The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-07-16
RISING sun, CEClL COUNTY, MD. FRIDAY,

without my wife's assistance-she is
wonderfully good at deciPhering bad
writing-I managed to read the follow
ing words:
II have long held theory that any
disease, and even the effects of poisons,
could be produced in himself by any
strong-minded man fully acquainted
with the symptoms, and who chose to
bring to bear all the influences of a
powerful will. l resolved to try this
experiment, and l began over three
months ago to simulate the symptoms
caused by morplia.
''To make sure that my counterfeit
was good, 1 determined to carry out the
deception so as to impress my friend
j, who had himself feigned insanity
so successfully as to deceive the med
ical officers and attendants in an in
sane asylum. This has been a most
onerous, and in fact heartrending,
task; for l have been obliged, in order
to be consistent, to assume all the false
hood, the fraud and the degradation
which morphia produces in it's slaves.
But l have carried my experiment
beyond my power of control, and to
such an extreme degree that / am now
dying as though poisoned by morphia,
when have not used the drug in any
form. I have done this by the exercise
Of my knowledge, Imagination and will.
81 feel that cannot live, and write
this account to you who have studied
the mind and nervous system in their
normal and abnormal relations; feel
ing assured that, influential as you
know the principle of suggestion to be,
this will give you q new idea G. its
awful and irresistible power. l have
acted a tremendous lie, and am fifty
punished. There is a limit to the eff
forts of those who would advance sci
epce, and that limit is truth.
'The daily record Of my perceptions,
reasonings, emotions and volitional i'm
pulses, with their alterations, you will
find in q package which will reach you
by mail tomorrow. My last thoughts
on earth are devoted to the inquiry:
Which is the more to be deprecated:
the formation of a habit by indulging
in a vicious appetite, or, by perverted
imagination and will, to create all the
morbid phenomena of that habit, and
finally to die from the condition thus in
luced2
81 pray you to beg j to forgive
me for the distress my experiment has
caused him. He has been so forbear-
ing with me that reproach myself
most grievously for the pain and dis
gust I have made him suffer. 1 have
endeavored to make some reparation
by giving him the whole of my estate.
You will find the will in the package,
duly executed.
"When you read these lines I shall
have perished through q misguided
zeal, but with the full conviction that
wicked thoughts and impulses, if yield
ed to, may become an abiding principle
in ones mental organization. How
necessary, therefore, to keep the
thoughts pure and good, not only that
an evil nature may be avoided, but that
a noble one may be produced. E. L."
"IIe was insane!" exclaimed Mary,
wnen she had, with many expressions
of astonishment and horror, finished
reading the paper. "No one but lu-
natic could have acted in this way.
Don't you think he was mad, Frank?"
II don't Know" replied. perhaps
he was, and perhaps he tells half
truth. Suggestion is powerful factor
with all of us. l can possibly form an
opinion when I have read his diary.
At present am inclined to think that
he was victim to the use of the drug,
and his story is pure falsehood, one of
the vagaries of diseased brain."-
Youths Companion.