Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1849-01-04
there was nothing else with which coult
hold communion!

AOiu COllIIuIluUs
! turned upon my breast and struck out
almost frantically once more. The stars
were forgotten, the moon, the very world
Of which as yet formed a part, my poor
Mary herself was forgotten. l thought
only Of the strong man there perishing
OF me in my lusty manhood, in the sharp
vigor OF my dawning prime with faculties
lllimitable, with senses all alert, battling
there with physical obstacles which men
like myself had brought together for nv
undoing. The Eternal could never have
w'lied this thing! 1could not and would
not perish thus. And grew strong in
insoience of self-trust; and | laughed a.
loud as dashed the sluggish water from
side 10 side.
Then came an emotion Of pity for my
se!f-of wild, wild regret; Of sorrow, oh,
INFINITE sorrow for a fate so desolate,
doom so dreary, heart-sickening. You
may laugh at the contradiction if you will,
sir, but | felt that could sacrifice my
own life on the instant TO redeem another
fellow creature from such place OF hor-
ror, from an end SO piteous. Nv soul
and my vital spirit seemed in that desper-
ate moment to be separating, while one in
parting grieved over the depiorable fate of
the other.
And then l prayedl
l prayed-why or wherefore l know
not. II was not from fear. It could not
have been in hope. The days Of miracles
are passed, and there was no natural law
by whose providential interposi,ionI could
be saved. | did not pray it prayed of
itself my soul within me.
Was the calmness that now felt tor
pidity? the torpidity that precedes disso-
luton, to the strong swimmer who sink
ing from exhaustion, must at last add
bubble to the wave as he suffocates be-
meath the element which now defied his
mastery? If it were so. how fortunate
was it that my floating rod at that moment
attracted my attention as it dashed through
the water by me. saw on the instant
that fish had entangled himself in the
wire moose. The rod quivered, plunged,
came again to the surface and rippled the
water as it shot in arrowy flight from side
to side of the tank. At last driven to-
wards the southeast corner of the Reser-
voir, the small end seemed to have got foul
somewhere. The brazen butt, which
every time the fish sounded, was thrown
up to the moon, now sank by its own
weight, showing that the other end must
be fast. But the cornered fish, evidently
anchored somewhere by that short wire,
f1oundered several times TO the surface be-
fore thought of striking out to the spot.
The water is low now, and tolerahlv
clear. You may see the very ledge there,
sir, in yonder corner, on which the small
end OF my rod rested when secured that
pike with my hands. did not take him
from the slip-noose, however; but stand
ing upon the ledge handled the rod in
workman-like manner, as flung that
pound pickerel over the iron railing at the
top of the parapet. The rod, as | have
told you, barely reached from the railing to
the water. 1t was heavy, strong brass
rod, which had borrowed in the Spirit
OF The Times office, and when discovered
that the fish at the end Of the wire, made
strong enough knot to prevent me from
drawing my tackle away from the railing,
around which it twined itself as ! threw,
why, as you can at once see, | had but
little difficulty in making my way up the
face Of the wall with such assistance
The ladder which attracted your notice is,
as You see, dashed to the iron railing in
the identical spot where | thus made my
escape, and for fear of similar accidents
they have placed another one in the cor
responding corner Of the other compart-
ment of the tank ever since my remarka-
bic nights adventure in the Reservoir"
AN INTERESTING DocuMENr.-We re-
Gently had exhibited 10 us, says the New
Orleans Commercial Bulletin, the original
of the celebrated letter from Gen. Taylor
TO Santa Anna, written on the field Of
Buena Vista, in reply to the summons of
Santa Anna, to surrender with his army.
This document is in the form of note,
being on a folded half sheet ofletter paper.
l. is in pencil, written by Major, now
Col. Bliss, and signed by General Taylor.
The writing is very legible. and is in the
regular open hand of COL Bliss, and with
the strongly marked signature of General
Taylor. There is nothing, either in the
note or signature, that indicates haste, but
on the contrary, Judging from the general
appearance of it, we should say that both
the writer and the signer of it were 'sas
calm as summers morning." when it
was prepared.
A. Col. Bills. was in the city, al the time
we saw this note, we took occasion to in
quire of him the circumstances under
which it was written. He tells us that
he wrote it on the top of his foraging cap
placed on his knee, sitting on bank of
earth, Gen. Taylor debating the tenor Of
it, and that the latter did not sign it, as re-
ported, on horseback, but that he was
standing by the side of his horse (Old
Whitley, } and laid the paper on the saddle,
and signed it there with the same pencil
with which he (Col. Bliss wrote it.
The gentleman who brought this docu-
ment from Mexico, came passenger in The
steamer from Vera Cruz with Mr. Clifford,
our Minister. He obtained it in the city
of Mexico, and intends TO have it elegantly
framed for preservation, as he values il
very highly.
Though the letter is familiar to all our