The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1857-07-29

| lyj tnc o'u soldler Seemu TO DC regular
ly bobbing up and down before me, like
the piston of steam engine. I wal
half deafencd by violent singing in my
ears; a feeling of utter bewildermont
helplessness, idiocy, overcome me.
rose from my chair, holding on by the
table to keep my balance; and stam
gmered outrthat felt edreadfully. unwel
$50 unwell, that 1 did not know how ]
was to get home. 2'S .'s a-e
"My dear friend" answered, the ole
soldier, and even his voice seemed to- be
bobbing up and down as he spoke-"My J
dear friend, it would be madness to &c
home in your state You would be sure
to lose your money; you might be muir
dered with the greatest ease. | am GO
irg to sleep here; do you sleep here, toe
they make up capital beds in this
house--take one, sleep off the effects Of
tie wine, and go home safely with your
winnings to morrow - tomorrow = to-
morrow in broad daylight" "a
had no power Of thinking; no feel
ing of any kind, bu. the feeling that l
must lie down somewhere, Immediately,
and fall off into cool, refreshing, com
BILE sleep. So I agreed eagerly to
the proposal about the bed, and took the
offered arms of the old soldier and the
croupier-the latter having been sum-
moned to show the way. They led me
along some passages and up a sho: t
flight of stairs, into the bedroom which
l was to occupy. The ex-brave shook
me warmly by the hand; proposed that
we should breakfast together the next
morning, and then followed by the crou
pier, left>me for the night.
ran to the wash stand; drank some
of the water in my jug; poured the
rest out, and plunged ny face into it
then sat down and tried to compose my: =:
self. I soon felt better. The change
for my lungs, from the fetid atmosphere
of the gambling room to the cool air of
the apartment now occupied the al
most equally refreshing change for my
eyes, from the glaring gas lights of the
salon to the dim, quiet flicker of the
bedroom candle, aided wonderfully the
restorative effects of cold water. The
giddiness left me, and l began to feel a
little more like reasonable being again.
My first thought was of the risk of sleep
Jag all night in a gambling house my
second, of the still greater risk of try
ing to get out after the house was closed,
and of going alone at night, through the
streets of Paris, with a large sum of
money about me. had slept in worse
places than this, in the course of my
travels; so 1 determined to lock, bolt
and barricade my door.
Accordingly, I secured myself against
all intrusion; looked under the bed,
a ID iuto the cupboard; tried the fasten-
ing of the window and then, satisfied
that had taken every proper precau
ton, pulled off my upper clothing. put
mr. light, which was a dim one, on the
hearth among feathery litter of wood
ashes, and got into bed, with the hand
kerchief full of money under my pillow.
soon felt, not only that I could not
go to sleep, but that could not even
close my eyes. 1 was wide awake, and
In high fever Every nerve in my
body rembled--every one of my senses
seemed to be preternaturally sharpened.
I tossed, and rolled, and tried every
kind of position, and persevcringly
sought out all the cold corners of the
bed, and all to no purpose. Now I thrust
my arms over the clothes; now | poked
them under the clothes; now l violent
ly shot my legs straight out, Gown to
the bottom of the bed now I convul-
sively coiled them up as near my chin
as they would go; now 1 shook out my
crumplcd pillow, changed it to the cool
side, patted it fiat, aud lay down quietly
on my back; now I fercely doubled it
in two, setit up on end, thrust it against
the board of the bed, and tried sitting
posture. Every effort was in vain; I
groaned with vcxation, as felt that l
was in for sleepless night
What could 1 do? 1 had no book to
read. And yet, unless 1 found out some
method of divertiDg my mind, I felt
certain that was in the condition to
imagine all sorts of horrors; to rack
my brains with forebodipgs of every
possible and impossible danger; in short,
to pass the night in suffering all con-
ceiyable varieties of nervous terror. I
raised myself on my elbow and looked
about the room-which was frightened
by lovely moonlight pouring straight
through the window-to see if it con-
tanned any pictures or ornaments, that
L could at all clearly distinguish. While
my eyes wandered from wall to wall. a
remembrance of lie Maistre's delight
ful little book, "Voyage atour de ma
Cham bre,n occurred to me. resolved
to initiate the French author, and find
occupation and amusement to relieve the
tedium of my wakcfulness BY making
mental inventory of every article of fur
niture could see, and by following up