Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-05-29


medical college which made me an NJ
| ID. i concluded for the purpose o
broadening my ideas to spend q yea
| in travel. Then / would return ant
begin where had left OF. = j have
never regretted this resolution. Beins
an obseryant man, travel was Of grea
advantage to me. teaching me that al
had learned thus far was not neces
sarily true. that j had only begun tc
learn and that IL lived thousand
years Iswould not know it all.
If there was any one country that
interested me most OF all it was India
The Hindus seemed to me a unique
people Like other semicfvilized races
they have lived for ages in their ruts
while their narrow scope has led them
into co-respondingly restricted fnves-
LEGATIONS. What European civilization
has produced in the way of assistance
to live the Indians have brought forth
for death. We have discovered a
number of antitoxins; they have
brought out an innumerable number
OF poisons.
While in India gained through a
rajah. He seemed to take a fancy to
me. probably because he found in me
a good listener. / said nothing ex-
cept to guide him into channels that
interested me. Drugs being In the
line of my profession. / was pleased
to hear what he had to say about the
various Indian connections, and these
included poisbns.
/ confess / was surprised to learn of
the various substances that will pro-
duce death and the knowledge the In
dams have acquired in handling them.
was interested in the flower to
breathe which is death; in the process
of poison, taking increased doses of
which one may become impregnated
with 1t, and would be poisonous to
others. But my attention was chiefly
arrested by a poison the rajah men
toned which left no trace.
Why was 1 especially interested in
traceless poison? Because 1 expected
to spend my life in a land where there
are. as there must always be, murder
and suicide. i knew that as q medical
/ would be constantly call
ed upon in such cases. and the words
''traceless poison" meant a great deal to
that i expected to have any
thing TO do with such a thing. but it at |
once occurred to me that If a knowl- |
edge of it should be common property !
it would be the chosen instrument of |
murderers and suicides.
/ did not bring home with me sam
pie of the rajah's traceless poison. In
Iced, / was not interested in it for
Itself. ! did not even care whether or
not there was such thing as a trace
eSS poison But on my return to Amer /.
ca l began some experiments concern
ng the interest that would be taken in
procuring it by various persons. i took
he precaution to notify the chief of
sOlice in the city in which l lived of
ny intended experiments, and he was
auch interested in them. Then l wrote
n advertisement announcing that a
MUSICIAN whose sands of life had ,
.early run OUT and who had spent his
.ce investigating the various aids and
to human life had succeeded
n discovering poison that left no
race. He had concocted a powder
which. If scattered about in places in
ested by vermin, would destroy them.
aaving no odor or other disagreeable
l was well aware that those who
7ould attempt to buy my powder
7ould do so for other purposes than
illing vermin. My advertisement had
ppeared but once when I received a
lumber of applications for it Nearly
II of the replies were SO worded as to
onceal the identity of the writers
ONE of them gave directions as to
ending the powder which were evil
emily calculated to cover its route to
S receiver
After accommodating a number of re-
lies to my advertisement l took them
} the chief of police. who seemed to
2 able to tell what each writer intend
to do with the poison. But this was
simple matter, because whether or [
Ot the intention was legitimate could &
2 OWNED by the care the writer took ,
conceal his or her identity The
lief desired to Investigate few APP G
ications. and gave them to him. I t
as not interested in the criminal side
the matter and never took the trou- G
e to ask him for results. l confined 1
yself TO the Investigation OF those I
ON persons who seemed intent on de- t
roying themselves. for in such cases '
might save some one whose mind had S
come disordered either by mental or I
lysicai suffering. b
received one advertisement that I v
zzled over a great deal. The writer I
rs woman. and from certain ex- o
essions she used judged that she d
is young. The chirography. the lam v
age used. certain refinement in her 4
ethods OF expressing herself, indicat- n
that she was a lady. Even the pa. b
r on which she wrote bore crest
lere were but three possible reasons is
~ any one should want my powder +,
murder. suicide and for the extermi- II
ton of vermin. The writer OF this "
tie could not keep out of it t'nge of
lancholy: therefore i argued that she m
shed 1t for the purpose OF suicide. O,
did not get all this information
No. v-A,@lx,