I am an officer of the United States Navy, having entered the service at my fifteenth birthday and continued on active duty until one year ago, when at my own request my name was put on the retired and reserved list. Fifteen or twenty years ago I began to have occasional spells of "the blues," which my brothers and sisters and I looked upon as hereditary. Later in life these periods of depression and fear became more harrowing and long drawn out,—for weeks and even months,—until in the year 1903 I gave up my ship, the apprentice training-ship Alert, in the middle of the cruise and was transferred to a naval hospital. After a course of observation and treatment there, I was surveyed by a board of three navy surgeons and put on sick-leave for three months. Before the expiration of this sick-leave I reported myself fit for duty, and asked for and was assigned to a very agreeable station for "shore" duty; but another three months and a little more found me again in the hospital. After another survey, I was ordered once more on sick-leave, and for the next seven months I put forth every conscientious effort to regain my health.
At the end of that period I was not only in a more miserable condition than before, but I was beginning to lose hope of ever being myself again. Accompanied by my devoted brother I visited a doctor of New York City, the leading specialist in active practice of the medical treatment of "nerve" diseases, who after a thorough investigation of my case, and a rigid examination, prescribed for me a course of medicine and conduct which was precisely what I had been conscientiously following for the preceding fifteen months. Returning from the doctor's without a gleam of hope left, my brother asked me to try Christian Science, of which I had learned only that day. I asked for help and began treatment that afternoon, and was quickly healed. In less than three weeks I went to Washington and asked for orders to the Philippine squadron, where I served for the next year as the chief umpire of target practice and then in command of the gunboat Frolic.
When an unexpected opportunity came to retire, i sent in my name, and came home with the intention of devoting my life to the study and practice of Christian Science. By keeping the commandments of our Master and by following his example I am trying to show my gratitude for all he has done for me, and I know that will be the most acceptable tribute I can pay to Mrs. Eddy for teaching us how to read the Bible and how to know God, and so how to be good.
