A CHRISTMAS VICTIM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 308, 24 December 1908, Page 3

A CHRISTMAS VICTIM

Marshal P. 'Wilder, the humorist, related at a Christmas dinner a striking personal experience, states an exchange, "When f was a boy in Geneva," he said, "T was once taken through a hospital for the insane, that was not far from the. town. " Many strange, many terrible things I saw in this hospital, but what affected me most deeply was the sight of a young man, of intelligent and refined appearance, who sat with his head in his hands, mumbling over and over, from morning till night: '"I can't strap it round my waist, and it won't go in my pocket. It isn't an automobile horn, for it won't blow: it isn't a lamp, for it won't light; I can't put it on my feet, and it will not go over my head; it is neither a fountain pen. a pipe, nor a balloonist's barometer; it looks like a golf glove, but it is not ,! tennis racquet; T can't ' ! "Turning away, I asked the keeper j the young man's history. •"Ah. sir, a sad case,' the keeper said. 'One. year ago that there young man was prosperous and renowned —the finest puzzle, inventor and decipherer in the whole durn country. Hut at Christmas his voung lady gave him a present made with her own hands, and i:i trying to determine its name and its use the poor fellow became what you sec.'"