Rush Medical College - Pulse Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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that it was a torch of pine knot that a form all bent and tottering carried in his withered hand. He was old, yea, very old, his hoary locks did fall in great abundance from his temples, now so hollow, until anastomosing with a beard, still more white, almost concealed his face. He came upon me. He must have known of my presence, for there was no surprise when he beheld me. Now it came to pass that as he gazed upon me he did draw himself up to the full stature of manhood, and placing his thumbs in the axillary spaces of his toga, viewed me in the most oppressive way, and having gazed did shake his head and say in tones most sarcastic : So you indeed are he whom the class of '94 hast sent to me that their future might be revealed. It behooves me to say that I am in truth surprised and disappointed. Suffer me, I pray thee, to see thy credentials. Thereupon with trembling I did hand him a letter that our worthy president had given unto me as I set forth upon my journey. He read it in silence and having finished it said, Very well. First I will tell you who I am. My name is Future. The past I know not of. The present lasteth but a moment. XVhile I, Future, contain all the probabilities and possibilities of the destinies of men. I live only in the things that are to come. This portion of the earth and the fullness thereof is mine, and in it are all these things contained you shall to-night, if eyes and ears you use, a lesson learn that will abide within your memory so long as the Nile runneth to the sea and the soil of the Sahara is athirst. Follow me and e'en these things shall be shown unto you, and girding up his loins he led the way. And it came to pass after we had journeyed over fallen trees and briers that did scratch and e'en forsooth tear my raiment, that we at length did come before a cavern large and still and even blacker than the Stygian darkness round about us, set between two boulders, large and awful in their greatness. Bats and winged animals,the like of which I ne'er had seen, did Hy against the light and made it to Hicker e'en more than before. I was in sooth sore stricken and sick at heart,and methought: Verily, I have bitten off more than I can chew,and peradventure some accident will be- fall me. Suffer me, I pray thee, to depart and forbid me not. But he only laughed and mocked my cowardice. Seeing that it availed me naught, I straightway took my hypode1'mic out and did inject a sixtieth of strychnine into my arm e'en unto the deeper tissues. I-Ie then moved calmly forwards I followed, but not with eagerness. On and on and still downward we did go towards the very center of the earth, The air coming from Plutos' sulphurous realm was thick and stifling, but that strychnia was getting in its work, and nothing daunted I followed. At length we suddenly stopped, a large rock did block our way. He made a few passes strange and Hermannlike, and the gigantic boulder was rolled away, and there before me did appear a sight that only Dante and myself have ever seen. A caldron huge and dirly sputtered and tried to boil over a sickly Ere. I .stepped forward and peered in, and there in shapeless confusion did I see bits 206

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ZQJSXQZQZQHQZSQZQSQZQ lass llbropbecig DnLIVE1zEn ox Class IJ.-xr, Mu' 21, 1894. flfr. P1'5.vz'a'u11f, ffafzorizbft' Ezfzffzjf, f mr- lfmfus, Lmz'z'r5 mm' Gl'11fli'111uf1.' Now it came to pass as I tarried with my books that the hour did arrive in which I must of necessity hie me to my couch. 'Iihat meal which the landlady extolled in words such as are becoming only to landladies did gnaw and even tear away at my yitals. In sooth it was of that baser sort that incites a feeble stomach to rise and mutiny. It was well-nigh the hour when the church-yards yawn and solid girls do likewise. Then I replaced my books upon theirshelves, and taking off my garments did retire-my head all filled with epiblastic tumors, my stomach with things much worse. Verily, I was weighed down and sorely grieved, for slumber visited not mine eyelids, neither did sweet Morpheus come my way. At length, after much tossing and weariness, I slumbered, but my slumbers were not such as a babe sleepeth, for gruesome things did haunt me -thoughts weird and ghastly chased each other across my wearied brain, scorpions did rend my tiesh, and slimy serpents with forked tongues did crawl upon me and make me to writhe. Now it came to pass as I wrestled with these things unnatural and uncanny that at length I found myself in a forest dark and thick. , I know not how I got there, nor yet where it was. It mattered little. No sound to break the silence so oppressive save the occasional hoot of a distant owl and the sighing of the wind in its course through the tree-tops. Yea, verily, it was dark- so dark, in fact, that e'en one of Pharaoh's own body guards might well haye lost his way. And as I sat and did commune with myself--lo, there did appear a small uncertain light shining through the underbushes, and when I did behold it I straightway took heart, and smiting my thigh with my palm said, By the sword ofthe prophet,this is my deliverance Q and as I thus did commune with myself, the light e'en so drew near unto me, and as it came still closer I saw 2o5

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:of matriculation and general tickets for RUsH and- those odious sealed envelopes. I added a tear or two to the boil and hurried after the old man, who was restlessly awaiting me. Hut another rock, still greater than the one before we stood. The old gentleman, sticking his torch in a crevice of the rock and turning to me, said, Behold this adamantine rock. Behind it is concealed the future 'of your class. To thee alone it shall be revealed if you but write the things just as you see them, and then if your class-mates fain would let their angry passions rise, reason with them saying, 'Keep your tunics on, for whom the Faculty destroy they first make mad.' Now he did make the passage as before and the massive rock parted, and as I gazed with exophthalmic eyes through 'the hssure that was made, I saw even these things that I now give unto you. Now it came to pass as I gazed through the crevice that there did appear before mine eyes a sign-board fifteen cubits wide and thirty cubits long, and VV1'lttClI thereon with a red pigment were these words that all might read, MCH.-XS. D. CENTER, Manicure and Chiropodistf' and as I gazed upon this sign behold there did appear this man,and lifting up his voice said unto me: Lo, these many years have I toiled and tried to be professional, but my purse waxed not fat, neither did anything stick to my ribs: but now I have changed, and .shekels in great abundance are mine and likewise houses and lands. The next scene that appeared was at a patients bedside,and there I did behold one IQEITH fcomnionly known as Stock Yards XYillieJ. A large rope he held in his nerveless fingers. Un his face were signs of supreme agony. The patient was growing paler and paler, she was evidently bleeding to death and IXIEITI-I seemed powerlessto preventit. Iventured to ask him why he tarried thus, and he said in tones so weak as to be scarcely understood, Forsooth, I have forgotten where the post-partum artery doth reside, for I fain would tie it: but now, alas, she hath perished and I alone am the cause of it. I was about to ask him if he remembered of having ever heard while at RL'sH of COINIDVCSS- ing the aorta. But another slide was now put in. This one was down in Posey county, where the paw-paws grow and the grasshopper becomes a burden. It was a typical farm-yard scene such as Eggleston describes, and seated in the midst thereof and on an averted basket was NOAH THOMPSON, apparently happy and contented. He was busily engaged in trying to find out how much back salary was due him from the Big 4 railroad, and would occasionally take time enough to look up and rebuke one of the many small dirty-faced children that were playing around, that re- sembled him considerably and were very prone to do evil. How changed, thought I, and yet another beautiful example of the eternal fitness of things. I could not help but shed a tear, for he was once my room- mate, and as I gazed with tear-stained eyes on the picture now fast disappear- ing, behold there carne to View a scene of different nature. It was on the north side. There was a mammoth building with a sign- .board of large dimensions which read, XV1Nm1UELLER 8 Bocies Summer Garden. Performance .now going on. I, of course, stepped inside. The .Hrst one I met was IZMIL. His body large and encumbered with flesh, his face zo7