Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-03-28
DAILY SHORT STORY
THE GERM OF LOVE.
IOriginal.l

| germ gives place to the imagination"
| And tell you, doctor, the magma
ton has nothing to do with it. The
| 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"
II will produce love by means of the
| imagination
DIR. Finch, who made this daring
| proposition, sat thinking. while his
| companion. DIR. Hargrave, poured out
glass of wine and lighted fresh cigar.
Presently Finch said:
your Alice is now about fourteen,
1 believe. My Dick is fifteen. For my
part 4 match between them, when old
err, would be acceptable. How do you
feel about it?'
81 should not object
Every well. We will give the chill
dren lessons in germs and their effects,
| then administer TO each dose, telling
them that it is an infection of love, aft
er which they shall be kept for time
in propinquity with each other
Agreed
y week later each one of the chill
dren was given 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 a farm owned by
DIR. Finch. where they were 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 ut the farm she poured some
of it into a 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 a 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
Not SO Alice. She watched eagerly
for the first symptom of the infection,
feeling her pulse and looking at her
tongue a dozen times u 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 a 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 examining ii into him.
y month passed, and the doctors
We're beginning to consider the expert
ment failure, when Il letter came
from Alice which changed the situa-
ton.
I've got the disease" she said, "and
feel so funny. 1 like it. Dicks got it
too. l got it first, then Dick came
down with ii. l wonder which will
get well first. 1t is the incest disease
L ever had. Nothing at all like that
nasty old measles
Dick wrote in different vein. "Alice
says that I'm infected he said, "but
1 don't know. 1 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 OPP
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 a moving machine they
met on the first train to start for the
farm. Hiring wagon at the station,
they were driving down the road when
they met Alice walking beside n red
faced, freckled country gawk about
twenty years old in a wooden shirt. no
coat and his hair sticking through
holes in his hat
1.-The germs have worked, papa" she
exclaimed 1--WE given Hank a 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 a 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
Shakers, but / don't believe it,
DR.. Finch, whose laughter had died