Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-04-05
DAILY STORY.
THE ELIXIR OF LIFE.
IOriginal.1

met my old college chum DiSbrow. We
hadn't met since we left college, TWEEN
ty-five years before, and would not
have known each other had we not
been introduced. Disbrow was known
TO me by reputation, for he had become
eminent In physics. l also followed
science and have achieved some repu-
tation in bacteriology. When the bride
and groom entered the drawing room
for the ceremony, DisDrow and | fol
lowed.
What perfect picture of youthful
beauty | whispered to Disbrow, re-
ferring to the bride.
How old would you take her to be-"
he asked.
TWENTY-FIVE or twenty three
A singular expression passed over
his face.
do you think her older than thatT'
Suppose l should tell you she Is
over forty"
II would doubt your sanity"
At this point the marriage service
commenced. and our remarks ceased.
When it was over and we had offered
our congratulations. DisbrOw ana
went to the supper room to partake Of
the delicacies displayed there. Help
ing ourselves. we found a coy corner
and sat down to chat and cat.
"Estwick," said DiSbrow to me. I'm
going to celebrate our meeting after so
many years by letting you into Il Sc
cret. We are brother scientists: there
fore | don't consider what am about
TO tell you Il breach of confidence. or,
rather. l consider the professional con-
fidence superior to the individual obll-
CATION. DO you understands"
"Perfectly.'
"Well, the girl we have Just seen
married is forty-two years old"
l gave gasp of establishment.
But | must go back to the begin
ming. You know when | left college
something was expected Of me-"
You were considered a prodigy" l
| interrupted.
1T wasn't the prodigy; it was luck,
| just as it was with Roentgen, only my
| luck came long before his. l made a
| similar discovery years ago. | have
| applied it as no one else has applied
| it. Now. you know that from the mo-
| ment we begin to live we are attacked
| by microbes. Cancel the microbc. and
you cancel old age. From experiments
on insects found that by exposing the
| larvae to ray since called radium
| arrested decay. But at the same time
l arrested growth. From insects | ex-
| perimentCd on frogs. kittens. dogs and
other animals. l have a pet collie fif-
teen years old as lively as puppy"
"Disbrow. has your learning made
you mad?'' .f....
| mo: | am as sane as you. But |
knew that if 1 offered any such ideas
as l dread lunatic asylums and value
my freedom l have kept my mouth
shut"
| For heavens sake. so on"
This is no place to give you any
thing more than preface to what
have proposed to tell you about the
bride. | did make my discoveries
known to one man. old Vollmar, our
professor of chemistry at college. That
was just as had made up my mind to
try to arrest decay i'll human beings
| Not long after that Nolimar came t.
me and told me that two multimillion
aires desired to join their vast for
tunes by the marriage of Il son of tn,
one to daughter of the other. but the
boy was but two years of age. Will,
the girl was twenty-four. If they wait
| OIL fiji hn Of =,
girl would he too old To produce M
heir. At least such an event woult
not be likely. Besides. the difference Of
age would be a great obstacle 10 thcil
marriage. The old man asked me if
would make an effort to arrest decay
on tie part of the girl"
Come. come, Disbrow, what non
sense is this?''
Your incredibly demonstrates tn,
necessity of keeping my secret If yol
tell it. sooner or later they'll have IN,
behind closed doors. You haven't tn,
scientific head old Vollmar had. II,
tumbled to the idea at once"
go on with your yarn
I'm not going to try amid this clat
ter of dishes and voices to tell you N,
process l will only say that the stun
bling block in my way was the fact tina
the electrons discharged from radiun
are obstructed in their passage throug
air. l was therefore obliged to put til
subject in a receiver and exhaust tn
air."
(which means DEATH
"Ah, There's where the wonderfr
power of radium comes in. 1t is sui
ficient to keep life in the subject fo
an indefinite period
But where did you get your appG
ratus? Sufficient radium for the pul
|