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

where, in the lower tier of lofty turret
of solid masonry, / have all the apparatus
and material of thorough chemical Ia
boratory, and above it telescopes and
| night-glasses to sweep the starry heavens
nay, even the foggy atmosphere.
The doctor at once went to work, and
quickly succeeded in opening the little
cylindrical sheath. Two things fell out of
it-a little pinch of whitish dust, and a
battered ring. The latter was plainly of
pure gold The electric heat had not
reached it directly, but it had softened.
The ring, the whitish dust, the mystery,
were there, palpable and visible before
US.
The problem of life had taken shape
and form. trr3r-1 =
The doctor placed the dust under the
lens of microscope.
This" said he, "is human ashes"
"Then the ring-s"
"Thcre are letters engraved upon the
ring: Remember , and below these an in
scription invery fine text j. L. February
28th, 1854 But ]. L-those were not
the dead lady's initials"
journal! perhaps is the word they
designate" l exclaimed.
The doctor glanced at me with mock
ing look of surprise.
You are a jeweller, are your" he said.
Perhaps" was my reply, "but why
may not these letters mean some register,
some memento9 There is a date, and
nothing agrees better with the idea"
At the same moment, my gaze fell upon
some blank-books and documents belong.
ing to the deceased, which the doctor had
brought with him, and had mentioned
to me when he first came that evening.
He had laid them down upon the open
leaf of my secretary when he began his
experiment with the platinum-case.
l picked up one ofthe blank books and
rapidly turned over the leaves. 1t was
journal regularly dated, and on the last
page was written in large letters, "Fsbru.
arg sSM, 1854" =
"I love you," ran the text "You have
just placed the ring of our betrothal on my
finger. Should die before you do, take
the ring and wear it on your heart for the
remainder of your life" r-~
Lower down, were these words in an
other hand:
II have obeyed. You died. The ring
clung tightly to your finger, and have
taken both ring and finger from your be-
loved corpse. I shall not keep them ON
my heart only, but in my heart"
The distracted man had amputated the
joint above which the ring rested. Then,
by whom and how had he caused it to be
enclosed in the platinum sheath? No one
probably will ever tell. At all events, it
was with this strange missile that he had
intended to penetrate his heart, and chance
alone had saved him.
This is peculiar story, but a true one,
and the annals of surgery show that haz-
ard has, in the lapse of time and the null
tiplicity of cases, produced some similar
escapes, that appear little less than mira
cles to the everyday reader.
If you would know the name of him
who thus bore a love-token, literally
next his heart, for thirteen years,
glance at the medallion on the
broken marble pillar that counts as the
third from the gateway on the left
hand side as you pass up the willow walk
in the = Cemetery. The device rep
resents heart, on which is carved lady's
finger bearing a ring, and the inscription
as we have previously given it:
Remember. ]. L. February 28th, 1854"
Journal.