Confessions of a NeurasthenicMarrs, William Taylor
Science
Confessions of a Neurasthenic
Marrs, William Taylor
Neurasthenia
Broncho-busting and Western life in general satisfied me about as quickly
as any of my numerous ventures. In a very few days I was heartsick and
homesick--a strong combination. I will draw a curtain over some of my
experiences, as I don't care to talk about them; one of these being my
feelings after my first day in the saddle. When I worked for that mean old
farmer, years before, I thought I was physically broken up if not entirely
bankrupt, but that experience pales into significance as compared with the
present case. Then we got out on an alkali desert, forty miles from water,
and I nearly choked, to death. However, I survived it all and in due time
got back to civilization.
On my arrival home my den looked more cozy and inviting than it ever had
before. My old friends gave me a hearty greeting and their smiles and
handshakes seemed good to me on dropping back to earth after a brief
sojourn in the Land of Nowhere. I was truly glad for once that I was
alive, for I believe there is no keener pleasure than, after an absence,
to have the privilege of mingling with old, time-tried friends that you
know are sincere and true. My friends seemed just as glad to see me as I
did them. We laughed as heartily at each other's jokes as if they had been
really funny. Old friends are the best, because they learn where our
tenderest corns are and try to walk as lightly as possible over them. I
thought the hardships I had endured for a while were fully compensated for
by once more being surrounded by familiar faces and scenes.
But in a few weeks life again became monotonous. Everybody bored me. It
seemed to me that both men and women talked, as they thought, in a circle
of very small circumference. I found only an occasional person who could
interest me for even a short time; I felt that I must have some mental
excitement of a legitimate kind or I would go crazy. What should it be?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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