The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-06-22
An Amusing
~onoaD
She Was Amusing Because She
Laughed ut Love.

a Laughed at Love.
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Lucy Armitage had been born in
queer little town in Ohio, and no one
who ever lived there had appreciated its
qucerness so thoroughly as she. Indeed
she was so diverted even by her dearest
friends that she made herself rather IN
popular. People wanted to like her, but
it was difficult when she was laughing at
them. They always forgave her, howey-
er, when she laughed at some one else.
And without reservation they admitted
that she was the brightest girl in town.
So they made great lamenting when she
left there with her family-her family
was more or less of an incident-and
came to Chicago. Lucy was sorry to
leave the little town, too, when she found
that she would be lamented. She began
to attach some Importance to herself,
thing she had previously failed to do be-
cause of all the absurd creatures in a
world of absurdity she had seemed the
most ridiculous. II she had 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 il n ray Of sentiment dared
to find ifs way into her mental compound
she gave chase to it with derisive mirth.
She did whatever she attempted well.
In the village there had been only the
home duties to offer vent to her activity.
and she excclled in these. When other
girls Numbered in breadmaking, Lucy
turned out white and feathery loaves.
When experienced housewives fretted
tIo -
ed now dishes. She could make dresses
and embroider, and NOW the lawn, and
curry the horse and drive a nail. Oddly
enough, none of these things had salts.
fed her-not even the drawing of nails.
They had not seemed worth while, and
she had not been interested in her own
achievements, but when she get to Chi
cago and found what an awful hurry ev'
erybody was in she got in a hurry, too,
though she laughed all the time at the
senseleSs fret and rush and made carica.
lures of Chicago street scenes on the
edges of her schoolbooks. She, who had
been an Indifferent student, took 4 fancy
to hustle herself through high school.
and. that over. she cast about her for
some further fields of work. She had de-
cidcd to become part of the breatbleSs
and preposterous procession.
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 dog
matism Of the young. She sent away a
number Of ardent lovers.
Love-" said Lucy. "It's an illusion
Any one over 40 will tell you that"
But you are under 90" said one of the
protesting ones.
San accident" cried Lucy. "a mere
blunder on my part. 1t will take me 90
years of my life to rectify it, and I shall
be so busy doing it that l really shall be
able to think of nothing else"
To herself she said:
"Nhen / marry, it shall be for-fol
reasons of state, so to speak. I shall
marry q capable, brilliant, physically per
feet man. 1 believe in the survival OF the
fttest. believe in the selection of spe
cics. This girlish 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.
81 am going D be q nurse" she said.
The more she thought of the idea the bet
ter she was pleased. For what other
purpose had that magnifccntly strong
body been given her? She felt rs II she
could radiate strength and courage. She
was taken for probation on the merits Of
her general bearing and intelligence.
"But I'm afraid you are too fond of ex-
element" the head nurse said kindly.
you seem to hare high spirits. fear
you will not be able to stand the disci
plinc and the confinement"
But it seemed to Lucy the place for
;,xb = onnaornl 70 no
over, the most exciting of places-as stir.
ring 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 pomposity of the
doctors, the solemn reverence with which
they regarded themselves even in the
face of outrageous blunders and errone-
GUS diagnoses and futile experiments, the
hypochondriacal whims Of the patients,
the dry sloughing off of all moral respon-
sibility 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 deli
ciously funny to Lucy. She made herself
both friends and enemies by her i'll advis-
ed merriment.
doctors are absurd" she commented
frequently. Il have never seen anything
so owlish and so ineffective as doctors.
The way they set up theories before
which we all fall PROSTATE and the man
ner in which they knock the same theo-
rics over presently while we servilely ap-
plaud is truly entertaining. am glad ]
came"
''You won't stay il you don't exercise
more control of your tongue" one of the
truly obedicnt nurses once said to her.
"Oh. WE'LL" said Lucy, "the cars still
run by the hospital. can get away"
Eut for all her nonsense she was seon
counted one of the best practitioners the
hospital had ever known. Her steadiness
of nerve was remarkable. Her pulse
remained when she witnessed or assisted
at an operation. 1t seemed rs if she
could diyest herself of her own person
atty entirely for the purpose of serving
:be inert creature on the operating table
The majesty of life seemed n poem to her
at such moments. To preserve at any
cost the fragile, divine, mystic, elusive
thing which all the science in the world
could never synthesize seemed to her half
godlike. The physicians gave her ex-
travaSant praise.
But still do not like do tors" she
said.
Sometimes she did not like patients
either. There was one old lady, for ex-
ample, who never could divest herself of
the idea that Lucy was a common serv-
ant and that whatever else she did she
must never sit down. One day the girl
had been on her feet for hours waiting
upon the patient, rubbing her, feeding
her and caring for her in fifty ways, and
at length even her firm young body ached
in every bone. She dropped into chair
for a few moments Of needed rest.
EAIiss Axrnitaaa-" said tia aussslsss