| Show THE absentminded WOMAN OMAN av sev several eral axum ArKo ments t t to prove that t 1 is if not ot as she rears inane A lady who hastened to explain eipl iia I 1 t she is not a drinking woman tb t a is not addicted to the use of drua arn 11 1 1 short hort F that she has no habits that wo woi i I 1 tend to impair the intellect cites en nr ci peri ence that has caused her much dl quietude briefly told and in hero her av language she went down town ra n forgot to put on either hat bat or bonnel this bit of mental aberration has t pi haunted worried and generally nj furj her that she appeals for relief sorie som thing in the nature of citation of cases c 3 that may convince her that she is not a glaring exception to the world or sensible people and that her perform performance performs 6 la Is not to IQ taken as an indication that she is losing losin her mind it ought to be threasie the easiest A thing in the world to convince this needlessly alai ni ed lady that in the light of the many and notable examples of mental lapses her experience is is rather a pleasantly distinguishing characteristic io and not a terrifying malady if she has followed the daily papers or has read the coating bits of biography she ehe wast must have noted the many strange stories of great men meu and women remarkable for their absentmindedness in fact the preoccupation of the mind has bag led people into many absurd experiences and has made them the subjects of many oft told jests but nobody would think for a moment of accusing such people of a marked tendency toward insanity or of intimating hat bat the brain was softening abe tbs explanation would be that the mind faiad is so conce concentrated nitrated on oa what happens to be ba occupying it at the moment that all other things are subordinated for fores em staple people wrapped wrap in thought though will twill be ba carried beyond their railway ballway station will walk several blocks out of th kheiri eirl 1 way will even pass their own door i A further interesting and consol consoling inZ thought is the fact that the profoundest profound ese thinkers afford the most humr numerous ou 3 illos orations trat ions of absentmindedness scientists literary men college professors lawyers in short all classes of people who are of a studious profession are noted for such eccentricities the wise wll I 1 professor with his head crammed full of the tha inspiration of the study is th the butt of the students and the practical folk that enjoy the bewilderment into which his hia preoccupation leads hun him professor sophocles of harvard university was a man of this kind professor snell of amherst was another professor walter houghton the historian is a third it ab is related of professor hong houghton lit on that in leavings leaving ids his roo room in to pass down a long corridor and thence to the street he ha invariably raised his umbrella unconscious of the smiles emiles of the amused spectators samuel T glover giove r for many years the tha bright ornament of the st louis bar was no notoriously sly absentminded he would enter a restaurant order a luncheon and fall into a brown study over a law case after the luncheon had been served he would pick up the check pay tho the cashier and aad walk out leaving leavin the food untouched entirely unmindful of the fact that his stomach was still stall unsatisfied fied mr becher B echer has related stories in which thought preoccupation has played him pranks and has laughed as heartily as anybody over the ii x tunes 1 in view of the thousands of e apen encel that might be cited in evidence of the extent of absentmindedness it would appear that the lady who pranced down town bereft of her bonnet has no reason to fear that she is also to be bereft of her reason A thousand Blooming dales could not accommodate the lunatics in her stage of disease new york world |
