"Well, he must have queer eyes. That's just like these men, they don't seem to know anything; why, that is really the meanest one in the whole lot. It looks as if it had a fit of the dumps."
Then I had to tell them that the Deacon was right, and that, in his selection, he had shown the characteristic discrimination and taste of men! but that, during a number of days, the great solar artist had been partially interrupted in his exquisite touches upon this particular bush,—in fact, I gave them a little lecture, then and there, upon the relations between sunshine and beauty.
EXPERIMENT UPON A ROSE-GIRL.
One of my neighbors, Major P——, has a daughter, whom we will name
Rose. The Major not having a rose-bush, tried an experiment on his
Rose-girl. This was his method:—
In the first place, he sent her up into New Hampshire in June, and kept her there, living out in the sunshine, till the last of September. Then he brought her in town, and we all had a chance to examine her. She was really in a very strange condition. In the first place, her manner of walking was singular. I cannot describe it better than to say that she seemed to go by jerk. In putting one foot forward to take a step, the foot behind gave a sudden and vigorous push.
My opinion, as a medical man, was not asked; but my diagnosis, before a medical class, would have been this:—
"Gentlemen, in the case of Miss Rose P—— there is considerable physical vigor, which seems to show itself by an extraordinary activity and strength of muscle, and an unusual ebullition of animal spirits. And, gentlemen, although these manifestations are extraordinary, and very rare among young ladies, I do not regard the case as immediately alarming. Indeed, gentlemen, it is my opinion that this remarkable malady will disappear without active treatment, if the patient be confined in a strait jacket, and kept quiet in a dark room.
"That peculiar sparkle of the young lady's eyes will, likewise, soon disappear, under this treatment."
Without asking my opinion, or a prescription, the Major did exactly what I have suggested. The daughter was laced in a strait jacket, or a corset, (which squeezes a good deal harder,) and she remained in a dark parlor and curtained bedroom all but about an hour a day; and then, unless it was particularly bright and pleasant, she rode during that one hour in a covered carriage.
In two months the experiment was a complete success. As in the case of the rose-bush, so in the case of the Rose-girl, the absence of sunshine had produced a limp, weak, sick state.