The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1915-10-12
HOW THE LOVE
POTION WORKED
Amusing Result Of a SCien-
tific Experiment.

"And / tell you, doctor, the imagina-
ton has nothing to do with 1t. The
germ produces the disease"
"uOw do you account for the deaths
that have occurred in cases where the
subject supposes himself to have been
poisoned, when he has not been poi.
sonedY'
II don't believe one has ever been
substantiated."
"Do you admit that men and women
have gone mad For lover
mo. They have gone mad while In
love. They would have eventually gone
mad anyway"
II will produce love by means of the
Imagination
"NOnsense."
DIR. Finch. who made this daring
proposition. sat thinking. while his
companion. DIR. Hargrave, lighted a
fresh cigar. Presently Finch said:
"YOur Alice is now about fourteen,
l believe. My Dick is fifteen. For my
part. match between them, when old
er, would be acceptable. How do you
feel about it?"
II should not object"
Every well. We will give the chill
dren lessons In germs and their effects,
then administer to each u dose, telling
them that It is an infection Of love, aft
er which they shall be kept for time
In propinquity with each other"
agreed"
A week later each one of the children
was given dose of some sweet smell
ing liquid--the principal odor was of
viOlet-and told that 1t would infect
them with love. Then they Were pack
ed of together to farm owned by DR..
Finch, where they were put under the
care Of the farmer and his wife. Alice
who took far more interest in the dis
ease than Dick, had purloined the bot
tie from which her father had given
her the injecting dose and proposed to
experiment with 1t on her own account.
Dick told her that he had been given
Il dose, and she was interested to know
how the disease would first appear.
But Dick found some farmer boys, who
piloted him to the trout grounds and
the swimming hole. and for the first
two or three days Alice saw nothing Of
him. When he got back to the farm
house he had forgotten all about the
love germs.
Not so Alice. She watched eagerly
for the first symptom OF the infection,
feeling her pulse and looking at her
tongue a dozen times a day. In her
letters home, which she was told to
mail once week. she said that she
didn't think the potion could have
been strong enough, because she didn't
feel any different from when she left
home" Her father showed the letter
to his friend Finch In triumph, but the
confident Finch told him to wait. Soon
after this letter came from Dick to
his father, in which he mentioned the
fact that Alice had said that he needed
more Of the injecting dose, and she
was cramming 1t into him.
A month passed. and the doctors
were beginning to consider the expert
ment failure. when a letter came
from Alice which changed the situa.
ton.
I've got the disease" she said. "and
l feel so funny. l like II. Dicks got 1t
too. got 1t first, then Dick came
down with It wonder which will
get well first II Is the incest disease
ever had. Nothing at all like that
nasty old measles"
Dick wrote In Il different vein. "Alice
on that mn In OIL hn vus k,,t
don't know. don't feel exactly like
she docs, but ] suppose she's right
/ about it,
Drs. Finch and Hargrave met on tho
street soon after the arrival of these
letters, and Finch crowed over his op.
p0nent, though he consoled him on tho
ground that their friendship would be
continued by the union of their chill
dren.
| The next day each received tele-
| gram from the farmer to come at once
Fearing that their children had been
thrown under II moving machine, they
met on the first train to start for the
! farm. Hiring II wagon at the station.
, they were driving down the road when
they met Alice walking beside red
faced, freckled country gawk abont
! twenty years old In WOODEN shirt. no
coat and his hair sticking through
holes In his hat.
''The germs have worked. papa" she
exclaimed 1--we given Hank dose,
and he's got 1t too. He says he's got H.
awful"
Get In here" said the father angri
, iy and evidently unmlndful Of the sci.
entihc features Of the case. Alice
obeyed the order, and Hank was left
| standing In the road DR.. Finch lean
ed back IN his seat, put his handker
chief to his face and roared with laugh
ter. But when they reached the farm
house the tables were turned. There
sat Dick beside homely young won
en- Of eighteen in calico dress aud
sunbonnct.
"Vm glad you've come, pop" he said
I'm tired o this business. Alice says
a Iva rot "a loya frvar and Sn fNaS Mis-.