Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1857-12-24

the centre of the central mountain lay, i
was many miles through solid rock. wa
mot imbedded In the rock, like cold toad
caught in during the formative era of the
Igeo1ogists. It lay upon me- felt all it.
weight. Sense had gone, but consciousness
was with me. Forty millions of millions o
stons weight was upon me. Oh, how [ suf.
sfocated and smothered! But, dead as
was, consciousness cruelty chung to me. ]
Ilhad died-why could 1 not cease to hel-
Time had passed aMay:- there was no day,
dicate the period I lay alone, and dark, and
sufocate. beneath that weight, centuries
might have flown above my head.
/ The silence was as dread as the sufoca-
ton was terrible There was no sound
All was still, still, dark and hopeless. Had
the mountain roared as it crushed, it would
have been an alleviation. But it did its
work without sound, without remorse, like
Fate, grim and silent.
| I have said there was no measure of time
to tell how long this measureless weight
pressed me down. There came relief
A sense of hearing came to me, or, the IN
ternal fires of earth had rolled nearer to me.
| heard their voice, distant as yet, like the
wind in the leaves of ten thousand forests -
| like the surge Of a thousand unseen oceans.
4 felt it's heat. But it was far away. A
new sense of sufocation came upon me-
This sufocating force now surrounded me,
came within me, and pressed me out. The
|suffocation within was like some vast ex-
panding force, but it did not lift the weight
(of the mountain that was upon me. That
still held it's awful pressure. But | heard
the Titans breathing as they fed the fires.
This state lasted-who shall say how long ?
Then came-was it true could I be-
|lieve it?-a dim sense of sight. I saw,
tdimly and afar, the forms of those giants
who fed the central fires of the planet
They moved silent and grim, watching their
work; and when rill of molten rock glided
apart from the mass, they staid it with their
ponderous feet, and scooped it back to It's
Iplace with vast hands.
Then the mountain began to lift and swell.
q seemed slowly to ,rise.-the hundredth
ssst Cd
|back it sank. It might have been year
in rising that little space. But at times |
could feel that it was rising. Into the chinks
that it made as it rose, pressed, hot and
fsnce, vapors of sulphur from the fires
These enveloped me more closely than even
the mountains weight. I prayed that the
mbuntain would again shut down and press
them out. . It's blank, dead sufocation, with
all its eternal weight, was better.
But the vapors thinned as the mountain
slightly, almost imperceptibly, lifted, Great
God! [ felt the touch of human finger
live finger. It lay beneath my arm, in
the arm-pit. I felt it plainly-the artery
throbbed against it. Was there life ?-was
it life? No, no. The touch died away.
had no arteries-no human sensation. It
was a dream of the sleep Of death. Iawoke
from it-awoke to eternal death, the noun
tain's weight, and not fiery vapors. Tn
yielding, they pressed me still within and
without.
Again-was it again dream II had a
sense of light, yelled and clouded light, as
through a sleeper's unopened lids. The
light dim as it was was steady and continu-
ed I watched it long-long! Ages was
the only measure, if measure beyond the
grave there could be. But so dim it was
that hope grew sick, and died, and rotted
within me and fell back into the old, de-
sohte suffocation-the eternal, unvarying
pressure of the mountains weight. More
ages went by. AZ -.-.~--
Then all at once was light, and voice,
and human hand. Light, sound, touch,
flashed at once upon me- How they min
gled and throbbed with the dead suffocation
It was too much. Now, on the eve of re-
| lief, I had my former prayer answered.
Sensation passed away. 1 was not. An
nihlation had come. -. s-.......
From annihilation-or from an utter
| blank of consciousness awoke, with pain,
and fatigue and still the sense Of weight un-
uthrable, to find that there was indeed light,
and touch, and hearing. The touch-it
was live hand-a human hand. God,
the merciful and kind it was my own faith
ers hand! It was his finger beneath my
arm-pit. Now felt it meet the artery;
myself felt, in sympathy with him, the
tlrob. I had come back to life. Death
vas over.
Though it was no dream. this awaken
irg-though I knew it to be real, yet for
h,urs held but state of semi-conscious-
ness But I knew that death was over-I
kew I lived. I recognized the various
Members Of my family in my room. heard
my fathers voice, subdued but joyful, pro
Ginning his unwavering faith during all,
that [ was alive. 80
Then the Doctor came He entered the
rom where [ lay. ~
: ''The boy is alive, Doctor!' exclaimed
my father. ....
Nonsense" was the heartlcss knavc'
reply-this devil of doctor. At times
feel [ must hate him, this doctor who ha,