Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1855-05-02

of favorable circumstances to be enyied and
desired by all young people just starting forth
in the great race of human life, Bissful
hours, however are likely TO prove evanescent
The sun cannot always shine out IN Its refai-
gent glory; there must needs be the thunder
and the storm AS In the physical, 50 in the
moral world The sunshine of Joy and peace
often gives place to tears of anguish and
clouds of sorrow and distress. Sickness at
length visited the abode of the artist. He left
home one morning joyous and buoyant In
health and life. He returned home IN the
evening with a slow and feeble step from the
incipient effects of disease that already lurk-
ed in his blood, and now threatened rapidly
to overthrow his mental and physical powers.
Pale and trembling, he would have fallen at
the street door of his home, had not his ever
dutiful and watching wife espied his approach
from an upper window, and flew down the
stairway on the wings of fear and love, to his
| assistance. 1t was with great difficulty she
supported him up the stairs to a couch in
their apartment.
s.Oh, my dear husband, what is this that
aileth you? You seem weak and look so
deathly pale Oh, my God what has hap
pened Speak-speak, husband-and let me
know the worst"
Il am iIl-very i'll, wife. I choke for
want of air. Ope-open the easement. I suf-
focate-and- -and-I must die
No! no say not that You must not
shall not die Oh, my God what will be-
come of me and our poor child Tell me-
oh. say you are better. Antoine-my dear
husband, my life, my all !"
She dsrted 20 the window and threw open
wide the shutters, when there rushed in
current of fresh air from the street. which
speedily seemed to have revivifying infu-
ence upon the invalid.
He gasped, and essayed to speak, but could
not
"The air is cool and pure There, you
breathe easier, my husband. Speak and tell
me of this strange sickness. How did it come
on and how were you engaged when the
spell so violently seized you P
81 first felt tremor in my limbs. A pain
shot through my brain. cloud came over my
eyes. my brush fell from my hands, and L
fell in spasms to the floor. 1t was about the
hour of noon when it occurred. / became
insensible, and remained along time in that
state. When I recovered, 1 realized that
something awful had happened, and CROPPED
my way home well as / was able. Water
water my wife Sly blood is all on Ere
My head swilns round-I sink again I sure
ly now must die p
The startled wife waited to hear no more
ments returned with the physician, who hap
pened to be at home, at his residence, few
doors up the street
The artist had again been seized with con-
vulsions, and lay extended on the floor, groan-
ing and frothing at the mouth as in an epi-
leptic 6t 1t was some time before he recov-
cred and was able to give the Doctor an intel
ligible account of the symptoms of his malady
The physician looked grave and shook his
head. maDifesting. By so doing, his apprehen-
sion that the disease was of very serious
nature, if, indeed, it should not prove speedily
fatal
rs there danger, Doctor ?' inquired the
alarmed and anxious wife.
Danger! yes, there is always danger in
such cases. But-but while there is life there
is hope. Keep courage, madame. think
the worst Is past with your husband; give
HIM these powders. They may quiet his
nerves and cool the fever of his blood Ifso,
all viii go well. | will return in the morn
ing. Adieu"
Ihe Doctor was not very courteous IN his
manners, while his language seemed to many
curt and harsh. He was, how
ever. very skillfnl practitioner, and given to
no species of deception toward his patients
when the symptoms really appeared to him
alarming or dangerous. He thought it best
for the sick to know the worst in every seri- |
Gus case of disease.
1t is always sad and solemn thing to |
watch by the couch of fever and pain More |
particularly sorrowful is it, when the invaliaai
is some dearly loved one-a parent, hus- |
band, wife, or child--sufering from thou |
sand horrid visions of the brain, and tortured |
and racked literally to pieces in body, from
the virnlenno and violence of mental and phys
ical infrmity. And to be the sole and only |
watcher by the bedside of anguish and dis |
ease in the dark and silent hours of the night, |
with no sounds save the stifed breathings and |
means of the sick and dying, and none to aid |
the watcher in any emergency of despair and |
death-oh, such vigils might well appal and |
confound the stoutest and sternest of human |
hearts! Such were now the trials of the ar |
lists wife. Raging was the fever, and terri
bic were the writings from pain, which her
husband experienced, during the hours of that |
long, and seemingly never-ending night to
her. He remained incapable of speech and |
without the power of motion by the hand to |
prove to his wife that he was sensible of her
kindness and faithfulness to him. How knew
she that the sharp and quick breathings we're
not the death-rattles in her husband S throat !? |
now could she hope that the dawn of day |
"ouid not ind her weeping over the inanimate |
corpse OF him she held dearest of all things on |
eartn--eyen dearer than her own life itself
when she heard his dismal moan;nos and
watched the vacant glaring of his ewes upon
herself? r.
Morning came apace on leadcn wings. The
death-like stiffness of the night was succeeded |
by brilliant rising Of the sun, and the usual |
hustle of the pleasures and hna;necs ~ AZ. |