Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1906-08-01
THE GERM
OF LOVE


/
germ produces the disease"
DO you admit that men and women
have gone mad for love?"
NO. They have gone mad while in
love. They would have eventually gone
mad anyway"
Il will produce love by means of the
imagination"
DIR. Finch. who made this daring
proposition, sat thinking, While his
companion. DR.. Hargraye. poured out a
glass of wine and lighted fresh cigar.
Presently Finch said:
"Your Alice is now about fourteen.
believe My Dick is fifteen. For my
part, match between them. when old
er, would be acceptable. How do you
feel about it!''
81 should not object"
"Nery well. We will give the chill
dren lessons in germs and their effects,
then administer to each a dose, telling
them that 1t is an infection of love, aft
er which they shall be kept for time
in propinquity with each other"
agreed"
dren was given n dose of some sweet
smelling liquid-the principal odor was
of violet-and told that it would infect
them with love. Then they were pack
ed off together To n farm owned by
DR.. Finch. where they We're put under
the care of the farmer and his wife.
Alice. who took far more interest in
the disease than Dick. had purloined
the bottle from which her father had
given her the injecting dose and pro-
posed to experiment with it on her
own account. On the evening of her
arrival at the farm she poured some
of 1t into basin and watched the
pigeons drink it. When the next day
she was assured by the farmers wife
that the pigeons had paired, she was
much pleased. Dick told her that he
had been given dose, and she was
Interested to know how the disease
would first appear. But Dick found
some farmer boys, who piloted him
to the trout grounds and the swimming
hole and for the first two or three
days Alice saw nothing of him. When
he got back to the farmhouse he had
forgotten all about the love germs.
Not so Alice. She watched eagerly
for the first symptom OF the infection,
feeling her pulse and looking at her
tongue dozen times Il day. In her
letters home, which she was told to
mail once a week, she said that she
didn't think the potion could have
been strong enough, because she didn't
feel any different from when she left
home" Her father showed the letter
to his friend Finch in triumph, but the
confident Finch told him to wait Soon
after this letter came from Dick to
his father, in which he mentioned the
fact that Alice had said that he needed
more of the injecting dose, and she
was cramming it into him.
A month passed, and the doctors
We're beginning to consider the expert
ment failure, when letter came
from Alice which changed the situa-
tion.
1--WE got the disease she said, "and
l feel so funny. | like it. Dicks got it
too. l got it first, then Dick came
down with it. | wonder which will
get well first. 1t is the incest disease
| ever had. Nothing at all like that
nasty old measles"
Dick wrote in different vein. alice
says that I'm infected" he said, but
| don't know. | don't feel exactly as
she does, but l suppose she's right
about It,"
Drs. Finch and Hargrave met on the
street soon after the arrival of these
letters, and Finch crowed over his op-
ponent, though he consoled him on the
ground that their friendship would be
continued by the union of their chill
dren.
The next day each received a tele-
gram from the farmer to come at once.
Fearing that their children had been
thrown under Il moving machine, they
met on the first train to start for the
/ farm. Hiring Il wagon at the station,
/ they were driving down the road when
| they met Alice walking beside a red
faced, freckled country gawk about
twenty years old in a woolen shirt, no
coat and his hair sticking through
| holes in his hat.
'The germs have worked, papa" she
exclaimed. 1--WE given Hank Dose
and he's got it too He says he's got it
awful"
Get in here" said the father an
grily and evidently unmindful of the
scientific features of the case. Alice
obeyed the order, and Hank was left
standing In the road. DIR. Finch lean
ed back in his seat, put his handker-
chief to his face and roared with laugh
ter. But when they reached the farm
house the tables were turned. There
sat Dick beside homely young wom-
an of eighteen in calico dress and
sunbonnet
I'm glad you've come, pop" he said.
I'm tired O. this business. Alice says
I've got love fever and so does Miss
ct /