Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1859-01-13
The cumberIana made classic.

The subjoined highly finished production is
from the hand of EDWIN III. TENNEY. ESQ.,
whom our readers will remember as the au-
thor of a Literary Address at ''Great Bend"
last May. Mr.. TESSEY, seeking genial relax
alton from the extreme fatigue of literary
pursuits, event fishing" in the Cumberland.
and the following is his graphic and deeply
tragic account of what occurred, as commu-
nicated to the Broome Republican, a print
issued at the town Of Binghamton in the State
of New York.
Last night was Saturday, and having paid
obeisance to my stomach. awaited my doom.
The sun dropped sneakingly behind the trait
orous horizon, and leaving my home joined
my friends, Harrison and Mckenzie, with
CHEEKY step tor it's banks. There lay our ce-
dar in 80 feet, oblong torches wrapped in ropes
for Judgment in our slim canOe-the hollow
remnant of an Impoverished oak. Funeral
like, we deposited its sleeping members-and
gently mounting our pile with the fishes
tomahawk. still as the modest rivelet we en-
tered the current, and slid with celebrity to
the executiouer's scene. Igniting our brim-
stone, with the prov as our fireplace, we had
hardly tondied,with slivery tenons our tickle
luminary, ere it flashed with the lightnings of
its rapid combustion, and expired mid the
wore away, save when its brilliancy was re-
tarded by few drops OF the prOtoXide of by
drogen. which had already crawled through
the cracks of our Indian vessel, jumping as it
was almost perpendicularly by jutting impe-
diments, till we reached the foot OF the shoals.
Then was it that our intrepid Harrison, with
Nelson's coOlness, seiz ID that paddle, which
with compound somerset, he breasted the
tide.
Hardly though, had we stepped from the
current, than grasping my gig, pecked along
the restless pebbles to catch a glimpse Of the
being whose death / commemorate. Innocent
ly was he sleeping in his mellow. bed, patted
by the friendly wave which was so modestly
kissing him, while nOiselessly | was feeling
for his glossy bosom. Transparent in purity.
and unsuspecting did he lie in his loneliness,
while his death warrant was wet on his
pillow. Sanguine in slaughter, my nimble
spear leadld with mathematical deiicacy for
his heart int to return with but piece of
all. A Ous-d by murderer he struggled
to hy; but stripped of his rudder, and by our
patent Sunshine robbed Of his vision in afiic-
ton he was struggling in vain. Those fins,
DOlstcrcd by tiny Ossicles which had hitherto
vlbrated i'll danger, proved them traitOrOus
and mIsglving and he found that his Deduti-
ful breast-plate was weltering in gore. While
in agony he yield d to the wave which would
have checrily befriended him; had not my
accumulatng sympdthles told me to alleviate
his woe. Braclng natures stills against the
llabby torch, with contracted muscles and
tremendous squint, into his tender meat,
drove my gig, and whirling in ecstacics, saw
IA dying Rcd-horse kick by my side. Recover
ing from my transport, turned. and there
seven cOrpses lay all ripe with age but
branded with the prints Of an eXecutiOner.
Ny passes had been in vain for the storm had
tSitchrd us in the current.
Creation cracked; but the lowering tenn
pest added nothing to the pitchy b!ackness Of
that awful night Fifteen thousand feet
from home-waves tumbling nearly
out-and canoe badly dipping, We struck
for the shore. | could not swim, though bred
on the peaceful Connecticut. With accelera-
ting diligence, we compressed our torch,
struggling as it was with the pouring tenn
pest and having counSelled with our expert
euced Mckenzie, We showed for the opposite
shore. Oh! how reluctantly did | bid fare
we'll to that twig whichhad saved me from IL
watery pillow. Miserable though as was my
lot. perched in the centre of leaky bark.
holding up torch to a silent spectacle of
unburied carcasses, travelling precipita,ely as
we were along u rocky coast, there was hi
larily even in my agony. Composites and
uncomfortable ourponderOus hearse bUckled
to the wave which had started for the distadt
Mississippi. Hoarser than the billowy clang
was her grOan as she scraped the iutting
crags, reeling among tickle quicksands, reck-
less of the tricky shoals.
The next moment we were stranded, and
the waves bumped against us. whisling III
thunders their sorrowfnl requiem. At stem
aud stern we pushed and hauled in vain. As
"A body immersed in a fluid will lose as much
weight as is equal to the weight of an equal
volume of the huid-sO of course nv legs,
which had been soaking for several hours,
were nearly stiff and helpless. TO dismount
we knew was life, but to eXtinguish our torch
was 10 substitute despair for agony Memo
rahle and mathena al as my College days
was the scene, for the wasting torch had hard
~ blisterCd my fingers, than with awful
wiggle ducked them in NOah's medicine and
10! there was the cone of an Ellipse and the
plane of ParabOlu. Never before on the
purlicus Of another world have | wish hyde
self SclavOnian, for were | one, | cOulp
have bounced beneath the waves, and with "a
hollow cane us my windpipe, crawlcd TO the
harmless shore. Alive with flames. looked,
and my gallant veterans were overheard.
They had families, but had none. Oh, had
tn Y been spared and | have gone, gentle
would have been the anomaly. But will
not pain you with the emotions of loneliness
that followed. Though the same noble river
brushes that fatal spot and belches "A mothers
requiem, yet never may you appreciate the
gloom that drifts through the heart of
Il. III. I.
NASHVILLE, Tenn, Dec. 1858.