Life — October 30, 1902 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“gor 4 Goop amt?” “yes, SIR.” “THEN GO AHEAD, BUT BE CAREFUL NOT TO SPOIL HIS BKIN TOO MUCH.” A Peculiar Case. BUT veanticipate. We were about to tell what happened to Von Blumer, on that sanguinary day in the spring, without first even intimating what was the matter withhim. And this is impor- tant. As our lit- tle tale proceeds, we feel sure that its importance will be ac- knowledged by all. It was early morning as Von Blumer stepped briskly out of his house and walked sturdily down the street, his mind far aheadofhim, Like a searchlight that focuses on the distant point of inter- est, so Von Blumer’s mind was already at his office, arranging and planning the de- velopment of his latest schemes. Mechan- ically he got into the car, mechanically he got out again, and mechanically he pro- ceeded to that already active center. This mental mechanism, or self-absorption if you will, was to be shortly disturbed, for he had not walked far before he ran up against his friend Wilderby. Wilderby, it might be mentioned, possessed a combination of three things: He was honest, he was tact- less, and he had once been under treatment atasanitarium. So it was not altogether unnatural, after the first greeting, for him to say to Von Blumer : Old man, are you well?” “Why, yes.” “You look thin.” “Dol? Perhaps I am.” “Youare. You're under weight, I'll bet, when you come to think it over, that you are not so well as you perhaps have seemed to yourself.” “T hadn't thought much about it.” “Well, do so. It will pay you. Often- times a loss in weight is the forerunner of serious trouble. You show plainly that you are not up to the mark.” ‘They parted, and Von Blumer proceeded on his way to his office, with an uncomfort- able feeling that his friend had somehow done him an injury. He didn't like Wil- derby so well as he had, maybe, yet here was a thought that was doubtless worth considering. Von Blumer had, with an active imagination, a nervous temperament that may have been instrumental in his business success, but was not always con- ducive to the utmost tranquillity. He stopped on his way to his desk and looked into the mirror. « Am I getting thin?” he asked himself. Some able observer, with perhaps more common sense than psychology, has said that thoughts are things. In the course of the next two hours it seemed to Von Blumer as if this thought, so gratuitously thrust upon him, was a real thing, so often did he try to brush it aside, only to have it return to him again. “You look thin, You show plainly that you are not up to the mark,” These words of his friend stared him in the face. Then, his attention being aroused in this direction, it seemed that never be- fore had eo many other striking things, ——— psINSKys OPO MONEY LOANED ON. all bearing directly on his particular case, come up before him. In his mail was a cir- cular, advertising a certain remedy, and de- tailing certain symptoms, many of which he recognized as his own. He read it now with the keenest interest, and then suddenly tore it up, relentless and remorseful at his weakness. Leaving his office to go across the way, he ran directly into a weighing comicbooks.com