Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-22

er, who was an old soldier. joined us.
Look here boy" he said, after talk
ing it all over and watching me for
few days, what you need is some good.
broiled beefsteak-and plenty of it. just
you stop thinking about what you can
and what you can't eat, or do. and I'll
straighten you out in very little while"
l confess that / watched him narrowly,
suspicious that he was really just trying
to cheer me up; but went under his
regimen because l felt too weak to re-
sist him. In few days the results
seemed to justify his judgment. My iln-
plovement had barely begun when the
mail brought us some marked papers
and letter that set us all to thinking
and specializing seriously My young
DOCTOR as the papers said, had become
SUDDENLY and violently insane, and his
chief delusion was that he was a strug-
Cling young marine painter who must
finish painting. or some frightfu Gala
nifty would befall Miss Julia's letter
to me said that it was very pathetic
that the doctor was slowly starving him.
self to death on the theory that he must
not eat because he was fearful dys-
peptic with weak heart and insomnia.
He would sleep for hours and awake
from sleeplessness. If he ate the merest
tlne he would suffer intolerably from
indigestion and have spells of heart fail
ure and vertigo. Yet the other physi-
clans said he was as he had always been,
in the most robust health. In and
through it all he talked and raved about
perspective. color tones, sepia. back
grounds, and composition, with the
strangest tumble Of meaning. Miss Julia
wondered if the doctor had had me so
much and so heavily on his mind that
forces with me and allowed worry over
my case to undermine his reason.
My father shifted. Good deal more
likely that his mind was unbalanced all
the time, and he first imagined you to
be the victim of certain ailments and as
his malady grew more acute he Just
transferred them to himself. oyur trou-
bles always were mainly in his mind
and yours"
But how did they get in mine first ?"
| insisted. Il certainly did see things.
ard"
"See.. nonsense" responded my faith
er "oYu had little fit of indigestion.
YOU got the blues, you were most likely
IN love Wlth-Who We're you in love
with, anyhow. boy?" he broke off alb
ruptly. laughing.
Miss julia replied quite as a mat
ter of course. although had never fully
recognized it myself, before.
''Humph! And the doctor visited ber
too. did he? l guess 1 begin to see day-
light grunted the cynical old soldier.
NO. sir you are wrong" said ]. HE
mad not the least reason to be Jealous
OF me- l couldn't have stood a show With
her II he-And then, besides, I have not
| t"ld her-yet." My father gave a rrovl
anu stfode out, saying something humOr-
ouSly sarcastic about sap-headed bows
anu young pups who never did know
the dlHerence between dyspepsia. love
and heart failure.
but the case has always puzzled mo
ana 1t does to this day. Did the doctor
contract my malady and with it take
Gil my artists personality? Or was he
niue self-convicted of having over
zone the case with me and with the
consciousness of. that in his mind in its
lest lucid moments. did he tumble his
own personality into the desire to rectifv
his mistake with me? Or had he been
| a little insane on the subject all along
and had some of my symptoms merely
led him in the channel for which he was
| bound? He died in less than a wear
without regaining his own personality
| or his reason. He was ever and ALWAYS
| the anxious dyspeptic marine artist with
| heart trouble to the last.
| l am fifty years old now, and Julia.
| my wife, says that look and act young
Ell than l did then-and she ought to
know, for we celebrated our silver we'd
ding yesterday.