Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-04-03
lHl From the Mac.alC Check Press.f
A ae...-o u.,nuA ard Sad Iliaforv-

life was meted out to each in certain quanti
ties, and lasted Just as we slowly or rapidly
pouredit He had emptied his at few drafts
and now, at an age when people generally
live over their lives in their children, having
none Of that article, he was prepared to re-
] gard life in what he called a philosophical
way. That is the stale, fiat and Improbable
sort of speculating on the advance kind ma
ture has made us in this world. Once full OF
pleasant humor which at wont could set the
| table in a roar, his humor ut forty fell into a
| sour, ugly kind, that made one feel unpleas-
ant, as IL devils were laughing at u.s. We
were driving past celebrated place one day
when he fell into talk, well remembered
now, because he hung on an event few men
could forget.
| 1--WE Americans are said to be q serious
people" he began; II suppose we are for this
graveyard is the fashionable resort for the
| entire city. And yet, what dismal business
| it is. The walks, drives, trees, ponds, and
| all that sort of thing are all we'll enough but
| then see how all is disfgured by this mon
strous, barbarous abuse of white marble
What under the sun is there to account for
| this wild desire to stick slab of white mar
BILE in the ground, regardless of expense or
| appearances"
"You pass a good deal of your time among
| them"
"Yes-not so much for what is above
ground as the material under. | love to dwell
in my minds eye upon the strata that under
lies this wide space. The upturned faces and
folded hands and toes pointed heayenward,
all slowly mouldering away, from the deli
cate maiden buried yesterday, to the bloated
months since. Deaths great quarry, into
which angels, we fondly hope, will some day
dig and set the foul carcass on end again"
| "Pleasant reflections truly"
"And have certain leading questions that
put to them. How many would be willing,
now that it is played out, to accept a new
shuttle and fresh deal--taking death as the
next result-Death, foul, fearful deathp
"Come, come death is not SO bad, and is
| worthy ending to q well spent life"
SIS it? | know that poets and preachers
and all that sort have done all they could to
give it grace and dignity, but it won't do
This dying is vile, dirty business. The best
instances struggled and groaned and kicked
and did sundry and divers disagreeable things
| to annoy the survivors. No, no: the better
| practice is that of the Omatrog Indians.
| With them, when an old fellow is given over
| by the doctors and has made his will, they
hurry out and bury him-dead or no dead.
| 1t throws the party in a perspiration, some
times, and breaking the fever, he scratches
out decidedly convalescent you see."
"That is murder"
"Done as here by the physicians, of course.
| But | have yet another question pertinent to
the issue. These good fellows, having now a
realizing sense of the fact that death is a GER
tainty--that it must come sooner or later
all else may be doubtful Your friend may
prove faithless, your child unloving or un-
worthy, your Trust Companies go under
but that grim old visitor is on his road to yoa,
and must ere long take you by the throat
With this fact demonstrated, would they not
now think it better to select your mode OF
exit instead of leaving it to Chance?'
what, suicide2"
Precisely. Why not2 Let each man and
woman consider of it, and order their man
ner Of death as they now do a dress or car
riage. 1t might result in bringing these
matters somewhat under rule that now are in
confusion. Sudden deaths, disordered estates
and all that sort of thing would cease to be-"
"And what becomes of Christianity?'
"Can't find that it has much on that head.
Christ taught at a time when suicide, under
certain circumstances, had come to be con-
sidered virtuous action. Yet he gives us no
law upon the subject" ...
mature revolts at it,"
'Nature revolts at death in all forms, as ]
have said. The old man of eighty or ninety
looks forward as eagerly as the youth of nine
teen and fights death just as vigorously"
We did not care to discuss the question.
We hate discussions, other than that on the
tariff. We like that. We confess partiality
to that entertaining subject. But the dead and
dying are not so pleasant. Just at the mo-
ment when our talk above terminated, We
passed long funeral. Our friend counted
| the carriages.
"Twenty carriages, public and private" he
said. "Forty horses required to pull out the
| grief that isissupposed the defunct left behind
Do you know that two would do it hand
somely2 | don't mean the grief that has
twelve months to run, but all the grief, short
or long, could be comfortably seated in one
hack. There we will find tears; in all the
others talk, with a certain sense of relief
that the old fellow is gone at last. Well,
this is the common lot. Were it otherwise
the world would be in continuous state of
| sorrow, for deaths are coming off continually.
Nor am any better off than the rest. My
hack is not full. Three seats only are en-
gagged A father and mother now in their
seventieth year, and dearlittle sister whose
heart would break were gone. With these
three have | entered into bonds to keep the
peace. When they are gone there is not one
man, woman or child, in the wide world
would care whether lived or died."
He said this with much earnestness while
parting. Some days subsequent we read of
the death of the sister he referred to-and
we thought of the two vacant seats in the
hack. Not long after, the parents followed
their daughter to the grave; and we received
a note from our friend, saying briefly that his
hack was empty, requesting us to come to
him. We went at once to his rooms After
knocking for some moments and receiving
no answer, we pushed open the door, and
directly opposite, seated on the floor, with
his back to the wall, his mouth open and his
eyes staring, we saw our friend. He was
quite deadl Indeed, after the discharge of the
pistol which he had held to his head directly
back of his right ear, he had never moved.
wounded Edkenna with in their somewhat
noted duel near Cincinnati. The ounce ball
after passing through our friends head lodged
in walnut wardrobe. We keep both pisols
IN the wardrobe, so that when suffering,
as at times we dofrom the blues, we may have
something cheerful TO contemplate.
The next day we buried our poor friend,
and when he was screwed down in his last
bed, among a crowd of lders we noticed an
elderly gentleman, possessor Of dirty white
handkerchief who wept bitterly. We APP
preached him. Our unhappy friend was mis-
taken. Here we found a mourner-some dis
tant relative-some poor retainer
"Are you related to the deceased2p
"Ohl not at all: He was an unprncipled
young man."
''Then why mourn his loss2" 30
''Ohl dear mel was imprudent enough to
indorse his note, (sob) and now he has had
the unparalleled meanness (sob) to blow out
his brains, without making provision to take
it up" ..
The hack went empty to the gravel