Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1897-02-11
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
WHERE HAD JOHN BEEN?


| Negro
After the battle Of Bull Run, when
the whole country was holding up Its
hands in dismay and breathing hard In
the first realization that the war was
not, after all, to be picnic for the north.
ern troops, I. together with many other
doctors and surgeons. rushed into Wash.
ington from distant cities. l was taken,
one rainy nightly kind old negro won.
an to her cabin on the edge Of tho city.
She came to me in tears. "Doctah, l des
wisht yoh come an see my John. He
pears mon's'ous curious, an he act des
like be 'stracted."
At her cabin l found her son, tire.
mendous fellow, as black as coal and evil
IDENTIFY an athlete, with no evidence OF u
wound upon him, but with tendency to
bear of to one side as he walked, an ap-
parent inability to talk, and possessed
Of a persistent effort to march and keep
time to martial music. which he could
not do.
Aunt Martha, as she called herself.
and asked me to call her. told me that
her son had always been strong and
healthy, and that when he left Wash
ington with the army be was perfectly
sound and ''des like de res Of de folks;
but dey fetch him back 10 his po' ole
nanny des like yoh see him, doctah,
an | des skeered plumb outen my wits,
dat is." I examined John carefully
and could find not the least thing thu
matter with him, and half believed he
was shamming.
The room was whitewashed, and ] no.
tIced streak entirely around it thatwa7
so evenly drawn that it attracted my at
tention; but in the stirring events OF
those days really paid scant heed to SO
triAing a case as Johns, and so appar-
emily trivial an indication as was that
level streak or the wall. His mother
was still talking. "De reason dat oil de
table an cheers is in de floor, doctah, ID
dat John he des runs inter all Of 'em II
dey close = de wall. Pears like he des
'bleeged T. skim along close up % eber
he kin. Dat dar streak is whar his
elbow scrapes along all day an all night,
'cep' when somebody's sittin' holdin'
his han er feelin' his pulst, like yoh Is
now" Young and inexperienced as
was, even this did not give me clew.
and I left Aunt Martha and John after
giving some triAjng advice and remedy,
both Of which knew to be wholly in.
nocuous.
l spent several years in Paris and IN
Germany after the war, and 1t was not
until 1885, that was back in Washing
ton. We had an internationl conven-
ton there at the time, and were taken
to various public institutions, among
which was little asylum for poor and
insane negroes.
In one loom. as we were passing the
door, happened to observe on the
whitewashed wall a well-worn streak
drawn so level and circling the room SO
perfectly that it called to my mind !
vision which I had wholly forgotten.
Memory was coming back to me and
slowly taking up the threads Of the war
days, when one Of the resident physi-
clans, who had missed me and returned,
said, as he Joined me at the grated door,
"Strange case. He has been like tina;
for years. No one knows why. He is
perfectly harmless, perfectly helpless az
to taking care Of himself, and he walks
and walks, day and night, and always
bears to the left. II we let him out he'd
bear of to the left and 90 in.the river