The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1869-10-22

panions after all, not warped and souret
by the merited or unmerited buffetings o
the world, but only quieted and humble(
by what they have learned and seen
Their only sarcasm is for the arrogance
assumption, and the little apish affecta
tions which wealth, position, or the spiri
of coterie, sometimes brings out, like /:
rash, upon the moral surface of veal
people. tFES
All these friends are scientific student,
and thinkers; most of them polyglot il
languages and learned specialtics many
of them distinguished as professors anC
practitioners. Life is too solemn and in
tricate mystery for them to trifie with it
and death too close at hand, too easily in
yoked, too sudden in its coming, to be for
gotten even during their gayest hours
Only the uninformed or the thoughtles:
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.
A 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
city, like jagged cloud dotted with speck,
of light. The birds were silent; the house
was still; the cleaning sombre; and the
very fire-flies seemed languid in 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
| ino Of rIr ~,
dertones, as real friends may do.
My companion, whom shall make free
to call the Doctor" slipped his thumb
and forefnger into his waistcoat pocket,
and drew something from it which he
showed to me. 1t was sort of sheath,
about two inches in length, half an inch
in diameter, and of steely y-gray color.
Examine that" he said
took the article and looked at it, sur
missing, from its appearance, that it was of
| platinum.
"Where did you get thats" asked.
"In the heart of man who is deadp
| / started with amazement at so singular
reply; but the doctor sat there beside
me, calm and perfectly cool, looking with
a grave face toward the dim spires on the
horizon.
81 said the heart" he resumed, ain or
der to strike your attention, without hav-
ing to explain things at tedious length.
In science, however, the expression is
heresy. But had at once said the pleurd,
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,
mcdiastine, and heart, such is the quadru-
pie combination that forms totality which
we term life. This article was in the
pleura"
This explanation had hopclessly dark
ened the whole affair for me. How could
so large an object introduce itself into the
heartg How could it be there for a
moment without causing the most terrible
disorder, if not immediate death? Then,
above all, what was it?
The doctor continued:
"This deceased friend ofmine was forty
years of age. We had gone through col
lege together. Fifteen years ago, he fell
desperately, sincerely, in love with a 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 had to defer to their opinion,
for the time at least, yet under protest, and
looking forward to the day when he should
be absolutely Independent, and could make
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 a few months, she died, leav-
ing him utterly dcsolate. Still, he did not
weep. Alas, the fountains of his tears
were sealed by SO paralyzing sorrow.
He watched by the dead; assisted with
quiet dignity at her burial; and then,
turning away from her grave with face
CHASTITY yet stern, was seen no more in his
accustomed baunts for several days.
Some said that he had gone upon a long
journey. But, about week afterward, he
was found lying in a remote part of
wood, some thirty miles from -, with
discharged pistol on the grass beside him.
He had fired ball, as every one believed,
into his heart. Yet there were signs of
life about him, and he was brought TO the
nearest town, where / CHANGED to be at
the country-house of an old patient. The
local physician and surgeon happened to
be absent, and was summoned in haste
10 the inn to which the dying man had
been conveyed. Brief examination con-
vinced me that not only was the wounded
man still living, but there was even pos
sibility of his recovery. His hand had not
been steady, and the bullet must have
passed the most vital portion of the heart
without injuring it. l tended him as one
tends fayorite brother. He was restored
TO consciousness, but it was impossible TO
extract the bullet. A pleurisy set in with
the worst symptoms; but l saved him.
"His first question was, whether had
removed the bullet. ] could but acknowl-
edge that to do so was beyond my power,
when, to my surprise, he smiled, and shook
me warmly by the hand After that he
recovered sufficiently to move about and
m;ngle with the world; but he, thence
forth, lived utterly retired and alone, never
joining in any festivity, and hardly ever
seen TO smile.
"This sort of existence continued for
nearly fifteen years, and everybody. res
pected the great sorrow that made him
recluse At length, a fortnight since, he
sent for me, and, when called on him, he
said: I'm going to die, sir; she beckons
me to join her.
"This peculiar announcement l did not
understand, although | knew what he
meant when he said She
"His ailment was again pleurisy. did
my best but in vain. Day before yester-
terday he asked me whether he was dy-
ing.
ayes I replied, for, as I told you, I
loved the man and / could not tell him an
untruth.
"sThen,' he rejoined, when am dead
Won will extract the ball, and-you will
keep it, won't your
az promised that / would; my friend
died, and did as he had requested.
"I searched for the bullet, and found it
in the place that described to you. But,
here it is, and, as you see, il is not a bull
let in the proper sense of the word, but
sheath, and it is not lead, but soldcred pla-
tinum. The soldering, as you may know,
could be effected only at an extraordinary
white heat. How was it done and what
mystery does this case conceal? Science
must inform u.s."
BY this time night had set in with re-
doubled Gloom, and the chandeliers with
in having been noiselessly lighted by a
servant, while we were both intent upon
the narrative, we withdrew from the ba-
| cony and assembled to den upstairs,