The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1892-08-27
a CURE FOR MELANCHOLY.
The Find That Transformed . Mans
Nature.

T0o Find That Transformed . Mans
When he was but tiny little baby
Deepthinker wore an almost painfully
thoughtful expression on his lace.
While yet in the cradle he seemed to
have premonition that life was not to
be joke with him. He refused to play
with his own pretty toes or to be
amused by the ordinary toys found in
every well-regulated nursery. He
seemed to have an infantile dislike for
Pope's lines:
Behold the child by natures kindly law
Pleased with rattle, tickled with straw.
80 far as his own case was concerned,
he proved Mr.. Pope to be wholesale
falsifier. He refused to be pleased or
tickled with anything. His whole de-
pertinent said palmer than words could
do that if he had his life to live over
again he wouldn't do it. During child
hood and youth his melancholy seemed
to become more intense than ever. He
was awful sorry about everything.
Everybody said that falling in love might
cure his malady, but it didn't. After he
married he was so sad that grass would
not grow in the yard about his house,
and every dog that caught sight Of him
howled mournfully. II he had wora
blue goggles the world would not have
looked any darker to him. Other peo-
pie who had an idea that they were sad
about something gave up the thought
ON seeing him. They felt that their
burden was a. nothing compared with
his.
He tried attending the theater and
base ball games, and even read the
funny papers, but nothing could bring
q smile TO his face. He grew worse as
he grew older. His wife became alarm
ed, and consulted doctors, preachers,
lawyers, and fortune tellers, but all to
no purpose. She felt assured that his
long, deep, impenetrable night of gloom
would some day end in suicide or insani-
ty. She expected it any time, and so
did all the neighbors, who used to look
anxiously into his face every time they
met him.
Last Sunday morning he seemed to be
particularly gloomy as he went to his
room to dress for church. Presently
his wife heard sounds of violent fits of
laughter coming from his apartments,
and she knew that her worst fears were
rcalized-that the melancholy strain
had been too much for him and his
mind had given way. She trembled as
she thought of the consequences. She
dared not let him know that she noticed
the change in his manner. On the way
to church he laughed 20 heartily that
everybody stared, and several times
during the services he haw-hawed till
he created q scene. When church was
out he shook hands with everybody and
kissed the babies and smiled on the
young ladies, and acted altogether very
much like a clown in the circus
By and by . hope began to dawn in
his wife's mind that may be his joility
was of a permanent nature. What
change her home would undergo from
gloom to sunshinel On the way home
he acted like an infatuated lover, and
when they got inside the house the wife
mustered up courage enough to ask
him: why, what great change has
come over you, Philetus? You don't act
as you always have. What makes you
10 happy"
Good luck, my dear; . stroke Of
good fortune. Quite enough to make .
whole neighborhood glad. Now that
the gods are on my side, shall hence
forth be q changed man." said he.
Don't you see," he continued, II put
on my last summers vest this morning,
and in one of the pockets I found
quarter ! didn't know was there.
Hoppe! hal ha! Let her go, Gallagher
Chicago News.