The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-04-18
THE DOCTORS
LOVE STORY.
By JOHN GASTON.
Copyright, 1901, BY Authors syndicate.)

hfR. HENRY WHARTON was in
IvI love. In fear and trembling
he admitted it to himself at 1:4S
o'clock a. m. on October Ii, in
the year of Our Lord 1900, after a
season of wrestling with himself
which had lasted for five mortal
hours in the lonesomeness of his apart
ments. Over and over again he had de-
MED it to himself, but at last had been
compelled to admit it.
DR.. Henry Wharton was compelled to
be honest with himself. His entire sue
cess had been built upon the analytical
clearness of his brain. The reason of
his phenomenal rise in his profession
at an age when most men of his years
were struggling for the faintest recog-
milton. was that he never sought to con-
vince himself of anything. He observed
and then drew his conclusions with the
accuracy and impersonality of a ma
chine.
He had found it very hard to do this
in the present emergency, but the crisis
was so important and the issue so vital
that he had compelled himself to apply
the rule of his professional life to the
matter, and the habit of years had tri-
umphed and he had faced himself with
the hard, cold (or rather the warm,
pulsating) fact that he was heels over
head in love, and, try as he could, he
could not helpit. And what made mat
ters worse, all his phenomenal profes-
sional success and the glowing promise
OF the future which all indications held
out to him, appeared as naught to the
dream of the successful elimination of
his desires regarding pretty Elsie
Burns, the pink and white daughter
of the bluff old major, whose case he
had taken at the earnest request of a
friend and retained partly because OF
genuine admiration of the sturdy quail
tiles of the old soldier and partly Che
confessed in his relentless self-exam-
ination) through the attraction of the
self-sacrifcing daughter.
DR.. Henry Wharton was southerner
by birth and training. His people OF
the foregoing generation had all been
slave owners, and all the men of any
account had been in the confederate
army. He had grown up in the stupe.
Tying atmosphere of the south in the
years following the war, but after grad
uatlng from college and lying around
on the decaying and bankrupt planta
ton for two or three years he had raj
ned one day and announced his inten
ton to become great physician. More
OF the meager patrimony of the house
mad been expended on his professiona
education, and the moment he re
ceived his sheepskin he had headed fol
the great northern city determined te
WIN the first laurels of his profession
or go down in ignominious defeat. I,
mad been hard struggle, but he hat
chung to it with persistence foreign t.
the traditional qualities of the people
OF the south. Selecting a specially
'nat OF lung diseases, he had pursued il
win persistence which savored O.
'ne Yankee character, added to all th,
ardor of the south. 1t was a hare
struggle, but he won, not only as al
persistent effort wins, but with tn,
sooed success which comes from bril-
Nant attainments. In the great com
merclai metropolis of the north he be
came at the age Of 80 the foremost au
.norlty in his chosen speciality, lee
turer in the most famous medical col
,eges, counselor in the most importan
hospitals and the man most sought aft
Ct by the wealthiest patients.
II was about this time that a frien,
begged him to lend his great talents t
the case of old Maj. Burns. The maio
was veteran of the union army VIII
mad seen gallant service in the rebel
non. He was pensioner-.ith mos
modest pension, aud resided in the mos