davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1927-12-04

heavy hand on the shoulder of the
suspect.
"Half a moment, my lad" he said,
Il want you to come to the station
with me-"
The other tried to wrest himself
free. What for?" he demanded ag-
grievedly.
You'll know all about it in time.
retorted the constable, locking a hand
about the prisoners wrist, Come
along"
Coughs card and the story of the
jeweler afforded the police at Vine
street ample justification for holding
the man on suspicion of being con-
cerned in the Streatham burglaries.
He gave his name as Gray and at
first refused any account of himself.
A phone call to Scotland Yard brought
Cough in hurry to Vine street, and
he had talk with the prisoner, who
had no idea at the time that the tall
ingenious chief inspector suspected
him of murder. But he was incau-
was a single room, rented at a few
shillings a week-and that place
Cough soon examined thoroughly and
scientifically. The search had not
proceeded far before Cough became
satisfied that his long shot had come
pretty close to the middle of the tar
get. Under the bed was a tin trunk,
among its contents being q pair of
khaki trousers. In one of the pock-
cts was found gun metal watch bear
ing on the dial the name "Angelus."
1t was one of those which had been
stolen from WINFIELD Lodge. Further
search revealed another oXidized
watch and the stolen raincoat
All this was good If Cough had
been a detective out of a book he
would have finished here. Being an
experienced police officer he knew
that much more was necessary. The
possession of these stolen articles
alone would not be sufficient to
bring about a conviction. Somehow
the crime had to be brought still
closer home. No living soul had
seen the murderer at or about the
time the murder was committed so
that there was no hope of bringing
evidence to show that he had been in
the vicinity of WINFIELD Lodge at
the time. Gray was asked to give
recital OF his movements on that
night, but he was not to be drawn.
He kept his mouth tightly shut. AS
anything in the nature of third de-
gree questioning is jealously prohib-
Evening star., 1927-12-04

nNE could go on indefinitely dis.
cussing the causes of fear and its
disorganizing effect upon the person
ality and the disastrous results to the
Evening star., 1927-12-04
Useless Fear Parayzes Energy of Intelligent Men and Won

terfering with the concentration and
the power of thought
X X X
THE kind of fear / have in mind
interferes with the business of
life in a way that may be compared
| with a toxic dose of atropin. Atropin,
a useful enough drug in small doses,
dilates the pupils, changes the secre-
tion of saliva, SO that the mouth feels
dry, makes the heart beat faster. in
creases the respiration, and, in ex-
cessive doses, alters the secretion of
the stomach and the intestines
Fear, in toxic doses, does similar
things. The pupils of the eyes open
wide because part of the nervous sys-
tenn is extraordinarily stimulated, the
| heart beats faster, the mouth dries up,
the respiration becomes painting, the
function of digestion may be complete.
ly disordered, so that even vomiting
and diarrhoea may take place.
In many ways atrOpin is less poison
Gus than fear, because once the drug
is excreted from the body, as it surely
will be within a short period of time,
that ends the matter. But fear can
not be eXcreted like a drug. 1t tends
| 10 persist, intoxicating the mind and
lnJuring the functions of the body. 1t
can be recalled by every mental as
sociation which brings back the origi-
nal setting OF the fear, so that under
acute or chronic fear the sufferer is
| injured physically. Sleep, which rids
us Of the burden of consciousness and
gives the body a chance to get rid of
the waste products of activity and to
[ build " energy to be expended next
! day, is lost. Appetite is lost. Be a
| man ever SO hungry, something
| frlghtful may make ii impossible for
him to eat. Energy is lost as a result.
A person suffering from fear will
| complain sometimes Of everything
under the sun except the fear. Such
man recently consulted n physical n
| about his insomnia. Sleep had become
entirely impossible he said, and he
! lay in bed all night twisting and turn
/ ing. bathcd in cold sweat, his hands
and feet numb. He did not divulge
was apparent that the type Of insom.
| mia was born of fear--the cold sweat
I the numbness of the hands and feet
and the restlcssness all indicated that
When he was directly accused of
| Withholding his real state of mind he
confessed, after some persuasion, that
fear had recently entered his mind
and taken possession of it, and that
he could not expel the invader. He
| had learned a short time before that
his father had died when he. the "a.
tient, was a very young child. The
story Of his fathers suff crings pro-
| foundly impressed him. but what ac.
| tually brought the alien and horrid
mental state into his life was The
casual, ignorant statement of medi-
! cal student that cancer was strongly
| hereditary.
Tired and worried because of other
matters, the fear that he, too, would
die of cancer became transformed
into the fear that he might even then
have cancer He was afraid to go to
a physician because It might turn out
that his fear was not groundless. Sc
he w:estled with q state of doubt and
Evening star., 1927-12-04

indecision until the sleep disturbance
became logical reason for medical
consultation. 1t turned out that he
did not have cancer, yet If it had
come about that he had it he prob
ably would have horne up we'll under
the blow. 1t is fact that people take
the news that they have an incurable
condition much better than they bear
up under the fear that they have one.
ONE Of the most common types OF
fear, and perhaps the most ignoble
one, is hypochondria. The hypochon-
driac is classic figure, made espe-
cially immortal by Molieres lie Nal
ade Imaginaire." One can never for.
get the picture of that poor victim
Of his own fears, harassed by each
fugitive pain or ache, dying OF heart
disease with each fiutter of the heart,
perishing of tuberculosis with each
cough, looking at his tongue in the
looking glass, constantly feeling his
pulse, the prey of every charlatan and
the victim of all the misguided ad-
vice given by his friends. The future
Of the hypochondriac is stock butt
of the humorists, and our pity for him
is mixed with contempt.
1t is a question whether or not
hypochondriacs are born or made, but
one thing is sure, that early childhood
lays down the foundation Of hypo.
chondria for many people. Every doc
tor can testify to the fact that in some
households every pain or ache of the
child is magnified into a serious dis.
ease by the apprehension of the moth
er, VINO tails into terror of fear with
every minor, transient ailment of her
little ones. This is fatal to the child's
poise. lie is taught by an uncon.
sclouSlE absorbed example that his
iealth is precarious thing and that
he has to he very careful about eat
ing this or that or about getting his
ieet wet. 1T appears to him that n
neadache ls a calamity and q little
fatigue perilous matter. AS re.
SUIT ne becomes interpretive, watches
himSeif closely and thus brings into
consciousness events in his bodv
Whlch are meant to be unconscious.
"A man can easily, by paying atten-
! tlon to himself, discover that he is
fuil OF curious quivers, twinges
twists of pain and little fiutterings
lhese are easily magnif1ed by appre-
henslon into serious matters when. n c
a matter of fact, they are part of the
creakings and groanings Of a hard :
working machine. Just as there are
some automobile drivers who are dis
tracted by the slightest squeak in
their car and are constantly worried
lest il mean the injury of a vital
part and thus distract whoever rides
with them as well. so there are peopls
who view the machine of their lives
with undue solicitude and with so
sharp an attention that normal things
become pathological
Every good movement has its evil
results just as every virtue develops
its own defect Of character. Thus, the
thrifty tend to become parsimonious
| and ungenerous, and the chaste tend
to become prudes and censorious
critics of their fellows. Popular edu-
cation in health has been a good
thipe On the whole. and there is nq
Evening star., 1927-12-04
An dSd
f, and uio-Conc cdnceO WuoP

tied in England, Cough let him alone
for the time and concentrated on
finding out something of his antece-
dents. Meanwhile ne burned his
boats and had the prisoner charged
with murder
The history of a man once in
custody can seldom remain mys
terry long. With the machinery of
Scotland Yard at his disposal Cough
found it simple to discover the lead
ing facts of the accused mans ca
reer. He was of French birth and
had been brought to England when
he was 3 years old. His real name
was Victor de Stamir. From child
hood he had been an unregenerate
rascal. He was still schoolboy
under ii when he was first charged
with theft. He got away with that,
but a year later he embarked on
burglary and was sent to a reforma-
tory for three years. On his release
his people gave him opportunity
after opportunity to run straight. He
was q congenital rogue, however, and
he soon tired of the monotony of
honesty. Since he could not escape
the vigilance of his parents while he
remained at home he determined to
run away. For some years trace of
him was lost. Then news reached
his home that he had been sentenced
Evening star., 1927-12-04

DO not at all decry the scientific
attention paid to high blood pressure
in these days. High blood pressure is
an evil of our civilization, and per
haps a natural evil to which the hu
man being is subject.
It seems to me, however, to be a lit
tie better and somewhat more noble
to die of fear. l doubt that those who
become too Zealously devoted to diet
and eat with fear and trembling live
any longer than those who, having
learned that they have high blood
pressure, live in a general way sanely
without giving too much attention to
the particulars of existence. One
thing is sure, even if hypochrondriaC
lives long, to live long as a hypochon
driac is doubtful blessing.
Most health faddists are hypochOn
driacs-victims of fear. The man who
chews his food a hundred times before
he swallows it is victim of fear. The
vegeterians in a non-vegeterian coun-
try may possibly live longer than their
carnivorous friends, but almost in
variably they are continually worried
about their diet, and usually their veg
etarianism lasts short time, for they
discover that it has not cured their
ills, largely because those ills are born
of fear. The walk-in-the-gra with
bare-feet cults, the return-to-nature
victims, the fresh-air dupes, all show
their fear in their belief that this or
that measure is a panacea for the ills
of mankind. The history of the hypo
chondriac is sad one, but very profit
able to the physicians, the charlatans
the cults of healing, the patent medi
sine distributors and the health re
sorts.
EEAR often comes from fatigue
Let any one imagine himself in a
closed-in room, eating ill-tasting food
lying at night on a couch which pre-
vents sleep, and then see whether he
can picture himself In the morning
arising with fresh, vigorous attitudes
toward his purposes with the will tC
beat down obstacles or alertly schem
ing a clever campaign. Our civiliza
ton is a fatiguing one. 1t is too tense
too full of noise, replete with hurry
and hustle; we turn night into day
and stimulate ourselves constantly
when we should rest. We are in 6
tetanus of work, and just as evil 8
tetanus of pleasure seeking.
When one considers the lombard
ment to which each one of us is sub
jected in a large city at the mercy
of our scientific instruments, of tele
phones, automobiles and radios, which
never give us periods of relaxation
and quiet; when one considers the in
tense competition in desire. so that
I'VE are continually seeking satisfac
ton for artiflcially built-up appetites
the wonder is not that some of us be
come neurasthenic and prone to fear
but that all of us do not break down
under the burden. The commonest
complaint in our society is II am sc
tired" complaint not so much born
of physical fatigue as 1t is of mental
exhaustion. On such a basis fear
arises readily-one of the worst OF
fears-the loss of self-confidence, the
fear of failure. the fear of Illustration
of the life plans.
Periodically one sees very energetic.
Evening star., 1927-12-04

England. at all events. keeps away
from murder. The crime, if 1t had
been committed by some amateur
marauder-perhaps a tramp who had
noticed an unfastened door-presented
almost insuperable difficulties. 1t left
the possibilities so wide that the
chances agains tracing the murderer
were immense. Even greater were
the difficulties against the accumula-
ton of proof that would be likely to
satisfy a jury. BY a paradox it is
often harder to solve the mystery of
a clumsy murder than a clever one.
The fingerprint and the heelmarks
having failed. Cough turned to the
poker. He learned that it had been
taken from the dining room CRATE
Apparently the robber had picked it
up and carried it as a weapon while
he prowled about the house. Cough
from his extensive experience knew
that most criminals form habits. and
he set inquiries afoot to discover if
there was any recent case in which
a burglar was known to have carried
a household poker as a weapon. A
little to his surprise he was almost i'm
mediately informed of one.
A few weeks before a burglar had
broken into a house few hundred
yards distant from WINFIELD Lodge.
Before he had time to get to work
the maroons and sirens woke the
neighborhood as German airplanes
drew near to London. The robber, in
a panic lest he should be discovered by
the household, hastily took his sde.
parture. At the tradesman's gate he
left a poker which he had taken from
the dining room. This entrance had
been left unfastened.
The coincidence was too striking to
be ignored. Condolences are q vital
asset to a detective Although still.
without hint as to who the man
might be, Cough began to feel that
he had struck the glimmer of trail.
Still there was a long way to go. !.
Every one nowadays has heard
about the fingerprint system. There
is a large body of people. however,
Evening star., 1927-12-04

purposes, plans and achievements of
men and women. The anthropologists
have filled fat books about the fear Of
underlying taboo. racial customs and
queer beliefs. Superstitions are folk
fears. Every doctor is continually
coming in contact not only with dis
ease but with the fear of disease.
Every man in charge of the morale of
soldiers knows that what he has to
combat is not only the fear of death
and injury but the illnesses which
arise from that fear, and prevent the
illnesses which come from the fear of
showing fear.
The whole question of sex must
some day be thrown open for discus
sion, because the ignorance which
prevails in respect to it breeds the
most curious fears. Sex life, with it's
repressions, its inhibitions ana It's
capacity for creating inner disunion
and ego decentralization, often creates
fear which manifests itself indirectly,
so that the fear is disguised in one
form or another. For some schools
of psychology the disguises are un-
consciously assumed and need analy.
sis to bring them to light While this
is not my belief, it is true that those
inner struggles which originate from
the sexual dilemmas of civilization
cause many of the wrecked lives of
our times.
Some day a new Moses will arise
and lay down commandments which.
II followed. Will do away with useless
fear. a humber mind, uninspired
and with due knowledge of the diff
culties of dealing with the human
being. may venture some advice. The
aim of this advice can be labeled the
prophylaNiS of fear" because cure, in
all of humanity's ills, is more costly
and difficult than prevention. Thus:
Avoid chronic fatigue, especially
that type of fatigue which arises in a
dlsunion of the personality. Settle
your conflicts some way or other, or
get some one to help you settle them.
tseach positive attitude toward your
difficulties. If you reach right at.
titude. so much the better. A wrong
positive attitude is better than doubt,
indecision and fear
Take care of your physical health,
but remember that physical health is
largely an unconscious matter. and
that the great functions of the body
operate best when overanxious atten-
ton is not given to them.
DO you seek pleasure too as.
SIuuouSiy anu 100 constantly! Be
cause an exhaustion of the pleasure
capacity thus arises. Go to a retreat
once in a while. Periodically shut
yourself away from civilization.
Avoid Thickness. Avoid thickness.
Avoid Thickness.
Harden your mind against the little
Sights to which 1t will surely be sub
jected. This is difficult to do ufter
maturity is reached. and so Is Lest
done in childhood A child trained in
sensitiveness is a child trained to fear
and his liability to failure is increas-.l.
This is not a nice world for the over
sensitive. A tough ego may still
retain sympathy and understanding
and yet. be hardened against feeling
too much.
Evening star., 1927-12-04

| highly engined men and women, full
of pep and confidence, disappear from
activity for a while. The statement is
given out that they have a nervous
breakdown or something of that kind.
What has happened to them is that
the exhaustion to which they finally
succumb fills them full of fear and
depression, plunges them into abysses
of apprehension, which is worse than
any physical disease. When fatigue
becomes too great, when periods of
recuperaticn are not INDUCED in. one
of the first signs is loss of conf
dence in the affairs of life. A man
commences 10 view his business af-
fairs with too much apprehension. He
takes them about with him and can
not shake them off. They obtrude
when he should be free of them
that is. in the theater, or when love
should have his undivided attention
When worries become obsessive the
first question to ask yourself is, "Am
| not on the verge of exhaustion"
a fresh, vigorous mind can throw off
the disagreeable; Il jaded mind be.
comes its prey.
Fatigue of this kind very often
comes from emotional situations of a.
type which divide up the self, so that
there is an inner struggle between one
part of the personality and another
calamitous sort of civil war. In
other words, any conflict of a futile
type may show itself by curious fears
a certain young woman of my ac.
quaintance developed fear of going
out of doors. Whenever she ventured
out beyond a certain distance from
her home her heart palpitated, she
had feeling as if she were going to
faint, and in panic she would run
home, the only place where she felt
safe. There was nothing wrong with
her phySically-no basis in any of the
great organs of the body for the feel
ing of dizziness and impending fall
which afflicted her away from the
haven of her home. An analysis of
her life revealed that her mother,
tyrannical invalid. was determined to
keep her for herself. The mother had
the ideas and ideals of her girlhood
of 1880 and insisted that her daughter
also live in that period.
But the girl was born in 1900, in an
| age when there was freedom for wom-
en-, and felt the yearnings for life and
, love normal to her years, but also she
| felt herself bound in duty to her
mother. Each day was spent in rebel.
| lion against her mother and against
herself. in hatred and love for mother
and hatred and love for herself. This
girls symptoms of fear and panic
were due to the exhaustion excited
by conflict within her own bresst, and
which caused her to respond exces.
sively to the sights. sounds and bonn.
harding stimuli of the bustling outer
world. When she was removed from
the home, when she replanned her life
so as to free herself from the conflict
by a courageous declaration of indie.
pendence, her symptoms vanished.
X X X K
ONE could go on indefinitely dis.
cussing the causes of fear and its
disorganizing effect upon the person
ality. and the disastrous results to the
Evening star., 1927-12-04

to a term of penal servitude for GER
tain nefarious operations in Aus
tralia.
Ultimately he came back to Eng
land in an attempt to re-enaIt the
role of the prodigal son. His father.
however, was disinclined to kill the
fatted calf. Young de Stamir was
given to understand that he could
expect nothing more from his family.
x X x x
WAR had broken out by this time
w and. in common with hundreds
of thousands of other young fellows,
de Stamir was roped into the British
army. AS military slang has it. he
proved one of the Kings bad bar
gains. The discipline of soldiers
life irked him. and he found the
rough and ready manner in which
some of his habits were corrected
painful. So when an opportunity
came he quietly resOrted to civilian
clothes and burglarious equipment.
His name was posted as that of a
deserter in the Police Gazette.
He engaged a room in the name of
Gray and with consummate impu
dence told his landlady that he was
on the staff of the Criminal Investi-
CATION department OF the army
police. Thus he avoided awkward
questions as to his absence from the
fighting forces and provided him
self with a first-class excuse for
strange comings and goings at all
hours. For the time he thoroughly
enjoyed himself. He fancied himself
as a lady killer and there were GER
tain girls to whom he was a hero.
There was also another girl Of a diff
ferent type--an innocent young
woman of good family whom he i'm
posed upon sufficiently to gain her
consent to their engagement.
Evening star., 1927-12-04

" HE men who gain our spon-
taneous admiration are those
of energy and courage. We
Il yield homage even to the ener-
getic and fearless villain. The
hero must face the obstruction to his
life, the things or men which threaten
him or his purposes, boldly. When
we see men whose Intelligence is be-
yond question fail in their life work
we ask what is paralyZing their
energy. In many instances the answer
to the question is fear.
Fear does not necessarily paralyze
energy and take away the capacity for
achievement, for, though it has been
grossly maligned, it is perhaps the
most conservative and constructive
force in life. Were it not for the fear
of cold, men would not have built
houses or utilized fire. Were it not
for the fear of famine, men would
have spared themselves the arduous
tilling of the soil. The Ten Com
mandments are impotent instruments
without the fear Of public opinion.
Thrift, so dearly beloved by the
bankers, has one of it's roots in fear.
and it is in reality the fear of death
and disease which has built up religion
and medicine. That the burned child
breads fire is another way of saying
that fear Of painful experiences teach
es caution and care. II is POllyanna
view Of existence which would elimi-
nate fear from life. If it is not, like
love, the force which makes the world
go around, it a least keeps the world
from straying from its path.
The above concerns what may be
called physiological fear, the fear
which makes the hunted rabbit run
like a streak, or lends cunning TO the
hunted fox. 1t is probable that the
hero Of our first paragraph felt fear,
though he did not show il. 1t un-
doubtedly kept him planning and
schemng when his followers We're fast
asleep; and when he would rather
have rested ii spurrcd up his energy.
Thus the man who achieves is "A man
who fears, hut his fear wakes keener
purpose. better plans ana more Vigor-
GUS action.
There is another aspect OF fear.
however. an obSessiVe. paralyzing
side, capable of disorga nizing mind
and body, leading to failure in the
business of life. When fear becomes
chronic, or when, so 10 speak, it be.
comes senselesS, il destroys endur.
ance as we'll as happiness and is the
beginning and the height of disaster.
Emotions are not thin things float
ing in air. Each emotion reverberates
throughout the body and echoes in
it's remotest recesses. Each emotion
alters the heart rate. the respiration
the secretion of the digestive juices
the flow of the blood through the yes
sells of the body. the tension Of the
muscles and their capacity for eXer
ton. yes, it even alters the chemica
sues. Some emotions increase the
energy output, as, for example, toS
and certain phases of anger. Others
like sorrow, lessen or paralyze the
energy of the body, decreasing ths
force and vigOr Of the heart beat, al
tering the intake of oxygen, lowering
the muscular endurance, as well as in