"And are you in the habit of calling up ladies in that fashion?"
"It's a very good fashion, for all _I_ can see," she retorted impudently.
"And what business have you to order an answer sent here for me to carry on a night like this?"
"Mrs. Judson and me took you for a _gentleman_, sor, and we thought you wouldn't mind obliging ladies."
"Nor do I, but I don't know either Mrs. Judson or you, and I don't propose running errands for you."
"Oh, then don't bother yourself, sor--we can hire a boy," she flung back with a scornful laugh as she bounced out.
"Now, Jane, I want you to distinctly understand that the last message has been carried from this house. I have probably to-night sown the seeds of pleurisy and pneumonia broadcast in my system; I have walked twelve squares to deliver a message to the wrong person; we have had a baggage here using our telephone as if it were her own, and we have been at the beck and call of the unpaying public for the last six months. Now, if the telephone people are not here by noon to-morrow, to threaten legal proceedings against me (Goodson has promised to complain of me) for undermining their business, I shall have that wretched instrument dragged away, body and soul, and we will try some other form of economy in the future."
Instructor in Psychology, Harvard University.
EDITOR'S NOTE.--The illustrations of this article are from photographs, specially taken for the Harvard University Exhibit at the World's Fair.
The notion of a mental laboratory is still a mystery to most persons. They ask themselves the above questions, and many feel as they do so an uncanny shiver. They cannot realize that the study of the mind is already an established natural science, here, at sober Harvard, in all the leading universities, and free of spooks and mediums.
Yet a psychological laboratory looks much like any other modern laboratory. Around the rooms run glass-cases filled with fine instruments. Shelves line up, row after row, of specimen-jars and bottles. Charts cover the remainder of the walls. The tables and floors are crowded with working apparatus. Two large rooms and one small one are now occupied at Harvard. Four more rooms will be added to these this summer.