Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1884 — An Uncomfortable Companion. [ARTICLE]

An Uncomfortable Companion.

A gentleman having, at the invitation of the Superintendent of an insane asylum in Massachusetts, inspected the interior of the building, asked leave to go out in the grounds, The Superintendent showed him the way, and then left him for a few moments, with the assurance that the patients who were at work in the garden were harmless. The gentleman was met as he stopped into the garden by a quiet, respectablelooking man, who bowed pleasantly and asked if he might show him through tho grounds. Taking him for the gardener, tire visitor thanked him and accepted his offer. They walked together, and the visitor was surprised at his companion’s intelligence and refinement. He was apparently a thorough horticulturist, and spoke tlroughtlully upon the flowers they examined. Pausing before a gorgeous bed of pansies, be stooped down and picked half a dozen kinds and handed them to the visitor with the words: “Observe those colors, different in each flower, and yet each color is so placed as to blend, or to make an agreeable contrast with the color beside it. No bad taste there, sir. I tell yon when God sorts the colors He doesn’t very often make mistakes!” They walked slowly along, talking on various topics, and as they jmssed by a grass-plat, the man picked up a sickle that lay near by, and trimmed the border of a flower-bed w.tk it. Then, with the instrument still-in his hand, he continued his walk with the visitor. This act confirmed the latter’s conviction that the man was a gardener, and he was more than ever surprised at his intelligence. As they retraced their steps to the house, the man with the sickle suddenly turned to the visitor and exclaimed, “You have not, I think, noted anything strange in my conversation?” “Why, no,” answered the visitor, in surprise; “except that I have enjoyed it exceedingly, and am much obliged to you for your kindness.” “There is nothing in my appearance to cause you to doubt my sanity, is there?” “Not at all,” replied the other, beginning to ft el a little uneasy. “You wonld, then, take me for a sane man, wouldn’t you?" “Cer—cer —tainly. ” “Well, to be frank with you, I am sane on all tho subjects we have touched upon. But do you know,” said he, as he drew a little nearer and whispered in the visitor’s ear, “do you know, I sometimes have an irresistible longing to cut a man’s head off? I can’t control it when it comes over me. I haven’t had such a longing to-day, but I never can tell when it will seize me. It may be at any moment. I can’t tell.” Imagine the feelings of the visitor at this confession! Just then the Superintendent appeared, with an anxious look on his face. He was attended by two keepers, who took the sickle from the man and led him into the building. The Superintendent explained to his frightened friend that the man was a dangerous patient. By some trick he had that morning escaped the vigilance of his keepers and strolled into the garden. The visitor congratulated himself on his escape, but was nevertheless so shocked that insane asylums are not at present his most attractive visiting places.— Youth’s Companion.