The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-20

t4ENG III III S'- Al lAAAlNtlNos
1T all depends upon the PRESENT.
ment," replied the Idiot. Sometimes
I believe they are the instructive
prophecies of a nature peculiarly re-
ceptive TO exterior Impressions Some
times I think they are mere fakes.
When a girl fails upstairs and immed-
lately has a presentiment that she
won't be married that year, in nine
cases out Of ten it isn't so much super
stition that impels her to that belief
as a sad realization that she hasn't
any man in her grip, and there isn't
anything in it. If a man is up in
balloon 10000 feet above the earth and
the thing bursts, and he has a presen-
timent on his way back that something
is going to happen to him when he
lands I'm inclined to think there is
something in it, And so it goes. There
are presenuments and presentiments.
DO you happen to be suffering from
anything of the sort this morning."
In a way, yes" said Mr.. Peda cog,
with a slight SILVER. For several days
now-in fact ever since Thanksgiving,
have been much worried by a vague
apprehension that something is going
to happen to me. l don't know pre-
cisely what the thing is, but some
how or other when I'm walking in
the street there is a persistent feel
ing inside Of me that a sign is going to
be blown off a building and drop on
my head, or something of that sort"
Mercy" cried the Idiot. Really?
We'll, you want to get rid of it right
away Mr.. Pedagog, for it is one of
the most dangerous presentiHents a
man can have"
1T is likely to come true, them" en-
quired the school-master, anxiously.
mo, indeed" said the Idiot. That's
the queer thing about that special pre-
sentiment. 1t never comes true it.
self, but in spite of that it is a most
perilous apprehension in its general
effect upon the victim. l had a friend
once who suffered from it, and the
things he went through because of
it were enough to kill any ordinary
man. Fortunately he was constitu-
tionally a giant and he survived, but
until he got the presentiment under
control his life wasn't worth five min
utes' purchase"
you interest me hugely" said Mr..
PedagOg, uneasily. Would you mind
outlining your friends case for my
benefit"
Certainly not" said the Idiot. only
too glad to because it may help you
out of your own predicament. The
chaps name was Swallerbox. He was
a New Highlander by birth and came
of mighty sturdy stock. When he was
in college he played center on the
varsity eleven. and rowed number
three in the crew. tell you that to
give you some idea of his physique,
and to explain how in spite of all that
happened to him he survives to this
day After taking his bachelors de-
gree he became a book-agent and sold
THE Worlds Deepest Thought in one
volume, in the West for two years,
after which he came to New York
and became a member of the Curb
Exchange on Wall street. Everything
went well with him until three years
ago when he was suddenly seized with
this awful feeling that on his way to
business some morning a sign would
be blown off a building, would fall on
his head and knock him out. Try
as he would he couldn't rid himself of
that apprehension, and when he went
to bed at night he was almost afraid
TO go to sleep for the obsession was
so strong he dreamed the thing was
happening all the time. Tommy
Virgins, one of his classmates, room
ed with him at that time, and he told
me it was awful the way Swallerbox
yelled in his sleep, and jumped out of
cape the signs he thought were falling
on him"
your description is terribly graph
ic," cried Mr.. Pedagog, breathlessly.
81 have all those symptoms. Only
last night, while asleep on the divan
in my den, to get away from a great
gilded sign bearing the legend, Mime
sheimer & Jones: Undertakers' that 1
thought was falling upon me, 1 leaped
from 10 annnh and 1an1ad cTor liy1c
upon my work table, upsetting the
ink and mucilage pots upon a series of
mathematical drawings it had taken
me two weeks to make"
That's sure proof that you've got a
bad case of it, said the Idiot. And
I'm sure the story of SwallerboX's' ex-
perience will profit you. He got so he
didn't dare walk on the sidewalk, TAX
ing instead the middle of the street.
Well-you know what that means. The
first thing that Swa.llerbox knew he
was knocked out by a trolley car, and
enjoyed a period of three weeks in the
hospital. While looking for flying
signs he had forgotten all about the
flying Juggernaut, with the result that
when everything was cleaned up, he
was minus two toes and had a dent in
the back of his head big enough to hold
q walnut. OF course he made money by
the episode, because the railroad peo-
pie paid him 50. 500 for his toes, and al
lowed him $500 extra for the dent, and
he drew $50 a week from the Accident
Insurance Companies for the time he
was laid up. but as he put it after
wards, money isn't everything. He told
me he'd rather live in the lap of woe
for a year than limp about for min
ute with a pocket full of money and
no toes to speak of. Swallerbox had
been a divine dancer, you know, and
the loss of his toes gave him a lurch
that spoiled him for the two-step and it
made him sensitive. The Boston Dip
is the only dance l can do he walled,
'and that has gone out everywhere ex-
cept in Boston, and 1 don't know
enough to live there"
Il cannot sympathize with an empty
mind" said the Bibliomaniac, who had
never danced.
Nobody asked you to-" said the
Idiot. It's the empty shoe we're talk
ing about. But Swallerbox learned his
lesson. Presentiment or no PRESENT.
ment, there he was. The pedestrian
must walk on the sidewalk. whatever
his premontons, or take the conse-
quences. 1t hadn't been rammed home
to SwallerboX that the sidewalks be
longed to walkers, and the streets TO
the trolley companies until he had had
the argumentum ad hominem presented
TO him with a bone breaking force. So.
after he left the hospital. although his
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