Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 June 1936 — Page 19

hort Story————————=—-=S10UR BOARDING HOUSE ~~ —By Willia : CASTAWAY HL : WHEN YO STAMPED YO FOOT 3 rar] ee PRINT ON DAT MAILMAN'S F i i RECEIPT, YO SHO CUT NOSELF By John Herrick - ADRIFT ON A SEA OB TROUBLE, 7%, MISTAH MAJSAR I YO MIGHT

OUR WAY - ATS JUS’ WHY VEP, IT'S THER SOME PEOPLE OWN FAULT, DONT Jove Jorn SA PEOPLE ~TOO LAZY | I KNOW-YOU ELSE. YES, YOU GOT TH BERRIES, * TO PICK, , WHEN GOTTA WORK TO BUT I LISSENED TO TH'BIRDS, THERS LOTS OF HAVE THINGS=TO | | TH' GURGLIN' CREEKS-TOOK A PICKIN. BRING HOME TH' NAP— ENJOYED TH' FINE AIR 1 BERRIES! TH' AN' SCENERY-DON'T LOOK, BEAVER BUILDS LIKE I'D BEEN IN A FIGHT, TH" DAMS, AN ‘~ WELL~ DON'T “WORRY YOU KNOW. ABOUT ME !

VEH-AN' TH' HOG BULDS FAT—Y { I GOT A FEW~ENOUGH TO ENJOY AN' LEFT SOME FER SOMEBODY

[| WHAT A BUTHERING IDIOT 1 WAS f EGAD, A BLACK CAT CROSSED MY PATH BUT THIS MORNING—— AN ILL OMEN THAT TELLS ME THAT THE CONTENTS WILL BRING NAUGHT BUT MISFORTUNE ! A PLAGUE TO LAWYERS

AS HAB A THUNDAH CLOUD, CHUCK FULL OB LIGHTINY

“yx KNOW,” said the Old Doctor, “you business fellows make decisions involving millions. But we—we psychiatrists—often must decide the fate of a human mind.” Some of the members called the Old Doctor a Freud; some called him a fraud. Nobody quite knew when or how he had first got into the club, but he and his always three-quarters empty glass had come to be accepted as a proper part of the furniture about the taproom fireplace. “Yes, gentlemen,” he pronounced, “we . psychiatrists — hm-m-m—— There was a man once—" his voice blurred out in his tilted glass. He appeared not to notice that the glass, when he lowered it it was empty. * . “Your turn, Jim,” whispered a member of the listening circle, and grinned. “All right, but damned if I'll believe him,” grumbled Jim, and motioned to the bar boy. -

» 2 o

= Old Doctor nodded vague thanks at the fresh glass and began . .. The Old Doctor—or probably he ‘was a Young Doctor then—was sitting in his office one afternoon. An open book, pushed aside, lay on the table. He had been reading the histories of several cases of lost memory—not too scientifically reported, he thought—which had been cured by the use of suggestion during hypnosis. ‘ The door opened and a m came in, * “Please,” the man burst out, “help me find my book.” _ . “You want the police, not a psychiatrist,” said the Young Doctor. The man was tall and tanned, but his lips were pale, and the bones showed through in the hands that kept making nervous motions. “You don’t understand,” said the man. “My book—I didn't write it on paper. I wrote it in my mind.”

“NF COURSE,” ‘said the Young Doctor, as if he were used to that sort of thing. \ “When they came — after I'd waited 13 months and six days, I was excited and’—the man wrung his hands—*“I lost it.” “Lost what?” asked the Young Doctor. : “My book,” the man answered. He pressed both hands to his forehead. “But I didn’t lose the rest of it—the loneliness that almost drives you mad. There on the island you know. Nothing to do but sleep and eat and walk round and round on the beach. : “And then I thought of the book. And now it's that that almost drives me mad, knowing it’s in my head somewhere—lost.” Then he quieted a little and told how he had left his wife, shortly after their marriage, and had gone on an engineering expedition to the South Seas. He had chartered a schooner. A hurricane blew up out of nowhere and the schooner foundered. And how he had floated to the island on a spar. 8 [J ”

* A T first,” said the man, “I just existed. Food—fruits and Hiings was too easy to get. My mind began to go. But I pulled myself together. I thought to myself, I'm an intelligent man, with @ trained brain and imagination. “I thought how—Macaulay, wasn’t it?—could memorize a whole book. I figured I could do the same thing. But I hadn't any book, or any pen

iT and paper, so I had to write a book

in my mind. It was hard work at first. It took me a month and three days to write and memorize the first chapter. But afterward, of course, I didn't have to try to remember. I got so I could write a chapter in a week. So, day after day, I sat on the beach and wrote. I could feel my creative power grow-

“I reached the final chapter. I wrote the final chapter in a day. 1 planned to revise it the next day I could hardly sleep at night.

‘| ly he had put on a satyr's mask.

1 ord of & highly complex and civilized

'| to see you about some queer no- | you've done, they seem ta be gone

will acclaim it.”

n » ” “YF you'll trust me,” said the Young Doctor. “I can’t promise, of course.” “Anything!” the man babbled. “Anything, so long as you find my book.” The Young Doctor sought to display an air of competent composure as he- glanced at the volume still open on the: table, then turned toward his patient. “I intend to hypnotize you,” he said, though he: had only a vague idea of how it was done. But it proved absurdly easy. The man sat stiffly in his chair and virtually put himself into a trance. The Young Doctor poked at the man awkwardly and got no response. For a fearful moment, he thought that his pa-

marked the man’s deep, even breathing. “Do you remember your book?” demanded the Young Doctor, and his own breathing almost stopped as he waited for the answer. “Yes, of course. Its title was ‘The Castaway.’” The man smiled. But what a smile! It was as if sudden-

And he began to recite. It: was his book. He started at the first

book is great literature, The world |

tient might be dead, until he}

sentence, and talked on and on with never a pause. | » ” 2 | T was about a white man cast] away on an island. Every so’ often, natives visited the island to sacrifice the tribe’s most beautiful virgin to the island’s god. And they

found the man and took him for the god. 3 |

cination with which the Young Doctor. listened at first, turned to dismay and then to disgust; for he still was a young doctor who had not yet seen, as he would see later, into those many closets of the mind whichgself-respect and decency keep closed. ; ; For in his book, which has a rec-

being who had surrendered to the primitive, the man had opened the closet doors and tumbled the contents out before the world. : The man talked on, paragraph after paragraph. His book was not even well written. It was merely stuff—dirty stuff. “Is it all like that?” the young doctor broke out at last.

#2 = 8 HE man nodded—ant smiled. The Young Doctor looked at him and felt afraid. He suddenly realized that he had to decide the fate of a human mind. Here was

& man who, under normal circumstances, would be a normally decent citizen. Should he give back to this man the part of the man’s memory that had been lost? If he did, the knowledge of what: had been forgotten would wreck the man’s selfrespect, perhaps the man himself. Should he,’ then, let the memory of the book stay forever submerged? If he did, the man’s continued effort to remember would surely mean insanity. The Young Doctor paced the floor. ¢ - And then, the solution came to the Young Doctor. : - “Are you listening?” he demanded of the man. : : The man nodded. The Young Doctor twisted his fingers in the man’s hair, tipped back the leering face. ” 2

OU never wrote a book—in your mind or anywhere else!” The Young Doctor shouted the words. “Everything about the book is wiped ‘out. Do you understand?” The man nodded. And suddenly the smile of the depraved god vanished and gave way to a look of composure, Still holding to the

his head, and stared, puzzled about; him. - “I believe you were talking about a bool tor The man said: “Why, no, I came

tions that I've had, but whatever

now, I can’t even remember what

The story went on. And ‘the fas)

HOVERIN' OVAH

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BE PUNISHED

IVE BEEN LYING 4 " HERE AN: HOUR... THEY § FORALL - ||: OUGHTA BE ASLEEP | BY THIS TIME! TLL JUST.Go DowN AN’ |. GET POODLES :

WASHINGTON TUBBS I

WELL, ER... AHEM, I JUST CAME

.DOWN FOR A MIDNIGHT SNACK AND

SHUT THE DOOR

MOTHER !

(HOW'S THAT, YOU DUMB, JAILER 7 HOWS) |

THAT FER OUTSMARTIN' YOU 2

ALLEY OOP

STEP ON THE GAS, STRANGER, AND

IF YOU MAKE A FUSS, I'LL PLUG YOU

QUIETLY..... AND MIND You, NOT A WORD OF THIS TO YOUR

~ —By Crane : ; REIGHT GONG IN THE OPPO- :

=’ THAT'S WHAT T CALL) { COVERIN' UPATRAIL

BOOTS AND HER BUDDIES

[THIS IS TOO GOOD TLAST-THERE'S A | CATCH IN IT, SOMEWHERE # WELL, WHATEVER HAPPENS, THERE AINT ~ NOBODY GONNA KETCH

ME NAPPIN'

(F ANY OF THESE WOP-| {TH FIRST MUG THAT EARED GORILLAS ARE PLANNIN’ ON JUMPIN’ | |HERE 15 LIKELY TO ME TONIGHT, SOME - BODY 1S DUE FOR

|STICKS HIS HEAD UP

AA BIG SURPRISE.) # Sea AR 15

MAKIN’ ME

HELLO, PROFE:

THE LATEST | suRE! vow TROM O\' CAPTAN ISLAND? RIOD ?

WELL, FER-! SAY - LOOKIT THIS / DYA RECKON "ALL MOOVIANS SLEEP SITTIN’

HEY; THERE -5S TIME | TGIT UP -

HELLO, OMRLNG DVO YOO MNOT\CE THE NEW PORCH FURNITURE 2 T THINK We

TERRIBLY SMART

Zea J PY 2

WUR OH YEH HE SENT US TGITCHA - C'MON -

Co pe Lh sd

She pane He