The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-02-02
"Only a thorn!.

the spine, 1eellnS lCS pOluC Will
finger that we certainly should not
have venturcd near it had it been a
poison fang. s'And there's nothing
else in the wound?" Jock asked.
''Not thing else. "
"And you mean to tell me that I've
wasted two hours of my time, to say
nothing of bottle of our best brandy,
in walking about a Greaser that has
nothing the matter but thorn in his
foot? Well, [ am darncd." !"
"That's about what you've been
doing" the doctor said quietly.
"Well, I am darned." Jock turned
with look Of righteous wrath to the
wretched Mexican, who was lying In a
comatose heap in my arm but the
first sight of his face checked the
words unspoken.
"Shakc him up; keep him walk
ing the doctor cried.
"But you don't mean to tell me, :"
Jock began again, when he had sue
ceeded in arousipg some sign of life in
Louie, "that all that, pointing at his
distended features, rs the cactus
thorn?'
"There's not mite else in the
wound
"Well, 1 am darncd.'
Cali the same" the doctor added
quietly, she d have died if you hadn t
kept him going
"Died! What OFF,
"Snake-bite-shake him up there !;
don let him go drowsy. ~
'Snake-bite! Heavens and earth, |
thought you said there was nothing in
his foot beyond the thorn
Then the doctor went up to Jock
and laid hand on each of his shoul-
ders. and said, very slowly and dis
tinctly: "You mark me, Jock Peters,
we're in face Of a bigger thing to-
night than snake-bite. We're in face
Of one of the biggest and ultimatest
facts Of human nature, and one of its
biggest mysteries-the influence Of
the mind upon the body. I've heard
of something like this case before,
although I've never seen it, nor ever
thought 1 should and that in con-
nection with . coolic and a cobra in
India. In that case, too, there was
no snake bite, although there was a
snake. The coolie saw the snake it
darted from beneath his feet. and at
the moment Qikely from the start he
gave) thorn pierced his feet-just as
it happened to the Greaser. And
that man, too, the same as this man
here, swelled up, showed all the symp-
toms of poisoning, and died.
Yhis man we'll save. You, Jock,
have practically saved him, by keep
ing him moving and counteracting the
poison by the brandy. Look at the
man isn't he nake-poisoned?"
"By all that's blue he looks it, y
Jock admitted.
s;And all the hurt he's got-thc
physical hurts just the pin-prick
of that thorn. The rest s all mental
all the swelling, the surcharging of
the vessels. mental. Now, tell me,
how do you think that man would be
but for his morbid mental state, with
all that brandy that you've given
him?"
Dead, suppose. y
"You're right-dead as dead as
you or I would be, if we set to drink
the same just now. But he-he's S
hardly drunk; he's sober. And he's
better now-heart acting better. He
bent and listened to its beating as he
spoke. "You've seen strange thing
tonight, gentlemen he added. ris-
ing again, and addressing us collec-
lively; such a thing as neither you
nor 1 are likely ever to see again.
And I'll tell you another thing about
it, gentlemen it's thing that you
won t find you get deal Of credcnce
for when you come to tell it to the
boys. There's fashion in this world
for men to believe they know the way
things happen and the thing that
happens in way they don't know
they put aside as thing that didn t
happen. So of this the doctor add
ed simply. II should only speak, as
among gentlemen, with hand on the
pistol pocket at the hip.
After awhile the awful distortion Of
Louie face began to go down. "You
can almost see it settling, like batter
pudding, as Jim Kelly said and the
foorfnl nuynlc tin~e died cut of it..