar
kansas boy" and the lady he address
cd was Madeline Field, smart, girliSh
woman, standing bareheaded under the
bright, cloudless sky of an Arkansas
SUMMER.
A soft. dimpled hand shaded her
eyes, and the floating white of her
I morning dress enveloped her like a
summer cloud; altogether it was a
striking picture.
The big, rough bearded fellow stand
ing in his ungainly market wagon, the
/, tired mules with heads down-hanging,
: and their ragged-looking ears pathetic
ally happing at the persistent fies. the
rustic basket up-plled with luscious.
satin-cheeked peaches, and the latticed
box of fowl In the rear
Not at AL an unpleasant picture"
thought the weary invalid, Burt Dens-
low. as he sat down opposite them and
noteu the nomely events.
He had the eye of an artist. and al
ways found the picturesque especially
in this wildly romantic village in the
Ozarks.
So he watched The small figure of
this pretty blonde as she stood there
negotiating with the native for an sex-
change of fowls, as she said one of the
hens she had bought, at his previous
visit, was blind; another, she said. had
fits and she was obliged to have its head
cut off. while the third .faying hem
persistently crowed every morning. to
her distress and tina: of the invalid
mother, on account of. whose health the
two had come there from Northern
town.
Matters being satisfactorily adjusted.
the man drove on with a loud crack of
his lashed whip, and sheswent into her
cottage bearing basket of those
tempting peaches. ~
Twenty-three years before her moth
er had married DIR. Field, who was an
army surgeon, and she hospital
Lurse, self elected, coming South from
her quiet New England home to do her
share in the great struggle between
North and South. Her lover had been
killed in the first of the war, and she
took her aching heart down into the
blood-sprinkled Southern hospitals,
and DIR. Field had wooed and won it in
this unromantic lie, aud Madeline,
their only chlld, was natural physi-
clan.
She could never see pain or illness of
any sort that she did not seek TO re-.
leve it. 1t was a perfect passion with
her.
She had eagerly read all of her faith
or books, and only the strongest op-
position from both parents prevented
her from regularly studying fo- the
profession. Like all lobbyists she had
a great many theories.
She practiced on her young friends
when ut school; all the servants. since
she was child. had come in for Il share
of "Miss Maddie's doctoring," and
even her parents were Obliged to SUBJ
NIT to her tyrannas rule in that par
ticular.
Bringing her mother to Wanako
Springs had been her idea entirely.
She had learned thai the water there
was absolutely pure, hence. she sad,
having very little of the sol ds, il must
eliminate i'll. which in her mamma
took the form of rheumatism, but as
she to this day suffers Still from the
dread companion of damp atmosphere
and north lake winds, it Is safe to as
sumo that Madoline's theory failed ip
this instance at least Another of her
theories was that starvation would take
any poison from the system. and once,
when only thirteen, she had starved
herself for several days in order 10 re-
lieve herself from the poison of ivy.
Her cure (whether il were faith
or 'mind over NATTER, is not known
to this day) was certainly effected. and
she always held that up as a living ex
ample.
At the time of which Iwrite WanakC
Springs was not the thriving metropo.
Titan town il now is, with its huge cu
stone hotel its railroad, and its omni
bus lines
1t was twenty miles from the railway
and essentially backwoodsy, with it:
sbaky little cottages set up on pegs,
and its unlighted streets, and mixed
society.
At that time they had regularly ex
perience meetings where the invalid:
stood up and told what the waters O
z the springs had dous for the good o.
their afflicted bodies, At one of thes'
meetings Madeline met. Burt Denslow
and he frankly said he was not fast i'm
proving.
Here, then. was chance for her Il
experiment Some one of her hobbie
might here be safely ridden.
She looked at him earnestly. III
was not an uninterestinG subject--t;ll
well-built, and dark, with tho black
ness almost of an Italian in his hair
though his beard seemed TO have takel
some of the blondness of his far bacl
Danish ancestry, aud his complexion
was pale and cocrless rs marble al
most. They. became good friends
Electricity and starvation were piaInl
invented To cure this ease.
Denslow was NOT so i'll that he coui'
not see how charming q little girl thl