The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-05-05

| ohc suiiiiik hust ket from SOiueDOuy
else, and since we are old friends will
only ask you for twenty shillings You
shall have it back tonight before din.
ner. DO you hear? Before dinner II
l am not back at that time you may
consider me n wretch a scamp, n fraud.
l authorize you to get your porter to
throw me downstairs next time come
| here, il l do not keep my word to-day.
| ! regret not to be able to give you more
| details concerning my purposes with
| the sovereign. / may only say that it
| is wanted for remarkable business
transaction, on which the happiness of
my life may depend"
did as have always done in such
cases. He had made me laugh and
gave him the sovereign. He pawned a
few more words of honor and vanished.
| For moment the idea occurred to me
to invite the good old fellow to lunch
con. But, don't you see, n man with
| such Incredible trousers-no, it would
never do
At 6:55 o'clock the old porter opened
the door of my Office, announcing. in a
respectful tone: "Mr. Louis Degars."
Here l am, as promised, and here
are your twenty shillings,' said my old
friend Louis, slapping me on the back
and giving me friendly nudge.
by Jovel" l said, from out of the
depths of my surprise. 81 shouldn't
have thought it. Has your business
been success?"
"Of COURSE" he said, and showed me
heap of shillings with the delightful
laugh that characterizes the south
erner. There might be fifty or sixty
shillings, and l noticed that he took
them out of the pocket of brand new
pair of trousers 1t was respectful bic,
we'll cut pair, of Il discreetly dark gray
color. This explained the note of re-
spect in the porter's voice when he an
nounced my friend Louis.
Can do anything else for you?"
asked him, with all the politeness
which is extended to people who pay
their debts.
MANY thanks, nothing else. 1t will
all run smoothly now"
A few days later met him accident
ally in the street. He did not see me.
but as looked casually at him I noted
that again he wore new pair of trou.
sers, this tims OF charming chestnut
color He must be flourishing, surely.
Again. after few days he came into
our Office to make a small payment
into the bank. Almost unconsciously
! cast a look upon his legs, and discov-
ered-another new pair of trousers,
this time of an original, though not
particularly tasteful, olive mustard
green. l shook my head. How very
wasteful of him to go thus into trou-
sers. Why could he not spend couple
of sovereigns to buy new coat instead
of all these things? His blue coat sad
ly required replacing l almost said
SO to him, but was afraid he might
then ask me to lend him more money,
and only gave him friendly nod.
Meanwhile my study of the circum-
stances connected with my old friends
trousers had had the curious conse-
quence that, quite involuntarily, | be-
gan to look at the trousers of every
person with whom / came in contact
during the day And imagine what
happened. To my boundless conster-
nation, | noticed that all our clerks,
messengers. porters and other officials
never wore the same trousers more
than once. They all appeared every
morning in brand new trousers, and
sometimes they even wore one pair in
the morning and another in the after
noon. The end was that could think
of nothing but this matter; it took
ing my waking hours and in my
very dreams l always asked the
question: What in the world induces all
these sensible people to be so madly eX-
travagant about their trousers? At
last could stand it no longer. | made
some jesting remark aboutit to the old
porter, whose business it. was to an
nounce my visitors. His answer was
given in a reserved manner and with so
peculiar a smile that the dread truth
dawned at once upon me; ] was a
maniac-there was no doubt about it.
had a new. mania, a trousers mania, a
peculiar kind of hallucination. | de-
cided at once to keep the matter a pro-
found secret, and to say nothing about
it to anybody. | was especially careful
never again to breathe word about it
to any of our officials, but / could not
prevent myself from studying, with
morbid minuteness and day after day,
the trousers they wore. 1t was always
the same. Every one wore every day a
new pair of trousers, often even two
pairs in a single day. Trousers of
all sorts and conditions, striped,
checked, light, dark, long, short, tight,
widc-it was maddening!
One day l went secretly to one of our
most eminent specialists for mental
diseases. 1 put my case before him,
and was partly consoled and partly hor-
ritied when he was not in the least sur
prised, but said, with -humored
laugh: "Well, we'll, it is not so very
| bad"
What did you say, doctor? Not sc
bad? But plainly / am mad"
Mad" he said, very dryly. Yours
is most interesting case of hallucina-
lions of the optical nerves. Get away
| for month"
Time vent on, and with it my dis
ease / still did my work, and the
directors of my bank even sent me a
! complimentary letter at the close of the
year. ate and drank as usual, but all
the same ! felt that | was sinking
deeper and deeper into the black abyss
of insanity Sometimes even felt at.
tacls of sudden ill-temper. One day al
I