I.

Perhaps I may have told you before, that at the time of which I speak,

my Summer home--where I preferred to spend much more than half of the

year--was on a sandy beach a few miles out of New York, and also that I

had retired from active practice as a physician, even when I was in the

city.

Notwithstanding these two facts, I was often called in consultation,

both in and out of the city; and was occasionally compelled to take a

case entirely into my own hands, through some accident or unforeseen

circumstance.

It was one of these accidents which brought the patient whose story I am

about to tell you, under my care.

I can hardly say now, why I retained the case instead of turning it over

to some brother practitioner, as was my almost invariable habit; but for

some reason I kept it in my own hands, and, as it was the only one for

which I was solely responsible at the time, I naturally took more than

ordinary interest in and paid more than usual attention to all that

seemed to me to bear upon it.

As you know I am an "old school" or "regular" physician, although that

did not prevent me from consulting with, and appreciating the strong

points of many of those who were of other, and younger branches of the

profession.

This peculiarity had subjected me, in times gone by, to much adverse

criticism from some of my colleagues who belonged to that rigidly

orthodox faction which appears to feel that it is a much better thing

to allow a patient to die "regularly"--as it were--than it is to join

forces with one, who, being of us, is still not with us in theory and

practice.

Recognizing that we were all purblind at best, and that there was and

still is, much to learn in every department of medicine, it did not

always seem to me that it was absolutely necessary to reject, without

due consideration, the guesses of other earnest and careful men, even

though they might differ from me in the prefix to the "pathy" which

forms the basis of the conjecture.

We are all wrong so often that it has never appeared to be a matter

of the first importance--it does not present itself to my mind as

absolutely imperative--that it should be invariably the same wrong, or

that all of the mistakes should necessarily follow the beaten track of

the "old school."

I had arrived at that state of beatitude where I was not unwilling for

a life to be saved--or even for pain to be alleviated, by other methods

than my own.

I do not pretend that this exalted ethical status came to me all at

once, nor at a very early stage of my career; but it came, and I had

reaped the whirlwind of wrath, as I have just hinted to you.

So when my patient let me know, after a time, that he had been used to

homeopathic treatment, I at once suggested that he send for some one of

that school to take charge of his case.

He declined--somewhat reluctantly, I thought, still, quite positively.

But, in the course of events, when I felt that a consultation was due

to him as well as to myself, I asked him if he would not prefer that the

consulting physician should be of that school.

He admitted that he would, and I assured him that I should be pleased to

send for any one he might name.

He knew no doctor here, he said, and left it to me to send for the one

in whom I had the greatest confidence.

It is at this point my story really begins.

I stopped on my way uptown to arrange, with Dr. Hamilton, of Madison

Avenue, a consultation that afternoon, at three o'clock. I told the

doctor all that I, myself, knew at that time, of my patient's history.

Three weeks before I had been in a Fifth Avenue stage; a gentleman had

politely arisen to offer his seat to a lady at the moment that the stage

gave a sudden lurch which threw them both violently against each other

and against the end of the stage.

He broke the fall for her; but he received a blow on the head,

which member came in contact with the money-box, with a sharp crack.

Accustomed to the sight of pain and suffering as I was, the sound of the

blow and his suddenly livid face gave me a feeling of sickness which did

not wholly leave me for an hour afterward. Involuntarily I caught him in

my arms--he was a slightly built man--and directed the driver to stop

at the first hotel.

The gentleman was unconscious and I feared he had sustained a serious

fracture of the skull. He was evidently a man of culture, and I thought

not an American. I therefore wished, if possible, to save him a police

or hospital experience.

By taking him into the first hotel I reasoned, we could examine him;

learn who and what he was, where he lived, and, after reviving him, send

him home in a carriage.

The process of bringing him back to consciousness was slow, and as the

papers on his person, which we felt at liberty to examine, gave no clue

to his residence, we concluded to put him to bed and trust to farther

developments to show us what to do in the matter of removal. The lady

on whose account he had received the injury had given me her card, which

bore a name well known on the Avenue, and had stated that she would, if

necessary, be responsible for all expense at the hotel.

It was deemed best, therefore, to put him to bed, as I said before, and

wait for him to indicate, for himself, the next move. I placed in the

safe of the hotel his pocketbook, which contained a large sum of money

(large that is, for a man to carry on his person in these days of

cheques and exchanges) and his watch, which was a handsome one, with

this inscription on the inside cover, "T. C. from Florence."

The cards in his pocket bore different names and addresses, mostly

foreign, but the ones I took for his own were finely engraved, and

read "Mr. T. C. Lathro," nothing more. No address, no business; simply

calling cards, of a fashionable size, and of the finest quality.

This, as I say, was about three weeks before I concluded to call Dr.

Hamilton in consultation; and I had really learned very little more of

my patient's affairs than these facts taken from his pocket that first

day while he was still unconscious.

He was silent about himself, and while he had slowly grown better his

progress toward health did not satisfy me, nor do I think that he was

wholly of opinion, that I was doing quite all that should be done to

hasten his recovery.

He was always courteous, self-poised, and able to bear pain bravely; but

I thought he watched me narrowly, and I several times detected him in

a weary sigh and an impatient movement of the eyebrows, which did not

tally with his assumption of cheerful indifference and hospitality.

I use the word hospitality advisedly, for his effort always seemed to

be to treat me as a guest whom he must entertain, and distract from

observing his ailments, rather than as a physician whose business it was

to discover and remedy them.

He had declined to be moved; said he was a stranger; had no preferences

as to hotels; felt sure this one was as comfortable as any; thanked me

over and over for having taken him there, and changed the subject.

He would talk as long as I would allow him on any subject, airily,

brightly, readily. On any subject, that is, except himself; yet from his

conversation I had gathered that he had travelled a great deal; was a

man of wealth and culture, whether French, Italian or Russian, I could

not decide. He spoke all of these languages, and words from each fitted

easily into place when for a better English one, he hesitated or was at

a loss.

Indeed, he seemed to have seen much of every country and to have

observed impartially--without national prejudice. He knew men well, too

well to praise recklessly; and he sometimes gave me the impression, I

can hardly say how, that blame was a word whose meaning he did not know.

He spoke of having seen deeds of the most appalling nature in Russia,

and talked of their perpetrators sometimes, as good and brave men. He

never appeared to measure men by their exceptional acts.

Occasionally I contested these points with him, and I am not sure but

that it may have been the interest I took in his conversation that held

me as his physician; for as I said, I was well aware that he did not

improve as he should have done after the first few days.

But I liked to hear him talk. He was a revelation to me. I greatly

enjoyed his breath and charity--if I may so express the mental attitude

which recognized neither the possession of, nor the need for, either

quality in his judgments of his fellow-men.

He had evidently not been able to pass through life under the impression

that character, like cloth, is cut to fit a certain outline, and that

after the basting-threads are once in, no farther variation need be

looked for. Indeed, I question if he would have been able to comprehend

the mental condition of those grown-up "educated" children who are

never able to outgrow the comfortable belief that words and acts have

a definite, inflexible, par-value--that an unabridged dictionary, so to

speak, is an infallible appeal; who, in short, expect their villains to

be consistently and invariably villainous, in the regulation orthodox

fashion.

Individual shades of meaning, whether of language or of character,

do not enter into their simple philosophy. Mankind suffers, in their

pennyweight scales, a shrinkage that is none the less real because

they never suspect that the dwarfage may be due to themselves--to their

system of weights and measures. All variations from their standard

indicate an unvarying tendency to mendacity. He whom they once detect in

a quibble, or in an attempt to acquire the large end of a bargain, never

recovers (what is perhaps only his rightful heritage, in spite of an

occasional lapse) the respect and confidence of these primer students

who are inflexible judges of all mental and moral manifestations.

I repeat that this comfortable and regular philosophy was foreign to my

patient's mental habits, and I began to consider, the more I talked

with him, that it did not agree with my own personal observations. I

reflected that I was not very greatly surprised, nor did I lose faith

in a man necessarily, when I discovered him in a single mean or

questionable action.

Why, then, should I be surprised to find those of whom I had known only

ill-engaged in deeds of the most unselfish nature? Deeds of heroism and

generosity such as he often recounted as a part of the life of some of

these same terrible Russian officials. There seems, however, to be that

in us which finds it far easier to reconcile a single mean or immoral

action with an otherwise upright life, than to believe it likely, or

even possible, for a depraved nature to perform, upon occasion, deeds of

exalted or unusual purity. Yet so common is the latter, that its failure

of recognition by humanity in general can be due it seems to me, only to

a wrong teaching or to a stupidity beyond even normal bounds.

For, after all, the bad man who is all bad, is really a less frequent

product than that much talked of, but rare creature, a perfect woman.

Perhaps one could count the specimens of either of these to be met with

in a life time, on the fingers of one hand.

But to return to my patient and his story.

It was of these things that he and I had often talked, and I had come

to greatly respect the self-poise and acute observation, as well as the

broad human sympathy of this reserved and evidently sad-hearted man.

Sad-hearted I knew, in spite of his keen sense of humor, and his firm

grasp of philosophy.

I gave Dr. Hamilton a brief outline of all this, as well as of the

physical condition of the man whom he was to see; for I believe it to be

quite as important for a physician to understand and diagnose the mental

as the physical conditions of those who come under his care before he

can prescribe intelligently for other than very trifling ailments.

You can imagine my surprise when I tell you that the moment Dr. Hamilton

stepped into the room, and I mentioned his name, my patient, this

self-poised man of the world, whose nerves had often seemed to me to be

of tempered steel, looked up suddenly as you have seen a timid child do

when it is sharply reproved, and fainted dead away.