The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1908-02-13
CAN'T GET OVER
LOSS LOSS OF OF FIRST JOB.
Famous Surgeon Still Dreams
of Event OF Thirty
Years Ago.
From the New York Sun.

One of the highest rated surgeons in
New York recently was brought into a
little talk about dreams.
A patient ofsthe surgeons had said:
II should think. hacking way at folks
three n four times a day as you do,
that your dreams at night would be pref
ty middling hideous. Should think you'd
wake up of mornings not only unre-
freshed but with a mind burdened with
the memories of horrible dreams"
The surgeon laughed at that.
wholly wrong he said. I'm one of
the best sleepers on this island. When I
wake up l usually fall to whistling with
in a minute or two. My wife frequently
rebukes me for that. She considers it's
bad luck for a fellow to whistle before
breakfast. 1 think, though, that her real
reason for discouraging my morning
whistling is that / have a poor ear for a
tune and she can't abide my music.
We'll, anyhow, I sleep between eight
and nine hours every night, and sleep.
too, like a dog full of cornbread and
pot liquor. Rarest thing in the world for
me to dream atsall. But when : do dream,
what do you SUPPOSE
The prosperous surgeon broke off into
a little chuckle.
My one dream, when I d. dream" he
went on, sis a dream of fear that I'm
going to lose the only job I ever held
down before 1 went to work at my pro-
fession. When l was a young fellow I
went to work as a clerk in a silk mill
over in Paterson. My father was a strng-
Cling clergyman and there was a whop-
ping big family of us. All of us. boys
and girls, when We came to 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 remember 1t. I wasn't a poor sort
Of clerk at all. At any rate I appeared
to give satisfaction to my employer. But
after I'd 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 I 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. Eel
lows at desks all around me were getting
their fateful layoff envelopes, and that of
course kept me in a. state of constant
panic. 1 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 uncommonly
tickled to know every time that it had
been but a dream. I never had the nerve
to go to my boss and ask him, SOS to get
it off my mind, how long he intended to
permit me to hang around on my job.
Probably he wouldn't have told me any
how, being a worried man.
II know now, of course, that the kind
ly boss really permitted mo 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 1 was one, and about how
I was studying to be a doctor. My work
wasn't necessary to his business at all
through the silk depression, and L was
really a pensioner.
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-
tce.
But that one dream has never deserted
me-. I do not take many chances on dam
aging my health. But whenever 1 do, al
q class dinner or blowout or some social
affair, overeat or oversmoke or some.
thing, and then pass through a nigh,
somewhat more restless than Is usual
with me, that's the one dream that ever
comes back to make me toss and turn
over-the dream that In going to lose q
lob thai / had more than 20 wears apob