The Tiffin tribune. [volume] (Tiffin, Ohio) 1848-1859, 1858-02-12
Ytsmal 5tatg
The sinru of naath.

h"hN no1us VIII Ntu lou huu etNtg VI
death. DR.. Benaiah w. Semes, Of Essex
county, New Jersey, was my physician.
| shall not curse him now. Time has
taught me that il is better TO bless than
to curse. And l feel. bitter as my mall
ice might be, that a more miserable con.
dition were not possible to him than the
consciousness Of his murderous wanton-
aess must bring upon himself, hardened
as | fear bis nature is. Put let that pass.
will tell you the story Of my death.
died at the age OF twenty three. A
stalWart man, who on my fathers farm,
moved my swath or hoed my row with
the best. In an unfortunate hour / bo.
came the victim Of the practice Of modi-
cine which then prevailed, but which
now, happily. is nearly disused. / had
some sort Of fever. No doubt l was IN
enough. From my right arm one day the
physician took ounces Of blood--how
many l know not; certainly, in liquid
measure. a gallon Of the rcd lluid flowed.
| did not mend that day; at least, / sup
pose did not, for on the next day he cut
my left arm and took thence a like meas
ure-the crimson measure Of half life
| was dead man then. But shudder
or two always must come before the con-
scious soul lets 60 its hold upon the frame.
With me shudders were in the shape Of
cold sweats. There we're three Of them.
By the clock--so some one at my bed
side whispered--the chill and sweat
lasted six hours. Six dim, dark centu-
ries they were to me. The third--its
commencement, its fierce chill; its dead
cold, compared with which ice were
pleasing warmth-its dread slow march,
| remember, but nothing more. In the
midst Of il, lost all sense ct life and its
pains. The great gates Of the valley Of
death rolled on their ponderous hinges
and shut me in.
do not recollect the circumstances
Of funeral and interment. In fact, do
not doom l was buried, The weight /
felt above me knew was no more ten
feet Of earth, iE quiet nook, with dai.
sizes springing from il. The mountains
were resting on me. | realized their
weight. Straight up to the lght--if
light existed--as under the center Of the
central mountain lay, II was many miles
through solid rock. l was not imbedded
in the rock, like o cold toad, caught in
during the formative era Of the geologists
It lay upon me. felt all its weight
Sense had gone. but consciousness was
with me. Forty millions of millions Of
tons weight was upon me. Oh, how 1
sulfocated and smothered But, dead as
was, consciousness cruelly clung to me.
l had died--why could not cease to be?
Time had passed away; there was no day,
no night, But if mortal measure could
indicate the period lay alone, and dark,
aud sudooated, beneath that weight, cen
turies might have flown above my head
The silence was as dread as the suifo-
cation was terrible. There was no sound
All was still, dark and hopeless. Had
the moutain roared as it crushed, it would
have been an alienation. But it did its
work without sound. without remoTse
like hate. grim aud silent.
have said there was no measure oil
time to toll how long this measurelesr
weight pressed me down; There came a
sense of relief. A sense Of hearing came
to me, or, the Internal fires of earth had
rolled nearer TO me. l heard their voice
distant as yet, like the wind in the leaves
Of ten thousand forests-lke the surge
Of thousand unseen oceans. ! felt its
heat. But it was far away. A new
sense of sufoation came upon me. This
suifocating sense now surrounded me
came within me, and pressed me out
The sutfooation within was like some vas
expanding force, but il did not lift th,
weight of the mountain that was upor
me. That still held its awful pressure
But l heard the Titans breathing as they
fed the fres this state lasted-who shall
say how long.
Then came-wss it true?-could be-
lieve it?--a dim sense Of sight. l saw
dimly and afar, the forms of those giant
who fed the central 6res of the planet
They moved silent and grim, watchn.
their work. and a rill of molten rocl
glided apart from the mass, they staid i
} with their ponderous feet, and scooped i
back to its place with vast hands.
) Then the mountain began to lift an,
, swell. 1t seemed slowly to rise-th
hundredth part of an inch. Then, par
) of tine way back it sank. It might hav
? been year in rising that little space
I But at times / could feel that it was ris
: ing. Into the ohinks that it made as i
B rose, pressed, hot and fierce, vapors q
sulphur from the dres. These envelope
me more closely than even the mountain
weight. ! prayed that the mountai
> would shut down and press them out
: : It's blank, dead suffocation, with all il
!, eternal weight, was better.
y But the vapors thinned as the noun
tain. slightly. almost imperoeptibly, ifteC
Great GodI I felt the touch Of a huma
fiuger-a live finger. It lay beneath m
arm, in the arm pit. felt it plainly
the artery throbbed against it. W.
> there lifeY was it life? The touch die
away. had no arteries-nH huma
: seusatiou. II was dream Of the slee
Of death. / awoke from it--awoke
Z eternal death, the mountain 6 weight, an
! hot. fiery Yapors, pnWielding, the
\ pressed me still within aud without,
A .rs,. - .o-.s. I...I I.o....