The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1869-10-14
MISCELLANEOUS.
TOLD FOR TRUTH.


WHAT A HEART MAY CONTAIN
Sound science has secuted at the idea of
the sentimental phrase, "a broken heart"
having any literal slgnilication. Yet some
authorities have affirmed that such an ac-
cident rs real rupture of one of the
ventricles of the heart in man, and even
in the lower animals, may occur under
the strain of very sudden or intense emo
ton, or in consequence of too extreme
physical effort, as in leaping, running,
climbing, or in lifting heavy weights
The writer who records the following
remarkable facts will not undertake either
to discuss or to repair broken hearts. in
this place, but will leave the appreciation
of his narrative to those who are familiar
with the marvels of science.
L have queer sanctum and a quiet one
among the rocks that overlook the widest
cliffs above Weehawken, and it is haunted
by queer people. They all live and move
before you every day, good reader, but
their names are, probably, not on the list
of your fashionable acquaintances. They
arc men and women of peculiar studies,
quaint experiences, varied and often sad
adventures but they are pleasant COM
panions after all, not warped and soured
by the merited or unmerited buffetings of
the world, but only quieted and humbled
by what they have learned and SEEN
Their only sarcasm is for the arrogance,
assumption, and the little apish aiTecta-
tiOns which wealth, position, or the spirit
of cOterie, sometimes brings out, like a
rash, upon the moral surface OF weak
people.
All these friends are scientific students
and thinkers; most of them polyglot in
languages and learned specialtics many
of them distinguished as professors and
practitioners. Life is too solemn and in
tricate mystery for them to trifie with it,
and death too close at hand, too easily in
vOked, too sudden in its coming, to be for
gotten even during their gayest hours
Only the unintOrmed or the thOughtless
make light of either life or death, or any
of those inexplicable things that are over,
under, and around us, continually and
forever, whether our Immortality be
clothed with the flesh or with the spirit
only
\ rainy evening in June of the present
year, after sultry day, mists and shadows
resting over the Hudson and the green
heights beyond, while far to the right, on
the lowland stretching seaward, and fad
ing into the veil of distance, lay the great
tAbN, 1ihC OOitttt WIFI SDtChS
of light. The birds were silent; the house
was still; the cleaning sombre; and the
very fire-flics seemed langud i'm the occa-
sional flashes they threw out, like signals
among the dripping leaves that hung be-
yond the edge of the high-perched, covered
balcony, where another sat with me, talk
ing of trange things confidingly, in un-
,iertOr 5, as real friends may do
My )nipanion, whom shall make free
to call the =" Doctor" slipped his thumb
and iorcfinger into his waistcoat-pO
and drew something from it which he
showed to me. 1t was sort of Il sheath,
about two inches in length, half an inch
III diameter, and of stecly-gray color.
Examine that" he said
| took the article and looked at il, sur
missing, from its appearance, that it was of
platinum.
"Where did you get thatg" / asked.
81 In the heart of a man who is dead 70
L started with amaZcment at so singular
a reply; but the doctor sat there beside
me, calm and perfectly cool, looking with
grave face toward the dim spires ON the
horizon.
Il said the heart" he resumed, :" in or
der to strike your attention, without hav-
Ing to explain things at tedious length
III StAChtC, iAO"CFCA, thC CAi'iCooiOh 10 d
hercsy. But had at once said the pleuro,
you would not have understood me- Let
me now remark that the pleura proper
consists of two membranes, one of which
lines the interior surface of the ribs, and
the other touches the lung. Pleura, lung,
medlastine, and heart, such is the quadru-
pie combination that forms tOtality which
we term life. This article was in the
pleura."
This explanation had hopelessly dark
ened the whole affair for me. How could
so large an object introduce itself into the
heart2 How could it be there for
moment without causing the most terrible
disorder, if not immediate death? Then,
above all, what was it?
The doctor continued:
"This deceased friend of mine was forty
years of age. We had gone through col
lcge together. Fifteen years ago, he fell
desperately, sincerely, in love with young
girl. Both were free, but his whole
family bitterly opposed the idea of his
marrying lady whose pedigree they as
serted was stained with crime, and the
condition of affairs surrounding him was
such that he mad TO defer to their opinion,
for the time at least, yet under protest, and
looking forward to the day when he should
his bride happy in a comfortable home.
But the poor girl was consumptive.
and her chagrin at the indignity put upon
her by the relatives of her preferred lover
was such as to hasten the progress of her
malady. In few months, she died, leav-
ing him utterly desolate. Still, he did not
weep. Alas, the fountains of his tears
were sealed by so paralyzing a sorrow.
He watched by the dead; assisted with
quiet dignity at her burial; and then,
turning away from her grave with face
ghastly yet stern, was seen no more in his
accustomed haunts for several days
Some said that he had gone upon a long
Journey But, about week afterward, he
was found lying in remote part of a
wood, some thirty miles from =, with a
discharged pistol on the grass beside him.
lie had fired ball, as every one believed
into his heart. Yet there were signs oi
life about hirl, and he was brought to the
nearest tow 4, where / chanced to be al
the country house of an old patient. The
local physician and surgeon happened t'
be absent, and | was summoned in hast
to the inn To which the dying man had
beca conveyed. Brief examination con
vinced me that not only was the wounded
man still living, but there was even pos