The Republican., 1897-04-22
IDEAS COME AT NIGHT.
So This Man Thought He'd Get n
Photograph.

PhOnoGrapti.
"I'ye got a new cure for insomnia" :"
said busy young surgeon-there are
few-the other day. Il haven't tried
| il myself, but a friend of mine has and
he says it works like charm.
Like most great inventions, it was
discovered quite accidentally. In the
first place, l generally keep pretty late
hours. One has to, you know, in my
| profession. At any rate-well, never
mind. the hours are late. As have Just
intimated, | take a great interest in
my profession and have written q few
| things along that line. Well, sir, when
] get fairly into bed. with the lights
out and everything favorable for sleep
ing, what do you suppose my old brain
| begins to do?
1T begins to scintillate. O. yes, it
! does, 1t gets right down to work and
! il turns out some of the best ideas along
the line of surgery that the medical pro
fession has overheard. But, YOU bet.
! can't be hopping up at four a. IN. and
, lighting the gas in order to put these
things down on paper. Why, I'd never
get any sleep if did. So | try to fix the
idea in my mind and hammer it there
/ with about so ways of thinking of it in
the morning, and then | turn over and
go to sleep, or used to.
well, of course. you anticipate that
didn't remember the idea in the morn.
ing. Not a bit oft. Gone! clean gone!
1t was dreadful. | tried all sorts of
ways out of the difficulty, and finally l
landed on the brink of insomnia. I'm
not dead sure that | wasn't over the
brink.
IF | lay there in bed and tried to i'm
press the idea 50 firmly on my mind
that l couldn't possibly forget it in the
morning / got myself so wide awake
that | could fairly feel my eyes popping.
Then | tried another plan. l would get
up, light the gas, write out my inspira-
ton, and then put the gas out and WOO
sleep again. But it wasn't any use. l
lay awake for hours.
FINALLY brilliant idea struck me
Said | to myself:
"'If | could just lie there in the dark
and think my thought and be done with
it, I'd be all right! By George, I'll dc
it! I'll get phonograph and think
out loud when I've any thoughts that
are worth preserving.'
Il didn't get around to the phono-
graph, however. 1t was last spring
when l thought of it, and during the
summer l ran down in Jersey to spend
Sunday with literary chap l know
down there. Well. sir, what do you
think was the first thing | saw i'll that
fellows room, jammed up close to his
bed, as if it was an animal ready to
swallow him? o, of course, you guess!
1t was phonograph.
"Hello.' | said, that's a good idea!
/ know what you have got that there
for. I'm going to DO the same thing
myself. I've let fame and fortune get
away from me because haven't had one
of those things handy
''Well, the fellow smiled and blew the
dust off the cylinder.
Yes he said, 4. know That was
my idea, too when bought this thing
I'd been doing that old trick a long time
myself. I've lost a library full of mas
terpieces by not remembering the
things | thought of during the night.
But I'll just tell you that the phono-
graph won't make you famous that way
Not by the whole ladder! But it's a
good thing, just the same.
"'Because a COW isn't canary bird
is no sign that it isn't an excellent cow.
This phonograph hasn't favored me
with any echoes of my night thoughts.
but-hold on. Do you want to hear a
snOre what is a snore? 4 regular IL
tanic, G0-fathoms-deep breath from the
ocean of oblivion!'
IF you'll believe me, the fellow got
out cylinder, put it in, and turned on
the machine. Talk about circumstan-
tial evidence! If that man had pro
duced watchers who had sworn that he
never closed his eyes in sleep. that
phonograph would have convicted them
all of perjury.
~! and the young surgeon closed
his eyes with a sigh of envious rapture,
ITO sleep the way that man did when
that phonograph was taking its obser-
vations. And he says he does it every
night. He hasn't had single dead-of-
the-night idea to confide to that phono-
graph, and he vows it is sure cure for
that form of insomnia. N. Y. Sun.
NIs..E