The Case Of The Dow Twins

" My notions about scul's influence on soiü," aid Dr. Kichards, of Saturday Cove, to me one day last September, "are a little peculiar. I don't make a practice of giving 'cm away to the idüse around here. The Cove jjeople hold that when a doctor gets beyond jalap and rliubarb, lie's trespassing on the parson's property. Now, it's a long road from jalap to soul, but I don't see why one man niightn't ti-avel as well as another. Will you oblige me with a clam ?" I obliged him with a clam. We were sitting together on the rock, fishing for tomcod. Saturday Cove is a small watering place a few müep'below BelfaBt,onthe west shore of Penobeoot 'oay. It apparently derives ifes name from a belief generally entertained by the Covers that thits spot was the final and crowning achievement of the Creator before resting on the seventh day. The Cove village consista of a hotel, two churches, several stores, and a graveyard containing former generationB of êatiirtlarians. It ia a favorite gibe íitiiong outsiders, who enTy the placid quiet of the place, that if the poptilation of the graVeyard hoiúd be dugtlpand díit;i.'íbuted through the village, and the present inhabitants laid away beneath the sod, there would be no perceptible diminution in the liveliness of the settlement. The t Cove proper abounds with tomend wliícli may be caught with.platt, "Yen" OOntinuedDr. Richards, as he fofcod the barb of his jig-hook into the tender organism of the clam " iiiy tlieory is that a strong soul inay crowd a weak soul out of the body which belongs to the weak soul, and opérate through that body, even though miles away and involuntarily. I believe, moreover, that a man may have two souls, one of liis own by right and the other an intruder. In fact, I knoto that this is so, and, it being so, what becomes of your moral responsibility? What, I ask, becomes of your moral responsibility ?" I replied that I coma net imagine. " Your doctrine of moral responsibility," eaid the Doctor sternly, as if it were my doctrine and I were responsible for moral responsibility, "isn't worth this tomcod," and he took a small fish off his hook and contemptuously tossed it back into'the cove. " Did you ever hear of the case of the Dow twins ?" I had never heard of the case of the Dow twins. "Well," resumed the Doctor, " they were born into the fnmily of Hiram Dow, thirty years ol' more ago, in the red farm-house just over the hill back of us. My predccessor, old Dr. Gookin, superintended their birth, and bas ofteu told me the circumstances. The Dow twins came into the world bound back to back by a fleshy ligature which extended half the length of the spinal processes. They would probably have traveled throughlife inintimate juxtaposition had the matter depended on your great city physicians - yovir surgeons who were afraid to disconnect Chang and Eng, and who discussed the operatkm till the poor fellows died without parting company. Old Dr. Gookin, however, who hadu't attempted anything for years in the surgical line, more than to pull a tooth or to cut out an occasional wen, caimiy went to work and sharpened up his rusty old operating knife and slashed and gaBhed the twins apart beforo they had been three hours breathing. This promptitude of Gookin's saved the Dow twins 1 good deal of inconvenience. " " I should think so ! " " And yet," added the Doctor, reflectively, " perhaps it might have been bettcr for 'cm both if they hadn't been separated. Better for Jehiel, especially, since he wouldn't have been put in a false position. Then, on the other hand, my theory would have lacked the confirmation of an illustrative example. Dey ou want the story?" " By all ineans." "Well, Jaob and Jehiel grew up healthy, Rtrapping boys, like as two peas physically, but otherwisc very unlike. Jehiel was all Dow - slow, slow-witted, melancholy inclined, and disposed to respect the ten commandments. Jake, he had his mother's git-up-and-git- -she was a Fox of Fox island - and was into miscliief froin the time lie was tall enougli to poke burdook burs down liis grandïnotber's back. Dr. Gookin watched the development of the twins with great interest. He used to say there was an invisible nerve telegraph between Jake and Jehiel. At any rate Jehiel was accustomed to act very quietly whenever Jacob was up to any of his pranks. One night, for instance, when Jake was off robbing a hen-roost, Jehiel sat up in bed in his sloep and crowed like a frightened cock until the whole family was aroused. "I carne here and opened my office ahont ten yeara ago. At that time Jehiel had grown into a steady, tolerably industrious young man, prominent in the (Jongregatioiiiil Clmrc.li, and 80 sober md decoroxis that the village people had trusted him with the driving of tfie town hearse, When I íirst kiiew liba Ik Giles, who lived about seven miles back in the country. JeWe'. was a tin knocker by traite: ftlid a more pious, respectable, reliable tin knocker you never saw. " Jake liad turnea out very differently. By tb e time of Sumter he liad made Saturday CoVe too hot to hold him, and everybody, including hia twin Jehiel, was glad when he enlisted in a Maine regiment. I never saw Jake in my life, for I canie here after he had departed, 'out I have a pretty good notion of what a reckless, loud-mouthed, harum-scarum repróbate he must have boen. After the war he drifted into the Western country, and we heard of him occcasionally, first, as a steamboat runner at St. .Louis,, then in jail at Jefferson for swindling a blind Dutchman, theh as a gambler and rough in Oüeyenne, and finally as a dead beat in Trisco. You could teil pretty well when Jake was in dcviltry by watching the actions of Jehiel. At such times Jehiel was restless, knocked tin with an uneasy impatience that wasn't habitual with him, was as mum and glum at prayer-meeting as the worst sinner in Saturday Cove, and evidently had to struggle hard to be good. It seemed as if Dr. Gookin's kuif e, which cut the physical twins apartj hnd been uhable to dissever the physical twins, and tlïat some part of Jake's soullingered at times in Jehiel. Wliether Jehiel's piety ever influenced Jacob, I am unable to say. ' ' The most singular thing of all was in regard to Jehiel's attentions to the young woman namcd Giles. She was a sober, demure, church-going person, wliom Jacob had never been able to endure, but wlio, as everybody said, would make an excellent helpmate for Jehiel. He seemed to care a good deal for her in bis steady, slow way, and made a point twice a week of driving over to bring her to prayer-meeting at the Cove. But when one of bis odd spells was on him he forsook her altogether, and weeks would go by, to her great distress, without hia appearing at the Giles gate. As Jake went from bad to worse these periods of iudifference becamo more frequent and prolonged, and occasioned the young woman named' Giles much misery and a good many tears. " One fine afternoon, in the sumnier of 1871, Jacob Dow, as we afterwards I learnedj was sliot througli the heart by a Mexiean in a dranken raw at San Diego. He sprang high into the air and feil apon his face, and when they laid him away a good Catholic priest said mass for the repose of his soul. " That same aftemoon, as it happened, old Dr. Gookin was to have been buried in the graveyard yonder. He had died a day or two before at an extreme age, btit in the full possession of his faculties, btat one of the last remarks he made was to expresa regretthat he would be unable to follow the career of the Dow twins auy further. "Itbecame Jehiel's melaneholy duty to harneas up his hearse on account of old. Dr. Gookin's funeral, and, as he dusted the plumes and polished the ebony panels "of the vehicle, his thoughts naturally recurred to the great service which that excellent physician had rendered him in early youth. Then he thonght of his twin brother Jacob, and wondered whore he was and how he prospered. Then his eyes wandered over the hearse, and he feit a dull pride in its oreditable appearance. It looked so bright and shiny in the sun that he resolved, as it still wanted a couple of hours of the time appointed for the funeral, to drive it over to the Giles farm and fetch his sweetheart to the village on the box with him. The young woman named Giles liad freqiiently ridden with Jehiel on the hearse, her demure f naturen aud sober apparel detracting nothing from the respeetáble w'lcminty oí the equipage. " Jehiel drove up in state to the door of his betrothed, Bnd she, not at all reut to eajoy the mild excitement of a i fmwvnl, monnted to thf boj nul wttin! herself comíortably beside him. Tlien thev started for Saturday Cove, and jogged along on the hearse, diacotirsing affectionately as they went. " Miss Giles íiflirms that it was at the third apple tree next the stone wall oí Hosea Getchell's orchard, just opposite the bars leading to Mr. Lord's private road, that a sudden and most extraordinaxj ohange came over Jehiel. He jumped, she says, high into the air and landed sprawling in the sandy road alongside the hearse, yelling so hideously that it was with difliculty that she held the frightened horseB._ Picfeing himsetf tip and utterihg a ro'ühd oath (something that. had neVer before passed the virtuous lips of Jehiel) he turned his attention to the horses, kicking and beating them until they stood quiet. He next proceeded to cut and trim a willow switch at the roadside, and, pulling his decent silk hat down over one eye, and darting from the other a surly glance at the astonished Miss Giles, he climbed to his seat on the hearse. " 'Jehiel Dow !' said she, 'what does this mean ?' " ' It nieans !' he ïeplied, gmng the off horse a vicious cut with his switch, 'that I have been goin' slow these thirty yetar, and now I'm goin' to put a little ginge-r in my gait. Gelang !' " The hearse horses jumped underthe nnaccustomed lash and broke into a gallop. Jehiel applied the switch igain and again, and the dismal vchicle was soon bumping over the ïoad at a treihendotis pace, Jehiel shoútihg all the time likc a circus-rider, and Miss Giles clinging to his side in an agony of terror. The people in the farm-houses along the way rushed to doors and windows and gazed in amazement at theunpreccdented spectacle. Jehiel had a word for each - a shout of derision for one, a blast of blasphemy for another, and an invitation to ride for a third - but he reined in for nobody, and in a twinkling the five miles between Hosea Getchell's farm at Duok Trap and the village at Saturday Oove had been accomplished. Ithink I am safe in saying that never before did hearse rattle over five miles of hard road so raüidlv. " ' O, Jeliiel, Jchiel !' said Miss Giles, as the hcarse entered tlic village ' are you took crazy of a stalden ?' " ' No,' said Jeliiel, curtly, 'but my eyes are open now. Gelang you beasts. You get out hero. I'm going to Belíast.' "'But Jehiel, dear,' slio protested with many sobs, ' remembor Dr. Gookin.' " ' Dang Gookin !' said Jeliiel. "'And for my sake,' she continued. ' Dear Jehiel, for my sake. ' ' ' ' Dang you, too, ' said Jehiel. " Drawing up his team in magniflcent style before the village hotel, he i pelled the weeping Miss Giles to alight, and then, with an admirable imitation of the war-whoop of a Sioux brave, started his melancholy vehicle for Belfast, and was gone in a flash, leaving the entire population of Saturday Cove in a state of bewilderment that approached coma. "The remains of the worthy Di1. Gookin were borne to the gravc-yard that afternoon upon the shoulders of half a dozen ef the stoutest farmers in the neighborhood. Jehiel carne Ík une long after midnight, uproariously intoxicated. The revolution in his charaoter had been as complete as it was sudden. Prom tlie moment of Jacob's death he was a diasipated, dishonest scoundrel, the scandal of Saturday Cove, and the terror of quiet, respectable folks for miles around. After that d-ay he oould never be persuaded to speak to or even reoognize tlii yonng womtn namecl Giles. Blie, to lífr credit, I think, utill rem'flSrié in spjnÉrterTiood1, Poithful 1" fche memory of the lost Jehiel, Hi.s downivard course wae rapid. He gambled, drauk, quarreled, nnd stolo ; and he ik ing out a sentence for au attempt to rob the NorthportBank. Miss Giles goes down every year in, the hopes that Jtte will see lier, büt he always refuses. He is in for ten years." "Andhe deservesall of it," I ventured to remark. " See here," said Dr. Bichards, turning suddenly and looking me square in the face. " Do you think of what you are saying ? Now I hold that he is as innocent as yöu or I. I believe that the souls of the twins were bound by a bond ivhich Dr. Gookih's knife cotild nöt dissect. "Wheti Jacob died, his soul, with all its depravity, ïeturiied tb its twin soul in Jehiel's body. Being stronger tlian he Jehiel soul, it mastered and overwhelmed it. Poor Jehiel is not responsible; he is suffering the penalty of a crime that was purely Jake's." My friend spoke with a good deal of earnestness and some heat, and, concluding that Jehiel's innocence was a hobby of his, I did not press the discussion. That evening, in cónversation with the village clergyraan, I remarked : "That was a "Very singular case, that of the Dow twin0." "Ah!" said the parson, "youhate heard the story. Wluch way did the Doctor end it?" " Wliy, with Jehiel in jail, of course. What do you mean ?" " Nothïng," replied the parson, witli a l'aint smile. " Sometimes, whenhe feels well dispoBod. toward humanity, hemakcs Jehiel'fe soul take pbssessioh of Jiicbb and transform him into a pious, respectable Ohristian. In his pessimistic moods tlie story runs as you heard it. So thie is one of his Jacob days ! He should take a little quinine." - New York Sun.