The Side-Show 195 



infallibly become sane and whole. The sufferer 

 was willing enough to try the experiment, and did 

 sit silent and absorbed for nearly half an hour. At 

 the end of that time the Christian Scientist asked 

 sweetly how he felt. " I feel, Madam," he replied, 

 " like a damn fool." 



The men of the West owe much to Mrs. Eddy, 

 for her teaching has wrought some wonderful cures 

 amongst anaemic, hysterical, drug-poisoned women. 

 A physician told me that Christian Science was 

 a specific for nervous affections. He also told me 

 that a colleague of his, an Agnostic, had been treat- 

 ing a Catholic patient for one of those obscure 

 lesions to which female flesh is heir, and that, 

 despite his efforts, the patient had steadily grown 

 worse. But she was quite confident that if only 

 she could visit Lourdes, her health would be mirac- 

 ulously restored. The doctor gravely and truth- 

 fully assured her that in his opinion holy water of 

 Our Lady would wash away her infirmities ; and, as 

 it was impossible for the patient to undertake a 

 journey overseas of some seven thousand miles, he 

 begged her to send for some of the water, which the 

 lady did ; and, having absolute faith in the elixir, 

 recovered her health and strength ! 



It is curious to mark in a new country that men 

 run after strange gods as soon as they forsake the 

 faith that sustained their fathers, but we are con- 

 cerned now not with ethics but side-shows. Per- 

 haps the side-show is more amusing when one 

 individual occupies the stage. This was emphati- 

 cally the case with Richard Hobson, the hero of 

 the Merrimac, better known perhaps as the Hero 



