The hydraulic press., 1858-09-18

Ills lupie Lueus, luttlt W TeSCue lei
low being from accidental burial
They all work eagerly, with hearts
that bound unanimously, with gasp
ing breath, and trembling limbs and
sweating brows. The man is exhumed
but life is gone. The Doctor comes
with race,horse speed-in vain, in
vain! A mangled form, a countenance
pale and bloody, lie ready for the
grave. The flag is lowered-we soon
find the melancholy spot where a
dead friend meets our unprepared
gaze! He went out full of pleasant
thoughts this morning, contemplating
speedy return to the old home, and
bearing about his form, for a talsman
as he said, the last written assurances
Of good woman's love-the frag.
ments of her shattered Daguerreo-
type are now crushed into his dead
bosom.
Such things as these are of common
occurrence in the digginss, and null
tlply the chances that assail the life
of the adventurous seeker after gold.
Better to be thus crushed out of ex-
lstence, in the midst of hope and lus-
ty health, without thought to en-
bitter the moment of dissolution, than
to die by ones own rash hand, a VIC
tim to disappointment, to blighted
happiness, 70 gloomy despair. How
dreadful would be the records of sui
eide in this State could they be faith
fully written! How shocking would
be the spectacle could every silent
grave yield up its desperate self
murdered occupant!
Each hill and valley-every town
and camp, would start with thronging
spectres, and the living witnesses Of
this ARMY OF SUICIDES might well
shudder, and cease their toll for gold.
at sight of those pale fixed looks Of
hopelessness, those CHASTITY self-infic-
ted wounds. Such an aggregate of
wretchedness would dim the bright.
ness of the faircst land, and change
its mines of wealth to worthless dross.
Yes, better be snatched by sudden
death from the very arms oflove, than
dare humiliation or the more dreadful
possibilities of an hereafter, by will
fully driving the living soul from its
wondrous temple of clay.
l shall never forget the burial of
one poor fellow, an Englishman, who
was killed by a falling bank. There
were many of his countrymen and
countrywomen in the neighborhood-
some of them his relatives; and when
the hour Of his funeral arrived they
were all gathered at his cabin, togeth-
err with number of Americans, men
and women. After the brief prayer
with which the services at the house
commenced was over, the Ea,,,iish
people Joined their VOICES In one Of the
most touching songs of grief that ev>
er melted the human heart. They
were all good singers. In their own
native isle they had tuned their voices
from childhood to the notes the great
Handel taught them, and through the
moonllt hours Of many a night in the
pine hills of California they had sung
the same strains, awakening echoes
that my ear loved to catch.
When the services were over. all
joined in procession after the coffin,
which was Immediately followed by
the women, and the funeral train pro-
ceeded by a devious route to the
grave, stopping at cabins where the
deceased had been acquainted, and
his country people singing all the
way.
The effect upon all who followed
was electrical. The music seemed to
lend triumph to death, yet touched
us all to melting tenderness, the very
ecstacy of grief.
1t was an old English custom in
which we joined. The deceased had
no doubt followed many such, singing
professions to the grave amid the
green hills of his own humid island ;
and now, the same exquisite custom
was identifying his burial in the dry
soil of foreign land.
CARDINAL MEzzoFANTI had an in~