Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1893-02-02
THE THREE CHUMS.


THE THREE CHUMS.
When 1 was in college 1 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 on 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 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 ale
glance. l know that for one was com
PEELED to change mine, so saturated did
it become with those salt evidences of a
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 a professor
of psychology without a chair, and l
drifted through period Of misery as a
student of law into literary, sharp shoot
ing; but through it all we kept up a
three cornered correspondence in which
the hopes and fears of our lives were
freely confded, with the result, think,
that we all took a 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 1 frankly
told him, and when l disapproved of
Masterson, Masterson was the first to
know it, and vice versa. 1t was helpful
it 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-lnadness
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 I were compil-
ing scrapbooks Of clippings showing how
easily Yale crews defeated Harvard
crews, and other matters Of alma mater
nal interest, Marsien was filing envel-
opes with horrors-stories Of vampires,
tales of halllcination and other unnat-
ural things.
While Mastersol 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 rersifer
whose sentiment smacked of malaria
could be his poet for the time being. I
think the only point on which Master
son and | ever really agreed was in re-
gard to Marsden's unhealthy passion for
the grotesgUe, 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 sanguine of
the result OF our efforts.
It 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 I 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 60 to
pieces if not kept in repair. It was while
trying to comprehend Marsdens mind
that Masterson became interested in
mental science, and it was Marsden's
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-nine
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 both
ends, and he was nigh unto death. Twas
the first to hear Of it, because my duties
were such that l had been able to visit
Masterson at Baltimore which Marsden,
owing to his more OF less confined duties,
could not very well do, and SO was known
to Masterson's family, who Immediately
wired me Of the precarious condition Of
my old friend. The telegram I received
at 8 o'clock in the morning of Septem-
ber day, and | Immediately repeated it
TO Marsden in Boston, adding that il was
my intention to leave New York for Bal
timore that night.
Two hours later | received message
from Marsden saying: "Wait for me. He
must not die
This was more or less unsettling. To
wait for Marsden was the very thing it
would please me most to do, but to have
bin bring his message to a close with
those four words grated on my nerves.
They did not sound exactly right.
An hour later a second telegram ar
rived from Marsdcn, which read: cam
just leaving Boston. For Gods sake wait
for mel"
And so it went all that afternoon. At
every stopping place along the line from
Boston to New York Marsden forwarded
to me the most nerve disturbing mes
sages the mind could well conceive Of,
beseeching me to await his coming al
ways, and in four separate instances as
Stunning power on my part to avert the
expected death Of Masterson that made
me suspect that Marsden himself was in
a precarious state mentally anyhow. ]
dreaded meeting him, but was neverthc-
less on hand at the.station on the arrival
of his train-and what shock it was to
me when | caught sight Of Marsdenl
His face was white as sheet; his shou1-
ders were bent as with some load by far
too great for them to bear, and his hands
trembled as though they were palsied.
When he saw mo he threw his arms
about my neck, and burying his pallid