The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-07-23

lc fell quietly asleep and was not
walicncd till tho light OF morning
atroGmod into tho room.
breakfast was served to such OF Jenk-
ms boardcro as could be trusted outside
their cages, at eight o'clock. Afterpar-
taking Of that frugal meal Drane was
permitted to spend little while in the
parlor. 1t had no other occupant at
arst except short, stout man with an
abundance Of stiff, curly hair who sat at
table writing. Every time he paused
In that labor he stuck his pen behind
his ear; and when he was ready to re-
sumo his task he picked up fresh one,
forgetting what he had done with the
other. Tho consequence was that in o
few minutes the bushy hair over his
ear was full Of pen-holders, and thero
remained only the one which ho was
using. Presently that joined the rest,
and thon the little man, after hunting
about the table few minutes, gave 1t
up and pushed his paper from him.
"Tho servants hero are very careless"
said he to Drane. "They always fail to
provide mo with pens, although they
know the Importance OF my work. And
for myself, ! am so absent-mindcd, do
you know, that my forgetfdlness has
been the ruin Of my life. 1t Is true"
He loaned toward Drano imprcssively,
and continued: 81 am genius. once
wrote tho greatest poem .extant. Then
/ Imislaid it. For months searched for
tho manuscript, but without finding o
trace Of it. My cursed forgetful-
nessl Then tried to remember
what was in it my forgetfulness
again. / couldn't think Of sin
gle line. l could rsmomber only
that it surpassed Homer, Dante or
Shakespeare. The thought that had
thus cast away undying fame by mere
carelessness undermined my health, un-
til they brought me to this sanitarium.
Confound it, one might as we'll be hon
est about it. There's no sanitarium
about it. It's lunatio asylum, and
for the sake Of veracity let's admit 1t.
Here sit scribbling away every day,
trying vainly to hit upon tho single
inspiration which for moment raised
me to an intellectual height no man had
ever before attained. Thus far In vain.
But who knows-who knows What's
your own special brand Of lunacy?"
~ am sane man." said Dranc. half
angrily.
Tho short man shook his head.
"Wait till you've been here while,"
said he. Then you'll dream dreams,
and see visions. was sane enough, too,
but the atmosphere OF this place-you
don't know what 1t is. In two days
you'll have delusions. You'll see things
that aren't there-serpents OF various
hues; zebras with their stripes running
from head to tail, and revolving around
their bodies like the rNgs OF Saturn.
That's why they've put me here.
They're jealous ofmc. They don't want
me to remember the great work which I
wrote but can not find. It's q plot"
The short man was getting violent,
and presently an attendant came and re-
moved him, TO Drane's great relief.
In the course Of that day Drane en-
countered several interesting maniacs
Of mild order, but no serious incident
occurred until the evening. Then, as
he was standing in tho hall just after
supper, he heard jenkins talking to the
matron, and pointing to him.
"Parcsis," said jenkins. "You want
TO watch him carefully"
And Drane took that delightful sug-
gestion to his apartment, and medi-
tated upon It, Was 1t possible that he
was really insane? Wero the strange
events Of tho past few days which he
seemed TO remember, In reality only
hallucinations?
Who could determine, ifleft wholly to
himself, without single visible link
between him and the past, whether that
past had any real existence2 In short,
Drane didn't know whether he was
crazy or not lie watched himself for
symptoms. Did his hand tremblep
Or his heart beat too fast or too slow? He
enjoyed a nico case Of hypochondriacism
till long past midnight, and when he
fell asleep, the zcbrss described by the
forgetful genius were ordinary and rea-
sonable animals compared to those
which pranced through his dreams
But the morrow brought q great
event, no less than o call from Bessie.
She came unattended, but alasl the