Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12

| then wrote that question both in
! French and English on a slip Of paper, and
held it before her eyes. No sign of intelh-
/ gence.
In the end I applied tests to each of her
| five senses, and satisfied myself that each
| was unimpaired After which, well,
Josephine" said, "unless all signs fail,
we have succeeded to admiration. None Of
her senses has sustained the slightest In
| jury yet she has lost the knowledge of Ian
| guage, both spoken and written. Now let
! us darken the room. Inflammation is the
| only evil consequences we have to fear. We
! must keep her in darkness and in silence
| until the wound has healed"
=
| The wound healed rapidly Not an un-
| pleasant symptom of any kind manifested
ITSELF And, as had foreseen she would
do, my patient relearned the. primary
lessons Of life with an ease and ckness
that seemed almost miraculous. iad an
ticipated this, because she was an adult;
because, that is to say, her brain, as an
organ, was Of mature development.
She began to speak as soon as ever we
allowed ourselves to speak in her presence,
at first simply initiating the sounds we
made, but very speedily coming to employ
words with understanding. A single lesson
taught her how to walk. After my sister
had dressed her twice she was perfectly well
able to dress herself. At the end of an in
eredibly short period she could read and
write as easily as I can. OF the former
capability she made good use, devouring
eagerly all such books as we thought wise to
give her. Her progress, in 3 word, pre-
.cisely eorresponded to that made by q
rapid and what fascinating thing it was
tn T mn Inn fo fa11
like watching the growth and blossoming of
some most wonderful and beautiful flower
We were permitted, 50 to speak, to be eye
witnesses of miracle. IF you had met
her at the expiration Of one year, and had
eonversed with her, you would have put
her down for a singularly intelligent and
well-informed, yet at the same time singu-
larly innocent and unsophisticated girl of 16.
Yes, mean it-a girl Of Is. For the
most astonishing result of my operation
most astonishing, because least expected
was this: That in body as well as in mind
she seemed to have been rejuvenated. With
the obliteration of memory, every trace of
experience faded from her face; you would
have laid a wager it was the face Of young
maiden not yet out of her teens. She had
said she was all but 26. 1t was unbelievable
when you looked at her now. To the des-
perate-eyed woman whom had dissuaded
from seli-destruction on that elouded sum-
mer night a year gone by, she bore only
such resemblance as young sister might
have borne. To Josephine / remarked. "Is
it possible that we have builded better than
we knew? That we have stumbled upon
the discovery which the alchemists sought
in Yain--the elixir of youth?''
sIndeed, BROTHER" Josephine assented,
'she has the appearance and the manner
of H."
ut only proves" said I, ''the truth of the
old commonplace. that it is experience and
not time which ages one, time being simply
the measure of experience. Her experiences
has been undone; that is to say, her men,
ory, the storehouse Of her experience, has |
been destroyed. Hence this return to |
adolescence"
Then laughingly offered to perform nv |
operation npon Josephine herself, to the end I
that she also might enjoy returned youth; |
which offer Josephine laughingIy declined. |
1T is very fortunate, brother, that this |
alteration in her appearance has taken
place, my wise sister added; "for now it /
will be impossible for anybody who NAV
have known her in former days to identity /
her, danger which, otherwise, we should I
have had to iear."
eyes, acquiesced, ''that is very true. %
The disposition which our visitor de-
Veioped, furthermore, was Of so sweet and l
winning a quality that in little while she
had taken all our hearts captive and be-
come the delight and the treasure of our
home. Weloyed her like daughter, and
the idea of ever parting with her was in
tolerable.N Thereupon we put our heads to-
gether, and entered into small conspiracy,
agreeing to represent to her that she was
our niece, the child of our brother, an
orphan, Is years old, by name Miriam, who
had some time since sustained an accident
which had destroyed her recollection of the
past. As our niece, recently arrived from
New Orleans (our own native city,, we in
trodueed her to our friends She recipro-
Gated our affection in the tenderest manner,
called US aunt and uncle, and was in every
respect blessing to our liyes-so beautiful, |
soigentle, so merry, so devoted.
Thus nearly four years elapsed; and it
was Monday, the 18th of March, 1888. the
day OF the great snowstorm.