Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1871-05-27
Down Among the Dead Men.

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We take the following thrilling sketch
from the Golden City-a weekly published
at San Francisco. The article is from the
accomplished pen of William A. Cornwal,
an able member of the Bar of California:
The marine diver braves the blue depths
Of ocean, and cropping his way among the
shattered hulls, exhumes the dead men
sends them to the surface. The horror
which contact with the dead naturally be-
gets is intensified when it occurs beneath
the silent waters. Through the glass visor
of his helmet the diver sees the corpses
staring with wide open eyes, and he invol-
unfairly recoils; it is only by supreme
effort that he is able to attach the line,
and give the signal to those above to draw
the bodies to the surface. After the corpse
comes the diver with relaxed muscles and
deathly pallor in his face.
Tuesday night, at IL o'clock, encoun-
tered young man in the act Of emerging
from den of human tigers. Like the
marine diver he wore haggard look-a
countcnance eloquent with horror. To my
abrupt inquiry he waved me off and au-
swercd:
"Pve been down among the dead men,"
and passed on,
The place from which my young friend
so suddenly emerged wears upon its portal
the livery Of the professional gambler, and
comprehended, instantly, that they had
lured him to their house and then made
him their victim. This Thursday morn
ing, two days later, read in the journals
of the day very graphic account Of my
friends suicide.
So fell young man Of bright promise.
As in an instant of time, Gomorrahs have
been engulphed and nations dcnational-
lied, so this child of an aged mother was,
without preparation sent to the bar of his
God.
" Cut of even in the blossoms Of his sin,
Cnhonsed, disappointed, unanneld
No reckoning made but sent to his account
With all his impcrfections on his head.
And now | hear the wall of his widow
and the cry of his orphans, while he is
borne to the city of the dead. follow his
bier, and rcvolvc in my mind the meaning
of the words he uttered when he so abrupt.
ly quilted the scarlet house of the gamblers:
"Ive been down among the dead men,"
Did he intend to convey to me the idea
that gamblers are dead mcn?' If that
was his thought, then, | reasoned, how are
they dead surely they are not physically
dead? AS continued my painful journey
toward that dim monument beneath
which we were about to consign the ashes
of my former friend, this question frc-
qucutly intruded itself upon my mind; it
was not until we stood around his grave,
pecring into its gloomy recesses, and heard
the startling thud of the earth as it was
thrown down upon his coffin, that some in
visible spirit whispered the answer in my
car. Its breath was like the shadow Of
death-cold oh, so cold; aud it thrilled
me as turned to confront the voice. But
l saw only the incorporeal air; nothing
attracted my regards but the mementoes of
dead men and women and children. But
the uttcrancc was as distinct as the Titanic
thunder of the distant surf, and it was:
Without hope there is no life; my de.
stroyers are without hope and without G cd
in the world
Thus was interpreted the despairing cry
of my lost friend-'Ivc been down among
the dead men,
Trembling l left the cemetery, compre.
heuding, at last, the dreadful import of
the words inscribed over the portal of
Dante's Inferno:
Let him who enters here leave HOPE
behind
1t is then true that gamblers are hope
less; and all their triumphs are the Dead
Seas fruit of ashes.' No vision of a bless.
ed Immortality beyond the grave entrances
their eyes; but they walk in chains, and
are enveloped by the shadow of an eternal
death.
The sentence of the Court which con.
signs the convicted felon to living grave,
carries with it the penalty of civil death
the prisoner is civily dead his conviction
works forfeiture of civil rights-destroys
the marital tie, aud transforms him from
q living, hopeful being, into an animated
corpse. He is remitted by the act of the
State, from freedom to condition of in.
voluntary servitude; he is human galley
slave, wearing an indcllible brand upon
the iris Of his eye, and haunted forever by
sorrowful memory. He may we'll ex.
claim with Macbeth:
'Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hands? No this my hand will
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The maltitudinous seas incarnidne,
Making the green one red.'
But the gambler is not DEAD BY the
civil law. He suffers only a MORAL
death and, though he be dead, yet is not
banshcd to the city of the dead he turks
among the habitations Of the living
corpse but galvanized by the fires of
avarice. 1t is true that he is amcndable
to the civil law, and has incurred its penal
ties; but he is on the alert always. Be.
sides, he enjoys a certain immunity from