The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-08-26
Wall Street T1an'S
Experience

In the New York Evening Post a stall
ented writer signing himself -. P. NJ"
writes:
1 have never been shut up in dark
cell, but 1 have talked with men who
have BEEN and I can readily understand
why a prolongation of such punishment
brings insanity with it. The best of US,
who have what We eall-internaI resources,
break down at the sudden loss Of our en-
vironment We lose our bearings. The
points Of the compass disappear. Our
relation to things is disturbed. We begin
TO grope after an adjustment. We turn
and devour ourselves. To be lost in one
own abyss is insanity. Really, 1t is IKE
the tabled act Of the helpless reptile that
pIunges his fangs into his own BODY.
Very few minds can stand the test Of
being driven in on themselves And yet
it is in those cloisters that we carry with
us that we oftenest run across ourselves
as we grope in the dark, and then, may
hap. we sit down and become our own
father confessOrs.
Nothing can be more interesting than
the experience Of a man who has lived
for years on the periphery Of life, and is
suddenly plunged into the dark Of his
own being. 1t is not unlike that other
experience which most Of US have had
at some time, Of waking up in a dark
room at night and feeling that cold shad-
ow Of consciousness that one does not
know where he is creeping over him. You
t-y to remember where the window was,
you try 10 make memory take the place
Of c0gnition and undertake to recon-
struct your place in the universe. But
for the time being you have lost your
own trail. Then there is q slight cold
shudder in the soul for a moment. A
voice cries out: Il am lost!' It is only a
passing spasm Of the sub-conscl0usness,
out you never forget It. I think. myself,
II is a prescient apprehension by the soul
and preigures in a dumb way the ex-
perience that awaits all souls when they
pass from one condition Of existence to
another. I recall that once, at what pur-
ported 10 be a spiritual seance, an unex-
pected message was received from what
claimed to be a spirit-one who had been
very dissolute. but withal a very lovable
man. It came among a number Of inco-
herent impossible and puerile mes
sages, and threw momentary chill upon
put was: Where are you, Bob?" and
the answer was: wandering in the cold
and dark, between time and eternity"
THE DARK CELL EXPERIMENT.
A man can try the dark cell experiment
by being his own jaller and locking him
self up in the wilderness, as I did. At
least so I thought when 1 executed the
feat Of banishing myself from the mode
Of existence TO which I had been habitu-
ated. For a month I went through very
much the same experience that attends
the waking up in a strange, dark room.
1 had left my environment behind me,
not because had lost the desire for it,
but because it had betrayed the inten-
ton Of killing me ruthlessly and sudden
ly. One of two changes was offered me.
I was 70 abandon my existence or my
habits. If one should, with the magic
power of Aladdin's lamp. transport a
man from the seething board of brokers
and set him down in the stu waste of
the Syrian desert the change would not
be more absolute than was mine. The
doctors prescription was. Come back to
Hecuba-" 1 thought at the time that !