96 ADVENTURES IN IDEALISM 



of the grievances of the working people, but aggra- 

 vation followed upon aggravation, and at the end 

 of May he had a relapse. His life, even, was des- 

 paired of. 



For two long months there was a race between life 

 and death. Having always been a man of the most 

 temperate habits, life for the second time won the 

 race. In his convalescent period he went to a boarding 

 house in the Catskills, kept by Mrs. Augusta Lenson, 

 and she and her charming daughters gave him such 

 wonderful care that the summer spent there wrought 

 a miracle. He left us a bundle of bones scarcely cov- 

 ered with flesh, and returned a man in the full flush 

 of health. By the end of August he had gained thirty- 

 five pounds. He began to broaden out, the hollows of 

 his cheeks filled, and he looked the picture of health. 

 How he changed after this severe illness may be illus- 

 trated by this interesting incident. In 1889, our first 

 year in New York, he had received a letter from a 

 friend of his, a chemist in Odessa, asking him to find 

 out the prices of certain chemicals. This made it 

 necessary for him to go to the Stock Exchange. He 

 never knew how he did it, but he reached a certain 

 window inside the Exchange. In his broken speech 

 he asked a few questions. The man at the window 

 very angrily inquired how he had gained admittance. 

 Not having the least idea that there was a sanctum 

 sanctorum there, where not every mortal could be ad- 

 mitted, he replied, simply: "Why, nobody stopped me!" 



