this alone would not have induced the average business man to employ me under the circumstances.  It was the common-sense and rational attitude of my employer toward mental illness which determined the issue.  This view, which is, indeed, exceptional to-day, will one day (within a few generations, I believe) be too commonplace to deserve special mention.  As this man tersely expressed it:  “When an employe is ill, he’s ill, and it makes no difference to me whether he goes to a general hospital or a hospital for the insane.  Should you ever find yourself in need of treatment or rest, I want you to feel that you can take it when and where you please, and work for us again when you are able.”

Dealing almost exclusively with bankers, for that was the nature of my work, I enjoyed almost as much leisure for reading and trying to learn how to write as I should have enjoyed had I had an assured income that would have enabled me to devote my entire time to these pursuits.  And so congenial did my work prove, and so many places of interest did I visit, that I might rather have been classed as a “commercial tourist” than as a commercial traveler.  To view almost all of the natural wonders and places of historic interest east of the Mississippi, and many west of it; to meet and know representative men and women; to enjoy an almost uninterrupted leisure, and at the same time earn a livelihood—­these advantages bear me out in the feeling that in securing the position I did, at the time I did, I enjoyed one of those rare compensations which Fate sometimes bestows upon those who survive unusual adversity.

XXIX

After again becoming a free man, my mind would not abandon the miserable ones whom I had left behind.  I thought with horror that my reason had been threatened and baffled at every turn.  Without malice toward those who had had me in charge, I yet looked with abhorrence upon the system by which I had been treated.  But I realized that I could not successfully advocate reforms in hospital management until I had first proved to relatives and friends my ability to earn a living.  And I knew that, after securing a position in the business world, I must first satisfy my employers before I could hope to persuade others to join me in prosecuting the reforms I had at heart.  Consequently, during the first year of my renewed business activity (the year 1904), I held my humanitarian project in abeyance and gave all my executive energy to my business duties.  During the first half of that year I gave but little time to reading and writing, and none at all to drawing.  In a tentative way, however, I did occasionally discuss my project with intimate friends; but I spoke of its consummation as a thing of the uncertain future.  At that time, though confident of accomplishing my set purpose, I believed I should be fortunate if my projected book were published before my fortieth year.  That I was able to publish it eight years earlier was due to one of those unlooked for combinations of circumstances which sometimes cause a hurried change of plans.