The weekly Butte record., 1862-03-15

4 Singnlar Dream.

/ Some ninety years ago there hourished in
/ Glasgow. Scotland, : clab Of Young men,
which. fron the extreme proaigacy Of the
members, and the liceuiiousasss Of their orgics,
was called The Hell Club. Beside their night
I " or weekly meetings, they held one grand
saturaaa. in which each one tried to excel the
other in drunkenness and blaspbemy and on
Z these occasions there was no star among them
whose lurid light was more conspicuous than
that Of Young Archibald B., who, endowed
with brilliant talents and handsome person.
had held cut great promise in his boyhood,
and raised hopes which had been completely
! frustrated by his subsequent reckless dissipa-
/ tion. One morning after returning from the
annual festival Archibald B.. having retired
10 bed. dreamed the following dream:
He fancjed that he himself was mounted on
a favorite black horse that he always rode and
was proceeding towards his own house-then
4 country seat embowered with trees, and
forming part of the city-when a stranger,
whom the darkness of the night prevented his
discerning, suddenly seized his horses rein. and
said
You must go with me-
And who are you" exclaimed the young
man. with a volley of oaths, while he struggled
to free himself.
That you viii see by and by" returned
the other. in tone that excited unaccountable
terror in the youth, who plunged bis spurs into
the horse, attempting to fly, but in vain.
However fast the animal few. the stranger
was beside him, till at length in his desperate
efforts to escape, the rider was thrown but
instead OF being dashed to the earth as he ex-
pected. he found himself falling, falling still,
as If sinking in the bowels of the earth
At length, period being put TO this myste-
rious descent, he found breath to inquire of his
companion, who was still beside him, whittier
they were going.
Where am l? Where are you taking
me p he exclaimed.
To hell = replied the stranger, and imme-
diately innumerable echoes repeated the fearful
sound:
ITO he'll to he'll to he'll =
At length light appeared, (which soon in
creased to a blaze but instead of the cries,
the groans and lamentations. nothing met his
ear but the sound of music, mirth and joility :;
and he found himself at the entrance of su-
perb building, far exceeding any he had seen
constructed by human hands. Within, too
what scene No amusement or pursuit of
man on earth but was being there carried on
with vengeance that excited his unutterable
amazement. There the young and lovely still
swarmed through the mazes of the giddy dance.
There the painting steed still bore the brutal
rider through the excitement of the goaded
race. There over the midnight bowl the in
temperate still drawled ont the wantou song Of
maudlin blasphemy. The gambler piled forev-
er his endless game, and the slaves of Mammon
toiled through eternity their bitter task; whilst
all the magndcence Of earth paled before that
which now met his wiew
lie soon perceived that he was among old
NIDLl Iic hLGA " DC uSau, anu
each, he observed was pursuing the object,
whatever it was, that had formerly engrossed
him; when finding himself relieved from the
presence Of his unwelcome conductor, be ven
tured to address his former friend, Mrs. D..
whom he saw sitting as had been her wont on
earth absorbed at loo and requested her to
rest from the game, and introduce him to the
pleasures of the place, which appeared 10 be
very unlike what he had expected, and, indeed,
a very agreeable one. But, with cry of
agony, she answered that there was no rest in
hell that they must ever toll on at those very
pleasures; and innumerable voices echoed
through the interminable vaults
"There is no rest in hell - while, throwing
open their garments, each disclosed in the bo-
som an ever-burning flame Those, they said,
were the pleasures of hell their choice on
earth was now their irrevocable doom.
In the midst of the horror inspired by this
scene, bis conductor returned, and, at bis earn
est entreaty, restored him again to earth but
as he quilted him he said:
Remember, in a year and day we meet
again
At this crisis Of his dream the sleeper awoke,
feverish and i'll, and whether from the effect Of
the dream or of his preceding orgies he was
so unwell as to be obliged to keep bis bed for
several days, during which period he had time
for serious reflections, which terminated in a
resolution to abandon the club and his licen-
tious companions altogether.
He was no sooner well. however, than they
focked around him, bent on recovering so val
liable member of their society and having
wrung from him a coblesion of the cause of his
detection. By ridiculing which, as may readily
be supposed, they soon cotrived to make him
ashamed of bis good resolution. He joined
them again, aud resumed his former course of
| life. and when the annual saturnala came