Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1908-02-14
CAN'T GET OVER
LOSS OF FIRST JOB
Famous Surgeon Still Dreams
of Event Of Thirty
Years Ago.
From the New York sun

From me new YORK sun,
One OF the highest rated surgeons In
New York recently was brought into a
little talk about dreams.
A patient of the surgeons had said:
II should think, hacking away at folks
three anu four times A day az you do,
that your dreams at night would be pref
~ middling hideous. Should think you'd
wake up of mornings not only unre-
freshed but with a mind burdened wit
the memories of horrible dreams
The surgeon laughed at that.
wholly wrong he said, Tn one OF
the best sleepers on this island. When i
wake up / usually fall 10 whistling with
In a minute or two. My wife frequently
rebukes me for that. She considers it's
bad luck for a fellow 10 whistle before
breakfast. l think, though, hat her real
reason for Encouraging my morning
whistling is that l have a poor ear for a
tune and she can't abide my music.
Well, anyhow, / sleep between eight
and nine hours every night, and sleep,
too, like a coon dog full OF cornbread and
pot liquor. Rarest thing in the world for
me TO dream at all. But when / do dream,
what do you suppose
The prosperous surgeon broke of into
a little chuckle.
MY one dream, when j do dream" he
went on, SIS a dream of fear that I'm
going to lose the only job 1 ever held
Town before / went TO work at my pro-
fession. When / was a young fellow i
went TO work as a clerk in a silk mill
over in Paterson. My father was a strug-
Cling clergyman and there was a whop-
ping big family of us. All of us, boys
and girls, when we came 10 an age to do
anything had TO pile in and help. We all
got jobs somewhere.
My job paid me IS a week. 1t was
counted a pretty good job at that time.
AS l remember 1t. / wasn't a poor sort
of clerk at all. At any rate | appeared
to give satisfaction 10 my employer. But
after ia been working at the job for a
year or so and was all tied up trying to
learn how to be a surgeon a period of
depression fell upon the silkmaking bust
ness in this country and the factory
where | clerked began TO lay off hands.
Then, from operatives in the mill. office
hands began to be ~furloughed. | stuck,
but my tenure was very uncertain. Fell
lows at desks all around me were getting
their fateful layoff envelopes, and that of
course kept me In Il state of constant
panic. l needed the eight per most dis
tressfully, and the thought of having it
taken away from me was awful. 1t ran
me down in health and vitality.
Il dreamed every night during that
somewhat ~protracted period of suspense
that / was jobless, and when I'd wake up
IN a cold sweat, but most u~ncommonly
tickled TO know every time that ii had
been but a dream. / never had the nerve
to go to my boss and ask him, SOS to get
IL off my mind. how long he intended to
permit me 70 hang around on my job.
Probably he wouldn't a told me any
how, being a worried man.
"I know now, of course, that the kind
ly boss really permitted me to hold on
to my job through all the trouble for the
silk industry solely because he knew
about my circumstances, the size of the
family of which | was one, and about how
| was studying TO be a doctor. My work
wasn't necessary to his business at all
through the silk depression, and / was
really a p~ensioner.
After eight or ten months the silk
business picked up, and the laid off hands
and clerks were taken on again. and /
went ahead and got my sheepskin and
eventually worked my way into a prac-
tice.
But that one dream has never deserted
me. | do not take many chances on dam
aging my health. But whenever l do, at
a class dinner or blowout or some social
affair, overeat or oversmoke or some
thing, and then pass through a night
somewhat more restless than Is usual
comes back to make me toss and turn
over-the dream that I'm going 10 lose a
job that ] had more than 30 years ago"