The Springfield herald., 1912-05-10


do not know If there be any drug
In the Pharmacopoeia, or any clearly
defined medical treatment, which may
ever hope to grapple effectively with
the strange disease of jewel-hunger,
but if there be not, have much pleas
ure in recommending this most singu-
lar i'll to the notice of rising genera
tion of physicians. That it is branch
of that mystery of mysteries. la new
rose. have no manner of doubt, for
/ have seen it in all Its forms-a NAL
ignant growth which makes night of
the lives it plays upon: and fourishes
TO exceeding profit down in the very
heart of tragedies. For the matter
of that, the flunkies. who study in the
kitchen-as the great master has told
us-the characters of their govern
ing acquaintances In the boudoir above
over a quart pot and the Police News,
get no little insight into the develop
ment of the social disaster which
treads often upon the heels OF Jewell
hunger as they read those eXtrava-
gantly ornate reports of robbery and
OF mystery in which highly moral
people revels. These are but CLEAN
ers in the field-to them the inner life
must remain hidden. No physician
hoping to cope with the affection
should turn either to gossips or to
slanderers for his diagnosis. Let him
get down into the caves of the trade,
give his ear to the truer narrative
which the jewel dealer alone can write
Rny 1t he, q, f,r rtob
and for success. And II he be wise.
he will study both the comedy and the
tragedy which such an investigation
will bring before him. and will by this
means alone set himself up as a spe-
cialist.
1t is to such one that I would rec
ommend perusal of the following case
which / record here as one Of the
comedies of my Notebooks story of
meanness. cupidity. and stupid cum
ming: doubt II there be any philoso-
ply of medicine which could make pre-
tense of solving 1t. There were but
two principal actors mentioned In the
argument. and. indeed, 1t might fairly
be called one-part play. The chief
person concerned, Lord Harningham,
had known for many years. He was
q man OF whom biographer wrote
that his long and unblemished career
was credit to his country" and to
whom book on the Decalogue was
reproche. Yet they told you in the
smoking-rooms that he had starved his
first wife, and left his only son as
the partner of a horse-coper in Mel
bourne, on the princely allowance OF
$50 pounds per annum. His wealth,
said common report, WAS anything
from fifty thousand to hundred thou
sand pounds per annum; and In his
second childhood, for he was n septua-
genarian when this comedy was
played. he was suckled on the nour-
ishing food of expiring leases and for
feited improvements until he seemed
to exude sovereigns from every pore
in his enormous body.
meaner man never lived. All sim
lies in converse were based upon his
exploits. "As mean as old Harning-
ham" was q phrase you heard every
day at the Bachelors" In the count
less old stories they put upon him. tell
ing how. at tenants lunch in Bed
fordshire, he had cried. Here's an
other quart Of cider. and hang the ex-
pense!" how he had been seen in Far
ringdon market buying his own fish;
how he haggled with cabmen innum-
erable; how he had been stricken with
a malignant fever on the day he gave
away sovereign for shilling-there
was but the echo of the general senti-
ment. The society prints were hilar-
ious at the mere mention of his name.
] recollect well his anger when wag
said in one of them. 1T is rumored
that Lord Harningham is shortly
about to give something away" He
was in my Office next day-a week
rarely passed but what l saw him
and he laid the journal upon my table.
beating it fiat with stick. and point
ing at it with his ample finger as
though his very touch would wither
the writer.
please to read that" he said with
forced calm but considerable emphac
sis. "and tell me il the scoundrel
doesn't deserve to be hanged. He
To mention me, and speak about my
concerns Ha! but wish 1 had him
under this stick!"
"Of course you don't know who
wrote it." said I.
How should I know" he gabbled
testify DO go round to the taverns
swilling gin-and-water with such gut
ter birds? Do l hobnob with all the
half-starved limners in Fleet street?
Pshaw, you talk like a fool!'
suffered his temper, for he was
worth a couple of thousand year to
me. Presently he became calmer, and
the humor of the thing dawned upon
his dull mind.
"Ha," he said. snuffing ferociously
from the great diamond-studded box
he always carried, 81 shouldn't wonder
II that's Master BERTHE Watts-you
know my nephew, eh? he owes you
something, eh?-well, that's like him,
and his scoundrelly impudence-the
vagabond!"
Did not read somewhere that he
was going to be married?" remarked