The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-07-08

iouS hlleu Win Tue sp'rlt OF cneerfulnesS
and comfort. His only daughter, Martha
a fine young woman, bad contributed but
little to his relief-if she had not, indeed
increased his depression by her own emo
tons, which she had no power to conceal
and his only son had gone to ElinburgA to
attend bis classes in college, where be 10
tended graduating as a physician. He was
thus, in manner, left in great degree
alone for bis daughter sought her apart
ment at every opportunity, to wee2 over
her sorrows unobserved and she had not
ticed that her fathers grief, attended BY
no exacerbatlons Of groaning or weeping
like her own, presented less appearance Of
intensity than that which convulsod ber
own heart, and got relief by natures ap
pointed modes Of alleviatlon. When the
heart is stricken with certain force. all
forms of presenting less gloomy views Of
the condition of the individual, will gen
orally be found to be totally unavailing in
aHording relief Nay, | am satisfied tnat
there was genuine philosophy in the Gus
tom Of the Greeks and the ancient Germans,
IN forcing victims of great sorrows to
'reep out the ranking barbed shaft. These
had species of licensed mourners, whose
duy it was to soften the heart by melting
strains Of mournful melody, whereby, ,as BY
the application Of bland liniment, The
rigid issues of the feelings were sof,ened
and opened, and the oppressed organ, the
heart, was relieved Of the load which de6es
the force Of argument, and even the condo
Ience Of friendship. The curing Of cold
nps by the appliance of snow, and of burns
by the application Of heat, could not have
appeared more fraught with ridicule to the
Old women Of former days, than would the
custom have here cited to the comforters
OF modern times. If | cannot say tbat,
amongst some bold remedies, l have re
commended it, have, at least, avoided on
all occasions, ,oficIous endcavors to counter
act the expressing burden, by wrencbing
the mind from the engrossing thought "a
process generally attended with no other
result than making it adhere with increased
force
The greatest triumph that can be effected
with the truly heart-striken victim, to whom
Is denied the usual bursts that indicate
beai able misfortune, or, at least, one whose
intensity is partly abated. is the bringing
about OF that more natural condition Of the
heart, which, indeed, is generally more
feared by The ordinary paracIete. In the
case of the bereaved husband, there is no
charm SO powerful in its effects as the vivid
portrayment of the virtues Of her who has
gone down to the grave; and it may we'll
be sad, that the heart will not give out its
feelings to the impasslOned description of
the amiable properties of the departed help
mate, is all but incurabe. I be sister of
Mr.. &, who saw the necessity Of adj
mnlstering rt lief, tried to awaken him to a
sense Of religious consolation but Ne was
Yet unfit even for that sacred mInistration
aud all her efforts having failed u arouse
Tim, even from the deathike sturor in
which he lay, she bad recourse hy ny 81
vice. to probing the wound, 10 take off the
structure by which the n4ju II humours
we're went up. She dscoursed patbetcaiy
on the qualities Of the departed, which she
said, would be the passport Of her spirit to a
sphere where he would again contemplate
them unclouded by the dingy vapours of
earthly feelings She kept in the same
strain for a heightened period but declared
to me, when | visited him again, that he
exhibited no signs OF being moved BY her
discourse. He, once or twice, turned bis
eyes on her for moment, drew occasional
" heavy sigh, that told, by the difficulty
Of the operation, the load with which be
was oppressed; but bis eyes we're dry, no
groan escaped from him, or any other sign
Of the heart being aided in an effort to re-
store the current of natural feeling. The
coup de peine had too clearly taken the
very core OF the heart; the lamp of hope
had been dashed out violently, and, under
the cloud OF his great evil, all things that
remained to him upon earth were tlnged
with its dark hues. He presented all the
ppearances-except the dilation Of the
pupil Of the eye-Of one whose brain had
been concussed by deep fall, or labored
under fracture Of the bones Of the era
mum The few words be spoke to me
came slowly with heavy oppressive sound
as if spoken through hollow tube; and
what may, to some, be remarkable, though
certainly not to me, they embraced not
the slightest alluslon to bis bereavement
symptom almost invariably attendant
upon thpse deeper strokes Of grief which
being but seldom witnessed, are much less
understood in their effects, than tn, more
ordinary expressions, whose intense demon
stratlOns and illusions to The cause of the
evil, mark the victims as objects for the
portrayments Of poets.
Two or three days passed off il this way,
without the slightest amelioration Of bis
condition. The efforts OF Miss B had
been repeated often without effect As she
expressed herself TO me, he would neither
eat nor speak. sleep nor weep. Gle has
not" ehe added, "even muttered ber name
His heart seems utterly broken; and time
and the power of Heaven alone will effect
a change" Such is the common philos-
ophy Of sorrow time is held forth as all
powerful, all-saving and while | admit its
force, only insist for the certainty of the
existence of exceptions. The eighth day
day passed without any support having
been taken to sustain the system. A course
Of maceraIion, that had been going on dur
ing bis wle's illness, was thus continued
vet, in the few words | occasionally drew
from him, there was no indication of any
thing like the sulien determination Of the
suicide; the cause lay in the total ccssa-
ton Of the powers Of the stomach-a con
sequence of the cerebral pressure, whose
action is felt not where it operates primar-
lily, but in the heart and other organs,
where it works merely and solely by sym
: pathy.
1t was on the evening Of the eighth day
after the funeral as have it noted, that
IL r i