The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-01-18
! UOCTOR'S DOUBLE.


.,s,ums at THO Cosmos club. and as our
,rt;cular clique was nado up Of MGR
,oo from the geological survey; Her
.,rr of the fish commission, together
9Th Long. from tho agricultural bu-
eau: De Forrest of the army medical
..rs,um aud myself, then serving as
washington correspondent for New
vo,k paper it is needless to say that
,,o talk had run tho entire gamut of
..t literature and science and had for
,.. ,noIucnt settled on tho belief in dual
ursonalitics.
~ tell you. gentlemen" SAID Mer-
,ou with the authoritative air by which
w. always attempted to settle questions
nndcr discussion, "that, while | am
syi,ing to admit that there may be
s,mc things almost impossible to provo
a disprovo ciertificalIy. yet this talk
,bout dual personality. subconscious
mind AMI all such stuff is, vulgarly
neaking, simply rot" And he lay buck
in his chair with d self satisfied air, as
bough there was nothing more to be
sd on the subject.
Long took up the argument. and the
dsbatc grew rather warm as the pros
ami cons weru laid down in that OK Gu
.btdra way which we young inen are
.nt TO affect. DIR. De Forrest had thus
,ar taken no part in the discussion, but
had smiled once or twice at our asser-
tious ia way that assured us, who
snew him so woll, that he had good
tory to tell if we could only draw him
tut-
"Cono, Doctor" said Long as he or.
dared fresh round of brandies and so.
ia for tho crowd; "you ought to know
soncthng about this question for you
soid us last week that You had studied
under CIIarcot when you were IN Paris. F"
d. Forrest selected fresh perfecto
4 nom thu box at his side, lighted it in
hip usual careful way and blew few
rrgs OF smoke, which he watt bed float
,azily toward the ceiling, before he
Hoke.
4 "I7cll loys," mo began, "as Merton
Il !as just said, there arc some things
) which wo cannot as yet decide by pure
4 " physical methods. We cannot weigh
4 the soul III our most delicate balance,
4 thuugh tho scale sinks if we add but
thc fraction Of hair. nor can wo by
4 .ur most subtle reagents analyzo that
4 vital spark we call life in our Iabora.
-cries. do not care tonight to speak of
a .lip many curious phenomena which /
Il witnessed during my studies in Paris,
ior they might furnish you with cIew
y 90 the story which is to follow, but I'll
q tell yOn little incident in real life
which occurred when / was very young
Il in my New York practice and then
n leaye the question for you to decide.
81 "Whcn established myself in New
q York, back in the sixties, fresh from
81 my studies at Vienna, / joined the Bo-
"a hemia club. That was not it's name,
$d but as none Of you is old enough to re-
"a member the club it will do as we'll as
"a any other, and shall take the liberty
3a Cf cianging the names of the actors in
81 my story as we'll, for obvious reasons.
s. eve were Il rather jolly crowd at the
81 Bohemia for wo worked hard at our
s. 8 different lines all day and then met at
"a 'ht club in the evenings for relaxation
81 md to compare notes. You see we were
81 young then. aud not authorities in our
s several branches, as You all are here. I"
81 And he smiled in his quizzicaI way as
81 he Tucked round our littlo circle.
S There were two eoutherners in the
= sut. he continued, "both M. DIS,
and although greatly alike in their fea-
+ lures and marvelloualy. so in their dress.
z they were totally different n character,
and suppose it would be hard to find
81 81 & my nlnb two .neil further apnrt:in
W her moral and mental qualities. Whit
s. ng had been p-eo;icing physician ior
n sycar or mors and mad already large
a sllsnteio. He was a splendid fellow,
arge of Yrame. but straight as an ar
row. with great brown eyes that looked
you squarely in the face when he spoke,
nd' with all his ply sical strength. kind
ina gentle az woman. He was loved
45 " every one at the club. where we
Know him as the soul OF honor and gen.
dous to fault.
N Davis. on the ether hand, though
90 was OF the samu olive hued type and
aougr like Whiting in features to be
alS twin brother. had q sneering ex-
preston OF hig faoe, and when he look
ia at yon with his eyes half closed and
'nat cynical smile on his lips he made
think Of the. copperhead of his own
louislana swamps He was a heavy
ailnker and spent money enough at the
.uo. but he was never known to do a
e'gs 3SIilina act, and we we're sure that he new
s spent a dollar ON any one unless he
saAW that he would gain some advan.
$age III return.
Both of the men had ample means
s! tnelr own, but Davis had never prac.
SO far as we know, and where he
f@ nis title Of doctor from or where be
no one seemed to know. Some
aiu mat no was an expert chemist and
{53kE{aooled in alchemy as we'll, but he
caao no close friends and seldom spoke
@ bis own life.
MI 1t happened that Davis and Whit
nad never met at the club, aa each
lne but seldom, but we often ohaffed
: {5ae about the other. and from their
resemblance dubbed them the two
omios. Jekyll and Hyde would have
sa moro appropriate. but this was
81 os before Stevenson book was writ
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