Catoctin clarion., 1900-11-15
AN AMUSING WOMAN.

wanted to like her but 1t was dlthcul,
when she was laughing at them, but
without reservation they admitted that
she was the brightest girl in town. 81
they made a great lsmenting when she
left there with her family and went tc
Chicago. Lucy was sorry to leave the
little town too, when she found that she
would be lamented. She began to at
tach some Importance to herselfa thing
she had previously failed to do, because
of all the absurd creatures in a world
of absurdty she had seemed the most
ridiculous. If she had even entertained
an ambition she laughed herself out Of
it. Her attitude toward herself as well
as toward the world, was that of a
mocker. And if ray of sentiment
dared to find its way INTO her mental
compound she gave CHI sse to it with de-
risive mirth.
She did we'll, whatever she attempted
In the village there had been only the
home duties to offer vent to her activity
and she excelled in these. When other
girls blundered in bread-maklng Lucy
turned out white and featherly loaves.
When experienced house wives fretted
about the monotony Of fare Lucy inven.
ted new dishes. She could make dresses
and embroider and NOW the lawn and
curry the horse and drive nail. Oddly
enough none of these things had salts
fed her. They had not seemed worth
while, and she had not been interested
in her own achievements. But when
she got to Chicago and found what an
awful hurry everybody was in, she got
in a hurry too.
She went around and looked at the
city and made up her mind about men,
and women and business and politics
and religion with the splendid ease and
dogmatism of the young. She sent
away number OF ardent lovers.
Love? said Lucy, ITS an illusion.
Any one over forty will tell you that
But you are under twenty SAID one
Of the protesting ones.
>An accident cried Lucy. "A mere
blunder on my part. 1t will take me
twenty years Of my life to rectify it and
I shall be so busy doing it that | really
shall be able to think of nothing else.
To herself she said:
when I marry it shall be for-for
reasons of state, SO to speak. l shall
marry a capable, brilliant. physically
perfect man. | belieye in the survival
Of the fittest. l believe in the selection
of species. This girish sentiment that
entraps other girls shall not waylay me.
And for once she did not know that
| she was amusing.
One morning she awoke with an idea
u am going to be nurse she said
The more she thought of the idea the
better she was pleased. For what other
purpose had that magniicently strong
body been gwen her? She felt as if she
could radiate strength and courage,
She was taken for probation on the
merits of her general bearing and intel.
ligence.
But l am afraid you are too fond Of
excitement the head nurse said kindly
YOU seem to have high spirits. | fear
you will not be able to stand the disci-
pline and confinement
But it seemed to Lucy the place for
high spirits. 1t appeared to be, more
over, the most exciting of places-as
stirring and vital as battlefield. Here
were real TRAGEDIES, not mimic ones.
Here was the actual heroism. She was
interested to absorption. There was
moreover, plenty to laugh at-the pom.
posity of the doctors, the solemn rever-
ence with which they regarded them
selves even in the face of outrageous
blunders and erroneous diagnoses and
futile experiments; the hypochondriacal
whims Of the patients, the dry slough
ing off of all moral responsibility on the
part of the nurses, who came to regard
themselves as automata set in motion
by the physicians. This phase of the
comedy humane was deliciously funny
to Lucy. She made herself both friends
and enemies by her ill-adyised merri-
ment
Doctors are absurd, she commented
frequently. u have never seen any
thing 80 owlish and so ineffective as
doctors. The way they set up theories
before which we all fall PROSTATE, and
the manner in which they knock the
same theories over presently, while we
servilely applaud, is truly entertaining
I am glad came
You won't stay if you don't exercise
more control of your tongue one of the
truly obedient nurses once said to her
>Oh, WE'LL said Lucy. The cars stil
run by the hospital | cant get away.