Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1862-01-16

~. He passed his hand over his rough
features and resumed it with less agitation
of manner.
How long / may have remsined there
senseless. don't know. The doctors have
since told me that it must have been a sort
of fillmore like an apoplexy than
swoon, for the attack finally passed off in
a sleep. Yes. / slept--I know that. for I
dreamed-dreamed heap O. things afore
woke. There is but one dream, however.
that have ever been able to recall
with distinctness. and that must have
come on shortly before / recovered my
consciousness. My resting place through
the night had been. as have told you. at
the far end of tho boiler Well, l now
dreamed that the man hole was still open;
and what seems curious, rather than laugh
able. if you take it in connection with the
other things. fancied that my legs had
been so stretched in the long walk had
taken the evening before that they now
reached the whole length of the boiler.
and extended through the opening
AT first Tin my dreaming reflections
it was a comfortable thought that no one
could now shnt up the msn-hole without
awakening me. But soon it seemed as il
my feet, which were on the outside. were
becoming drenched in the storm which had
orinally driven me to seek shelter. felt
the chilling rain upon my extremities.-
They grew colder and colder and their
numbness gradually extended to other
parts Of my body. II seemed. however,
that it was only the underside Of my person
that was thus strangely wished. laid up
on my back, and it must have been a spe-
cies of nightmare that afflicted me, for l
knew at last that was dreaming. yet felt
it impossible to rouse myself A violent
fit of coughing restored at last my powers
of volition. The water, which had slowly
risen around me. had rushed into my mouth.
awoks to hear the rapid strokes of the
pump, which was driving it into the boil
er! My whole condition--not all Of it.
not yet--my present condition flashed with
new horror upon me- But did not again
swoon. The choking sensation which had
made me faint when first discovered how
was entombed gave way to livelier. tho
less overpowering emotion. l shrieked
even as l started from my slunber. The
previous discovery of the closed aperture,
with the instant oblivion that followed.
seemed only a part of my dream. and |
threw my arms about and looked eagerly
for the opening by which l had entered
the horrid place--yes, looked for it, and
felt for it. though it was the terrible con-
viction that it was closcd--a second time
that brought home to me--that prompted
my frenzied cry. Every sense seemed to
have tenfold acuteness. yet no one to act
in unison with another / shrieked again
and again-imploringly. desperately. saw
agely. filled the hollow chamber with
my cries. till its iron walls seemed to tan
gle around me. The dull stroke Of the ac-
cursed pump seemed only to mock at while
they deadened my screams.
AT last gave myself up. 1t is the
struggle against our fate which frcnzies
the mind. We cease to fear when we cease
to-hope. ] gave myself up. and then |
grew calmi
IL was resigned to die-resigned even
to my mode Of death. 1t was not,
thought. SO very new. after all. as to a
waken unwonted horror In man. Theus-
ands have been sunk to the bottom of the
ocean shut up in the holds of vessels
beating themselves against the battened
hatches-aragged down from the upper
world shrieking not for life. but for death
only beneath the eye and amid the breath
OF heaven. Thousands have endured that
appalling kind of suffocation. l would
die only as many a better man had died
, before me. could meet such death. ]
said sol thought sol self so-felt SO.
| mean, for minute or more-ten minutes
; it may have been-or but an instant OF
, time. / know not, nor does it matter If
could computed it. There loas time. then,
when was resigned to my fate. But. was
l resigned to it in the shape in which it
came next to appall. Stranger. l felt that
water growing hot about my limbs, though
, liz was but mid-leg deep. felt it. and in
, the same moment heard the roar of the
, Ifurnance that was to tdrn it into steam be-
fore it could get deep enough to drown
> one! = 81
You shudder-it pas hideous. But did
, [ shrink and shrivel. and crurable down
upon that iron floor and lose my senses IN
that horrid agony of fears Nolthough my
brain swan and the life blood that curdled
at my heart seemed about to stagnate there
, forever, still | knewi l was too hoalse--
: too hopeless from my previous efforts &c
Icry out any more. Butt struck--feebly al
| first, and then stroBgly--with my clenched
: fists against the sides Of the boiler. Thers
9 were people moving near who must heal
' tmy blows! Could not hear the grating
0 of chains, the shutting OF feet, the verJ
| rustic of rope-hear them all. within {
1 few inches of me? l did-but the gurg
e Hing water that was growing hotter ant
q fhotter around nay extremities. made NOR,
!. noise within the steaming cauldron. thar
e ibid my frenzied blows against its sides.
: "Jatterly had not changed my posi-
' Ition, but now the growing heat Of tho wat
I Ter made me plash to and fro; lifting my
Il Iself wholly out of it was impossible. but
t could not remain quiet. l stumbled npol
e Esomething--it was mallet! a chance too
n that the smith had left there BY accident.--
n With what wild joy did i seize twill
= what renewed confidence did / now dcs
II my first blows with it against the walls o
d my PRISON.! But scarce hal / intermitte'
II ithem for q moment when Iheard the clap,
Il