The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-26
A PHYSICIANS STORY.

in print, they would be considered the wild
sensational fancics of a madmans brain.
Many years ago was summoned one even
ing to a handsome residence in the upper
part OF Whitehall street.-The street then mos
popular for residences. The mistress of the
house had been a wife three years l knew
the circumstances Of her marriage and thc
history of her whole inner life. She was al
the time of her marriage in love with man
| vino was separated but not divorced from hi:
wife, the laws of the Roman Catholic church
to which he belonged, forbidding divorce.
She married her husband because she was
poor and dependent, and in those days there
seemed little else for a woman to do but
marry when she grew up.
The husband was a man of some means, but
a dissipated reprobate, an opium eater ard
drunkard, and there had been sad stories
about the wife's wretchedness and the hus-
bands brutality since the marriage
As l entered the hallway there was an oni-
nous, uneasy look about the servants who met
me. The old negro nurse, who had cared for
the young woman since her childhood, looked
ashy with terror as she whispered:
'Come up stairs, doctor. think my chils
done dead dis time but bl'eve you ken bring
| her to lie"
followed her silently, and she noiselessly
| opened the door of the bedroom where the
mistress lay. l shall never forget the picture
| of that young woman as she lay in death like
| stiffness on the white bed, her face as white
as the pillow over when streamed the raven
like masses of her silky hair
! The delicate brows, the long, curling lashes
were jet black, and the only color about this
face Of mourning lay in the full, red lips. 1t
was strikingly like the face of Titians sleep
ing Venus, and l inhaled its strange, sad
beauty with my soul, as my brain was busy
with the question of this woman's strange
condition and its cause. | saw in an instant
that she was heavily druEged and turned to
! the nurse for an explanation.
''She been dat way five hours said the old
woman "fust | thought she was asleep, den
when she look like she done daid I sen fur
you, den fine dis bottle by her,
She handed me an empty morphine phial
went Immediately to work giving restora-
tives. By dint of coffee and compelling her
to walk two hours she finally came TO herself,
and the old nurse fairly tagged out, begged
for few minutes rest as l laid her mistress
on the bed, and so the girl and [ were left
together
She opened her eyes, now clear and brill
ianG, with q look OF recognition full upon me.
''Y GU have brought me back, she cried re-
peacefully, ooh, why did you do itT'
Through duty and through humanity" 1
said calmly. She arose upon her elbow and
her eyes flashed passicnately.
Through humanity" she cried as it
humanity to bring back to life an utterly
wretched woman? Did you think to save me
from hell by it. Why he'll would be sweet to
me, compared to this place You are brutal,
inhuman!"
But think Of your child I protested.
"The little girls soul given into your keep
ing"
my child" she cried "Ah, that only
makes me more wretched. You didn't know
took opium, too!'
A surprised stare was my answer, and she
continued:
eyes, l commenced taking it shortly after
we were married. he gave it to me and
was coward enough to take it.
Anything for oblivion; anything to make
me forget his existence and my own | didn't
know the child was coming then l didn't
think God would be so nerciless as to send
me a child after that. Wei, when the child
came l longed for death mere than ever.
What sort of mother was ! for the rearing Of
girl-an innocent, clean souled girll We
have had terrible scenes hero today. l think
he is asleep now in the ether room. Don't
you hear himf'
listened as the sound Of that weird, stem
torous breathing reached me, and an uncon-
trollable shudder crept over me.
'Ah, you shudder just to hear him." she
laughed wildly. Imagine living with him;
imagine his alternate moods of snarling i'm
beciitv and passionate, ungovernable rage.
Then think of my going on in this way and
growing like him. Think of our being the
parents of an innocent child. I shall never
have that baby grow up to know me as her
mother. shall do her the one kind act Of
dying"
tried to pacify the poor creature with all
the arguments and Kindly consultations I
could think of, but to little avail spoke OF
reformation. Ipromised myself to take her
to an asylum where she could be cured She
shook her head sadly.
They are never cured, she said. "They
lie and say they are, but its always a lie.
Before l married him be swoTe he was cured,
and believed him ! was fool and he was
a liar"
1t was past midnight when left her. APP
parently quiet She had promised to go to
=lsep, Gad the c!G nurse lay On a cot at her
feet
The next morning she was dead, and the /
story OF her death was kept secret. The (
old nurse knew that il came from hidden /
bottle of morphine, and 50 did l. but we kept T.
the fact and she received a Christian burial. /
y week later the husband left the city with /
his child, and his home and property were Z
all advertised for sale. Where ne went none (
knew, and he faded out of the life that had 4
known him as q shadow passes away with the 4
sun.
Fifteen years after that / entered an apart
ment in New York with three young physi- /
clans, who had persuaded me 70 go fortune I
telling with them that evening. The strange /
story l have Just told had come wildly up 70 1
NE by the fact that 1 discovered one of these I
young men 70 be the son Of the woman's
lover. The room we entered was the queer
est have ever seen. TIE walls were OF pol
ished panels Of ebony hung with bright PIC
lures, and having deep frieze Of poPpies on
an ebony ground.
The car e. was crimson, st-ewn over With /
black fur rugs, and the furniture was ebony.
upholstered in crimson Persian six There
were crimson six shaded lamps here and 4
there, and beside one sat strange figure,
which arose 10 greet us rs We entered
'Thsts the sorcsress," whispered Da-ieT
the young man / mentioned; as real zalns
1 VIII nos give
The WOMAN vas q small. slender creature,
all dsckei Il red satin sni black lace BeP
high hee-ad red satin shoes we're BEADED IN
bla K, aud in the black masses Of heT hair gilt
tered a crescent % ru5ieS-
der face was very dark; she Esd immense
black eyes aud crooked mouth, with Hrtls
dimples a the corners. and teeth brilliantly
white. She bowed ard sznilej 70 ths whoss