Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-05-08
A PHYSICIANS STORY.

young couple who lived in the city
some twenty-five years ago.
Talk of fiction, he said. his fine eyes
beaming thoughtfully. l have known
stories in real life that. should l give
them to the world in print, they would
be considered the wild. sensational
fancies of mad mans brain.
Many years ago | was summoned one
evening to handsome residence in
the upper part of Whitechapel street
the street then popular for residences.
The mistress of the house had been a
wife three years. / knew the circum-
stances of her marriage and the history
of her whole inner life. She was at the
time of her marriage in love with a
man who was separated, but not di-
vorced. from his 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 woman to
do but marry when she grew up.
The husband was a man of some
means, but dissipated reprobate, an
opium-eater and drunkard, and there
Indebtedness and the husbands
brutality since the marriage.
AS l entered the hallway there was
an ominous, uneasy look about the SER
wants who met me. The old negro
nurse. who cared for the young woman
since her childhood, looked ashy with
terror as she whispered:
Come up stairs, doctor. I think nv
chile done dead dis time, but l believe
you kin bring her to life
| followed her silently, and she noise
lessly opened the door of the bedroom
where the mistress Law. | shall never
forget the picture of that young woman
as size lay in death-like stiffness on the
white bed. her face as white as the
pillow over which 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 Titian's sleeping Venus,
and | 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 al instant that she was heavily
drugged and turned to the nurse for an
explanation
She's been dat way five hours said
the old woman, ''fust [ thought she
was asleep, den when she look like she
done daid | sen fur you, den | fine dis
bottle by her.
She handed me an empty morphine
phial. | went Immediately to work
giving restoratives. 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 a
few minutes rest, as | laid her mistress
on the bed, and so the girl and | were
left together.
She opened her eyes, now clear and
brilliant, with look of recognition
full upon me. You have brought
me back" she cried eproachfully,
"Oh, why did you do it?''
Through duty and through human
ity," | said calmly. She arose upon
her elbow and her eyes flashed passion
ately.
Through humanity she cried. rs
it humanity to bring back to life an
utterly wretched woman? Did you
think to save me from hell by it? Why
hell would be sweet to me compared to
this place You are brutal. inhumanw
But think of your child" l pro-
tested. The little girls soul given
into your keeping"
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:
Yes, 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. l didn't know the child was
coming then. / didn't think God
would be SO merciless as to send me a
child after that. Well when the child
came | longed for death more than
ever. What sort of mother was | for
the rearing of a girl? We have had
terrible scenes here to-day. | think he
is asleep in the other room. Don't you
hear him?"
listened as the sound of that wierd
stertorous breathing reached me, and
an uncomfortable shudder crept over
me.
"Ah, you shudder just to hear him."
she laughed wildly. Imagine living
with him; imagine his alternate
moods of snarling imbecility and
passionate, ungovernable rage. Then
think of my going on in this way and
growing like him. Think of our being
the parent of an innocent child. l
shall never have that baby grow up to
know me as her mother. | shall do
her the one kind act of dying"
l tried to pacify the poor creature
with all the argument and kindly con-
dolations l could think of, but to
avail. | spoke of reformation. |
promised 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 it's al
ways lie. Before l married him he
swore he was cured, and | believed him.
| was fool and he was a liar"
1t was past midnight when left her
apparently quiet. She had promised
to 90 to sleep, and the old 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 it came from
a hidden bottle of morphine, and so
did l, but we kept the fact secret and
she received a Christian burial
Aweek later the husband left the
city with his child and his home and