The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1893-01-11

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So the vile dust from whence he sprung
Unwept, unhonored and unsung.
Sir Walter Scott.
THE THREE CHUMS.
When was in college had two very
dear friends, Marsden and Masterson.
We were always together, despite the
fact that there could hardly have been
found anywhere in the world three men
whose ideas en- most subjects so radically
differed. Perhaps it was the intellectual
pleasure we. derived from debating
among ourselves, with an acrimony only
possible among 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 1 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 that 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.
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 chair, and /
drifted through period of misery as a
student of law into literary, sharp shoot.
ing; but through it all we kept up u
three cornered correspondence in which
the hopes and fears of our lives were
freely confided, with the result, think,
that we all took more cheerful view of
existence than would otherwise have
been possible. 1t was the perfect candor
of our intercourse that helped us. What
did not like about Marsden frankly
told him, and when l disapproved of
Masterson, Masterson was the first to
know it, and vice versa. IL was helpful;
IL was delightful. We lived in palace
of truth, which, alas! is no more.
Five or six years was the duration of
our 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 a 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 Taie 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.
While Masterson and l 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 Marsdens unhealthy passion for
the grotesque, and we were unremitting
in our efforts to bring him down to the
real sunshiny things of life, but / can
| not say that we were ever sangJiine of
the result of our efforts.
1t was Marsden's horrible addiction to
such matters that led Masterson into the
study of psychology and Marsden HIM
| self into medicine, and if Marsden would
have gone at it in the coldly scientific
manner of Masterson / think he would
have been all right, although Masterson
carried his GOODNESS degree too far in
that he did not recognize the fact that
minds, like machines, speedily go to
| pieces if not kept in repair. 1t was while
trying to comprehend Marsden's mind
that Masterson became interested in
mental science, and it was Marsdens
passion for the insane that decided him
to become physician, SO that he might
come into actual contact with those who
suffered the things of which he read.
Each succeeded in reaching his goal.
Masterson at the age Of thirty found
himself an accepted authority on psyche
logical matters. Marsden at twenty mine
was actively connected with the medical
staff of an asylum for the insane in Mas
sachusetts, and then the end came. Mas
terson's candle had been burned at botl
ends, and he was nigh unto death. Twas
the first to hear of 1t, because my duties
were such that l had been able to yisi
Masterson at Baltimore-which Marsden
owing to his more or less confined duties
could not very well do, and so was known
to Masterson's family, who immediatel.
wired me of the precarious condition o
my old friend. The telegram I received
at o'clock in the morning of Septem
Der day, and l Immediately repeated i
to Marsden in Boston, adding that 1t wa
my intention to leave New York for Bal
timore that night.
Two hours later l received a messag