The Portland daily press., 1872-07-24
TERMS $500 PER ANNUM IN ADVANCE.

must have met the astonished gaze of his
iellow-passengers as an auroral personation
rather than human being who dressed in
clothes and lived ON vctuals. But, alas,
tnere lurked on the table below, even while
YET ne combed his golden tresses, that polyp-
edal enemy which was destined soon to enter
M ms mouth that it might comfort his stomach.
inert, steaihing hot, no doubt, on the bur-
ning chahng dish, lay the "nicely served soft
shell crabs"-we quote from the HeraLd-tO
when, according to the same undisputed au-
Inority, the doctors afterwards attributed his
illness. Pertidious crabs O'ertrustful Brownl
We are reluctantly compelled to omit the
intermediate details between the circum-
stance above narrated, which was but the
swelling prologue to the tragic theme and
the final catastrophe which represents the
Governor in state of dizzy Inconsistencies
at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, surrounded
though we regret to say we did not know it
by the friends of his Kentucky youth-men
with whom in years gone by he had chased
tie fiery, untamed 'possum to his native lair,
or inveigied the unsuspecting catfish from the
cool waters of Green river. For hours he
remained in this critical state of comatosity.
No look of recognition responded TO the sur
rounding smiles that should have walked the
memories of his old Kentucky home. No
voice, howe'er familiar, could win him from
his trance, or woo his gentle spirit from the
reality of terrestrial surroundings. Perfidi-
Gus crabs O'ertrustful Brown!
Thus our Governor h0vered ON the border
land betwixt earth's hope and heavens frui-
ton, until four o'clock, p. M, when, accord
ing to the Herald, she awoke, and his eyes
encountered, among the first persons, standing
over him, Doctor Theopilus Steele, whom he
had not seen for ten years." There was Joy
in that room, such as mo tails rarely feel-the
joy of happy disillusion. The lost had been
found-the wanderer had returned-the proud
spirit had re-inhabited its clayey tenement.
With consciousness, came speech. ''Theophs-
tharyouT'-o as the Herald reporter puts it,
TO help the comprehension of its readers,
"Theoph, is that you ?''-were the first words
OF Brown, destined, as we fondy hope, to a
like immortality with the last words of Mar
mlon. Pertdious crabs. O'ertrustful Brownl
And here, the Importance of the occasion
demands that we drop the descriptive and be-
take ourselves to. the scientific; for we cannot
allow what follows this friendly interrogatory
to pass without endeavoring to elicit for it the
special attention of the medical fraternity
The Governors first impulse, on returning to
consciousness, was to inquire where he was
and what was the matter with himself:
''Wherm l an whatsthmarrar? Similarly,
Dickens relates of David Copperfield, that one
night after supper-of which soft-shell crabs
formed the principal ingredient, no doubt-he
found himself under a lamp post, and when
asked by Steersforth if he was not all right,
he promptly replied, Observation-Disclosures
berrer," and that afterwards, when he met
friend, who asked if he was going away
soon, he replied "Amig0arwGysoof yes"
but the point of science is this: After
the Governor had been lying sick and uncon-
scious for several hours, and inquired for a
diagnosis, he was told by the good Doctor
that ne had had the cholera naorbus. The in
ference is that if the doctor hadn't told him
about it he never would have known it, and
the medical world might have puzzled over a
bad case Of cholera morbus which had been
kept secret from the patient himself To
multiply such cases would be to mitigate the
horrors of the complaint, for it is well known
that the knowledge of having it is one of its
worst features, and occasions its worst incOn-
veniences. Like the gentleman who never
knew how innocent he was until he heard his
attorney address the jury in his behalf, the
Governor never knew how badly he had the
cholera morbus until the doctor volunteered
the information. He Immediately put his
hand upon his stomach and said, "Yes, feel
the pain acutely here" Pertidious crabs
O'ertrustful Browni
The Governor then narrated his experience
as Observation-Disclosures his first sickly
sensation was that of a sudden dizziness, fol-
lowed by an awful blank, which had lasted till
recently. he nau come near lalllnS uOWn
the steps ofthe hotel as the first result of his
vertiginous affection. Again we are remind
ed of Copperfield and the evil effects of his
crab supper, for that faithful. autobiographer
says;
door was gone / was feeling for it in the
window curtains, when Steertorth, laughing,
took me by the arm and led me out. We
went down stairs, one behind another. Near
| the bottom somebody fell and rolled down
| Somebody else said it was Copperfield. was
angry at that false report until, finding my
self on my back in the passage, l began to
think there might be some foundation for it."
Perfdious crabs O'ertrustful Brownl