Evening star., 1911-08-20

miles away from where it was. he had
worried himself right into neurasthen-1a.
For my benefit G was rapidly becoming
most Internally neurasthenic myself, he
traced the progress of the disease from
its earliest recognition by the medical
fraternity right down to the last pamph-
let which had been issued on the subject
by d Berlin medical publishing house.
He had this pamphlet. in German, in his
pocket, and he proceeded 10 roughly
translate the whole of it for me. 1t only
consisted of about forty-nine pages, and
so that was easy. Then he went on to
tell just how the ne4Tasthen-Ia had nailed
him; how he had found himself aradu-
ally becoming SO that he could not con-
centrate; how he had become irritable and
erouchy; how he couldn't make dag
noses of his patients. ailments. I told
him that that meant nothing, that even
physicians who'd never had a symptom
of anything remotely resembling neu-
rasthen-la had the same trouble.)
,Gentle-men il was nearly noon before
this neurasthenic turned me loose
wanted To be polite, and was. but
smoked four more cigars than my doctor
had prescribed in listening 10 HIM, mere-
ly u keep from going roaring insane, aud
along toward the finish of his narrative |
had an almost neurak tEeuic desire to dive
headforemost down the mountain to the
lovely panoramic valley below.
~
He wasn't even going To turn me Loose
Tor lunch. but there ] hucked and ba llaed
| decided. when ! Went to my room. that
| was going TO play solitary game at
that sanitarium from then on Little |
knew. | had as much chance to stick 10
myself al that plant an aigrette has in
tie middle coke furnace In Gehenna.
When | came out from luncheon |
fGlinI OH a a nf SIT
ting around the benches. under the trees,
with wo,tish CLEANS III their Grbs. Ii was
as plain as piiestaf that they'd got it
I'll framed up to nail me soon as | ap-
peared. SOS to cut me off from the herd
and get in their work with their nara
tives Of neurasthen-la or whatever else
nailed them.
4 mddle-ased man with liver spots on
his forehead and somewhat Duibous
nose won. His method was to stick his
arm through min. and Just drag nt, off
to the Imbrage oasness OF one of the
nearby roaos. In Il frenzy of fear OF
what ] felt III my bones was going 10
pop. ] tried To beat him 10 il by chatter
ing about base ball, t..e wool schedule
the ses sion OF Congress- the funniness OF
the fuss that We We're making about the
little Jap sailorman Togo. and other top
les of the moment.
Fatuous eadeavor, IL couldn't be done.
Every topic ! sprung uIou him merely
Lit
light OF an almost Gncanny and sinister
disinterest shone in his eye What he
wanted 10 do. and what he meant i do,
and what he d.d-yea-hay what h,
did,-was 20 talk about himself ard hi:
bodily ills.
So. with sad and troubled heart.
squatted a log and lei him prong me
with his tale 1t was long as some Il
oar spouses' dreams = ID at the break
fast table wnen We want to peek at the
sporting page before hustiing for the Of
flee.
He vas there for threatened clrrhosis
of the liver. Well, yeh. he had to admi,
that he'd been something OF booze
fighter-but not in recent years, oh
nunno. nunno He'd been too a-skeeart io
toy with the red-eye in recent years. sine,
the doctors had told him that his liver
was shrinking and becoming modulated
He'd been travelling man for whole
sale paint firm in New York for many
years and of course. in jumping around
and meeting up with customers, why, the