The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1893-03-02
THE THREE CHUMS.

we were Always tOGeLner, despite tine
fact that there could hardly have been
found anywhere in the world three men
whose ideas on most subjects so radically
differed. Perhaps it was the intellectual
pleasure we derived from debating
among ourselves, with an acrimony only
possible alnopg the fastest of friends, the
pros and cons of every question that
came up that was the bond of our union.
Whatever the bond was, we were GER
tainly inseparable. and think. on that
last night in New Haven, when after
four years of most intimate association
we parted. each to walk alone his path
through life. there were three very tear
stained pillows beneath our respective
heads before Morpheus claimed our allie
glance. / know tilE.t for one was com.
PEELED to change mine. so saturated did
it become with those salt evidences of
sincere grief which were copiously shed
by my eyes that night .-.... 81
The parting between Marsden and
Masterson and myself was geographical
rather than spiritual. Marsden's lines
fell in the pleasant places of Boston;
Masterson's in those Of Baltimore, and
mine in New York. Marsden studied
medicine, Masterson became professor
Of psychology without a chair, and
drifted through a period of misery as a
student of law into literary, sharp shoot
ing: but through it all we kept up .
three cornered correspondence in which
the hopes and fears of our lives were
freely confded, with the result. / think,
that we all took q more cheerful view of
existence than would otherwise have
been possible. 1t was the perfect candor
of our intercourse that helped us. What
1 did not like about Marsden frankly
told him. and when l disapproved of
Masterson, Masterson was the first to
know it, and vice versa. It was helpful;
il was delightful. We lived in &. palace
OF truth, which, alas! is no more.
Five or six years was the duration Of
cur post graduate alliance, which was
broken by death first, and then by that
which is worse than death--madness;
and it all came about through the too
close application of Marsden and Master
son to their work. Marsden had always
been noted for his love of the mysterious
and morbid. In the old college days it
used to trouble Masterson and myself
not little to find how exceedingly fond
of the depressing things of life Marsden
was-that is to say, he liked to hear and
talk about them. He liked to read sto-
ries not only bordering upon but plung-
ing into the middle of the supernatural,
and while Masterson and were compil-
ing scrapbooks of clippings showing how
easily Yale crews defeated Harvard
crews, and other matters of alma mater.
nal interest, Marsden was filing envel-
opes with horrors-stories of vampires,
tales of hallucination and other unnat-
ural things. .. t.*
While Masterson and / were reading
such light and airy stories as Pelham
and "Pendennis," with Herrick as our
ideal poet. Marsden would devote his
hours Of outside reading to Hoffman.
Poe and Monk Lewis, and any yersifer
whose sentiment smacked of malaria
could be his poet for the time being. ]
think the only point on which Master
son and ever really agreed was in re-
gard to Marsden's unhealthy passion for
TIE grotesqre. and we were unremitting
in our efforts to bring him down to the
real sunshiry things of life, but can
not say that we were ever sanguine oi
the result of our efforts.
II was Marsden's horrible addiction tt
such matters that led Masterson into ths
study of psychology and Marsden him
self into medicine, and If Marsden woulG
have gone at it in the coldly scientific
manner Of Masterson think he would
have been all right. although Mastersor
carried his GOODNESS degree too far il
That he did not recognize the fact thai
minds, like machines, speedily go II
Tieces IL not kept in repair. II was while
trying to comprehend Marsden's MIND
that Masterson became interested il
mental science, and it was Marsdent
passion for the insane that decided hin
TO become physician, so that he NIGH
come into actual contact with those VIII.
snfered the things of which he read.
Each succeeded in reaching his goal
Masterson at the age of thirty fount
himself an accepted authority on psyche
logical matters. Marsden at twenty min,
was actively connected with the medica
staff of an asylum for the insane in Mas
sachusetts. and then the end came. Mas
terson's candle had been burned ut bot
ends, and he was nigh unto death. Iva
the first to hear of it, because my dutie
were such that had been able to yisi
:. Masterson at Baltimore which Marsden
owing to his more or less confined duties
could not very well do, and 80 was know
to Masterson's family, who immediatel
wired me OF the precarious condition o
my old friend. The telegram receive,
at . o'clock in the morning OF Septem
ber day, and Immediately repeated
10 Marsden in Boston, adding that it wa
my intention to leave New York for Bal
timore that night.
Two hours later received a messag
from Marsden saying: Wait for me. Fl
must not die"
This was more or less unsettling. T
wait for Marsden was the very thing
would please me most to do, but to hav
him bring his message to close wit
those four words grated on my nerve,