The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-04-18
COPLEY'S GLASSES.


Lillian Eleanor Barlow in Madame.
COPLEY'S GLASSES.
We had been talking over a lively in
cident in the life of one of our friends
his name was Thwaites-which had
led to a peculiarly strong development
of that individuals nose. Three of us
knew Thwaites quite well, and one of
the three had told the story to the 9TH
ers. The fourth man did not know
Thwaites personally, but he did know
q story of another man, of which, he
said, the story about Thwaites remind
ed him.
You know that eyeglasses make a
great difference in the looks of a man,
don't theyF Well, this is how Copley
came to wear eyeglasses
His eyes2 They may have suffered
from the artificial help they have been
getting from those glasses all these
years, though l believe he has had the
good sense all along to wear simple
lenses that make not the least difference
to his vision But he certainly never
took up with those eyeglasses for the
good of his eyes. 1t began as a matter
of policy with Copley.
"When | knew him first, we were
both students in a big London hospital,
trying to become doctors.
"Copley was very much in earnest,
you see. He may have been naturally
disposed to have his larks in one way
or another, but he always had a certain
shrewdness which kept him from play
ing tricks calculated to bring the pro-
fessors down on him. In particular he
knew how good a thing it was to stand
well with the dean of the faculty.
Il ought to explain. in case you do
not know, that there the dean of the
faculty is the professor who has held
Office longest, and at that particular
hospital the statutes made him very
much of an autocrat. For instance,
there were three big exams to pass in
the five years, and no student could
present himself at any one of these
three without a certificate from the
hospital he belonged to that he had at
tended lectures and demonstrations
duly and faithfully for a certain num-
Der of terms. These certificates were
signed at our hospital by the dean Of
the faculty alone. He took the reports
of the other professors, but in the last
resort his signing OF not signing might
be very much a matter of his own per-
sonal estimate of the individual student.
Seer The dean could practically stop a
man from getting his degree, even if
that man knew as much about medi-
cine as Galen.
Fortunately our dean was a good
old fellow. and he used his power not
only with justice, but with mercy
Perhaps his botanical studies made him
mild have noticed that people who
have much to do with plants and flow
ers are mostly of a genuine disposition.
He was professor of 'materia medica.
Zone day he seemed fidgety and dis
tracted when he took his place to begin
the lecture. He seemed TO be looking
over the class in search Of some one.
Presently his eyes fell on Copley. The
old man puckered up his brow and
stared at Copley through his spectacles.
"Then he began in a nervous, irrita-
BILE way Yes, sir, you. l don't know
your name, sir. You, sir. What is your
name, if you please2'
''Copley made no pretense of not see
ing that he was the person in question.
He frankly answered, My name is Cop
ley, sir.
"'Copleyf All, very well, Mr.. Cop
ley. says the old man. Mr.. Copley, /
have to tell you in the presence of this
class that unless your character under
goes a change you will never be fit to
practice the healing art. You have no
humanity. sir You are cruel. sir;
cruel.
"Copley had no idea what the dean
was talking about. and none Of his
friends could en~lighten him. Some of
the class could guess, but they did not
happen to know Copley well enough to
volunteer a hint. The truth was that
some student had been making an ass
of himself that morning with the school
boy trick of fastening walnut shells on
the feet of a cat and then turning the
beast loose in the lecture room corridor
The j~anitor had at last been obliged to
kill the cat with a shotgun. The dean
thought he had found the perpetrator of
this outrage, but he was wrong. Poor
Copley had not ven been in the college
and knew nothing about it.
LAS Copley had no idea what the
dean was driving at, he could only sub
NIT to a ~harangue, while the students
Uttered. and then after lecture go and
ask the dean what it all meant. But the
dean only stared It Copley as a par
~ticularly impudent specimen of a nor
mally impudent genus-the London
medical student
"'Go away, sirI Go away, Mr.. Cop
ley. and remember that | have an eye
on you'll
But after that the dean seemed to
have it in for Copley Twice again in
that same term CopIey was reprimand-
ed for outrageous behavior Of which he
had no sort Of knowledge. The second
time he was threatened with expulsion
for having willfully and deliberately in
toxicated a little street Arab and then
put him to sleep in the dissecting room,
where he afterward came to himself in
a terrible fright and very nearly had a
fit
Whoever was the ~perpetrator of this
villainy. the dear had. as he thought, the
evidence of his w senses as to the per-
pe~trator's identity
"'I saw you, sir, when you brought
that unfortunate child into the inner
courtyard, said the dean. 4 saw you
and wondered what you were doing
with him.
'Copley kept his head this time. 1t
was a very serious affair, and he saw
the necessity of using all his wits.
1.-THE faculty never did find out who
was guilty. 1t was a most unsatisfac-
tory investigation. Copley's innocence
was clearly established, but a disagree
able suspicion of several first year and
second year men also grew up. Copley.
| ought to say. was in his fourth year.
1.-The story of the street Arab who
had been frightened nearly to death got
into the newspapers and made a sensa-
ton. There was no doubt that it would
injure the reputation Of the hospital
The board of directors debated over the
affair at a special meeting, and all the
700 students debated over it on all occa-
sions.
'It was a nurse-of all possible peo-
ple-who gave us the first hint of a
way to put a stop to the persecution of
poor Copley She was chatting with
him, myself and a senior student, all of
us on night duty in her ward.
The thing is quite plain to me,
she said. In fact. l believe l could put
my hand on the guilty party tomorrow
morning if wanted to. But the scan