The Washington herald., 1914-06-07

cured in quotation marks ID far indeed
from being a negligible good fortune. II
Is in many ways just as good a. piair
cured without them would be. In fact
with the gain in knowledge and caution
and self-control that should be won from
the experience, 1t may prove cutie a
good-eyen, with certain temperaments
actually better.
, More still, there are yet lower de-
grees Of recovery that permit memberl
of our order to re-enter normal LIE and
share extensively in its activities. Thia
indeed is our little joke on the public;
for not infrequently We 30 about quite
unsuspected. Even such Of US as are
net at all recovered, but steadily pro-
crossing the other way. can some times
/ play such tricks of assumed vitality and
competence successfully.
Why, fully half the medical gentry who
serve and rule US, are also OF u.s. SO are
many of those who do the humber offices
about u.s. and many also OF such as we
encounter in the shops and banks and
professional offices, and even In the
manual trades of our chief habitats. In
truth there is hardly one of these re-
sorts, and they are many. that would
not be practically depopulated II all who
are of our order confessedly or uncon-
But our really surprising adventures,
Of whole mems careers. are In such quar-
ters as take no special note Of US: even
in the great cities which are denied US
altogether. More surprising STILL Of all
such careers. the stage. / think. Ii quite
the most fascinating, because the most
unfit and dangerous. Probably few but
us OF the order discerned between the
lines of the newspaper reports what 1t
was that caused, not long ago, q very
famous actors retirement and swift en-
suing death; and doubtless only We fully
understood the vocation. the habits, or
the peculiar and haunting charm of two
young actresses now at the very zenith
OF their success and popularity. There
have doubtless been Richelieus who have
found 1t only too easy to produce the
recking cough with which the sly old
Cardinal simulated illness, and also
Camilles who have smiled a little wearily
out of their unhappily fuller knowledge
Of the conventional business with which
they have been required to indicate what
was the matter with them. The novel;
lists, by the way, are about As conven-
tional as the playwrights in their at
tempts at depicting US. Mrs. Humphry
Ward, for instance, prescribes too ira
ditionally for two OF her very up-to-date
characters. But perhaps a more modern
treatment would have puzzled her read
ers
The Throne Not Immune.
But why multiply instances? There is
no walk of life which we have left en-
tirely uninvaded. We are everywhere.
in everything. II a climax Is desired,
even the throne has no immunity from
our adventurous and versatile persistence
in attempting occupations. Reading be-
tween the lines of court calendars we
are sure that at least one king. and a
spirited and charming one. too, Ii Of our
brotherhood: and We suspect 1t may not
be long before We can also claim with
assurance a queen-nsy. an empress.
Yet the mass Of US are exiles from the
places that whole men do most fire.
quent, barred from ordinary tasks: herd
ed in habitats specially assigned to us:
living a life peculiar and separate. It 10
of that life. therefore. and not Of our
escapes from II, that 1t IL most worth
while to speak, But first q word Of the
way We enter upon it-of the initiation
into our brotherhood.
Unfortunately. it is not always the
same. On the contrary. the entrances
are innumerable, however sole the exit
Indeed the initiation varies SO widely
that one would not be far wrong in say
AiiS thdA II ls hcNcf t"lSe tne same. 1eI
many limitations have certain features
in common; and in a general way it may
be said that all belong to one Of two
great classes-the sudden. and the pro-
trscted. One discovers what ones future
is to be either promptly or after pro-
longed inquiry and uncertainty 1t de-
pends mainly upon the kind of oracIes
one consults
My own initiation was of the pro-
tracted variety, and perhaps fairly re-
preventative of its class. There must, !
indeed, have been at least two years be-
tween the actual first beginning of my
career as T.B. and the final discovery
that / was one: and It is quite impossible
to recall how many other ailments I was
found to be suffering from: /
for l was never particularly timid, as
some are, about undergoing a doctors |
Then, on sudden impulse. came the
visit to great diagnostician-the second |
10 bear a name now famous for two
and it was fascinating, |
weak and near indifference as / was. to |
watch at last a master-scientist explore |
my worn-out body for the secret Of my
1elplessness.
Hearing the Verdict.
parable master actually at work-a great
French chef. now dead, personally COM
oleting chef d'oeuvre of the particular
<lnd he was famous for; but a clean-cutI
pointer quartering a field came also to
ny mind. The master charged with
hiding me my fate was quick, curt, at
lrst little sharp and impatient: then
more deliberate and decided-l
md 1 surrendered. completely, TO the
,harm OF his manifest competence. Came
inally, however, almost gentleness, and
IN invitation to the laboratory where in
iue time. having performed a chemical
lite, now long shorn of its mystery, over
infnitesmaI that had come
rom me. he set eye to a big microscope
md my tired brain began to compre-
lend. When he raised his head and
'lanced at me. he had no need to speak
'or at that glance had gone white and
old, and life In its every aspect and
elation had turned utterly different. and
ny tenure Of 1t utterly insecure and
hazardous. I was a T.B. and had been
me, probably, for some years: yet never
nee until the instant he raised his face
rom that microscope, had I suspected
he truth. or even so much as specifically
readed, among the remoter horrors that
imly encircled all our lives, this that
lad now SO suddenly swept close and
;rappled me,
Ihat was the worst, the very worst-I
hose first few moments Of terror and
onviction and lightning-swift review
ND forecast of all my life. Much of
unering and sadness and almost despair
vas to come after. but. nothing quite to ,
e compared with what then struck and
hilled clear to the heart of me; nothing