Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-02-16
SITTING UP WITH A CORPSE.

1t is not worth while to tell me that the
spirite of the dead never walk this earth,
to be seen by mortal eyes, after they have
taken leave of their clayey tenements-I
know better. Robert Dale Owen may
write in favor of dead men coming back
to visit the scenes of their mortal tolls.
and thousand others may write against
it; it is all one to me. / shall have my
own opinion, until try to come back my
self, and can't, and it is proved to me, by
the best authority OF the spiritual world,
that no one else can You will say, l
make no doubt, as my friends have always
done, that my fears alarmed me, and that
my excited imagination caused me to fam
cy | saw the person of my old friend, DR..
Fenton Atwick, and heard his voice speak
ing to me, when knew he was crushed
and mangled corpse. or you will conclude
that must have been asleep. You will
be equally mistaken in either hypothesis.
In the first place, was not a timid man.
never had been afraid of anything in
earth, air or sea. had walked through
lone burying- grounds, and by old churches
hundreds of times. in the dead of night.
and no "Tam O Shanter" visions had ever
yet caused me to quicken my pace.
l had been, all my life, a sturdy, hard
working person; so no sick, pulling fam
cies had haunted me through long, weary
days of idleness; working for twelve
hours on the stretch, until you are wearied
to death, and sleeping like log for ten
hours, is not conducive to romancing nor
did l wish it to be. l had no thought of
writing novels, or even "ghost stories,"
in those days. was plodding chancery
lawyer, never venturing to make speech,
but drudging as have said, for the clothes
wore, and the food by which life was
kept in my oody. DR.. Fenton Atwick had
moved to Dayton ten years before. 1t
was well he had an annuity to fall back
upon, for there was no need of his diploma.
or of any science here. He had had a case
or so of "ague and fever;n and sometimes
in the autumn a few chills-nothing more.
Strange that DR.. Atwick's should have
been the first death. Alas! alas. poor
physician, thou vast "unable to heal thy
self" Our salubrious climate and braeing
mountain air might battle every effort of
masma to find a victim amongst us. But
accident-the creature OF fate-how un-
foreseen, how impossible to guard against
its treacherous dealings. The veriest in
valid on earth was safer from that, than
hale, hearty Fenton Atwick.
L
reverie one evening-thinking of our lives,
and the popular idea tnat we all have
mission" to perform. WASN'T given to
such things. l should as soon have
thought OF joining an opera troupe-hav-
ing no more idea of music than steam
engine-as turning metaphysician. But
there sat, looking out at my window on
the giant mountains, ablaze with the gol-
nf m
pen behind my ear, and a ponderous vol
ume of Coke all unheeded before me, ask
ing myself, over and over again. Of what
avail my life had been to myself or others,
and whittier it was tending, until the light
died too from the western sky. and the
shadows of night. or of death, crept, dark
er and darker, into the room. .'Pshawr y
l exclaimed, Il am as visionary as child
emerging from, or an old man going into.
the realms of the unknown. Very soon We
too will be dust, as our ancestors are
perhaps part OF that which the young
man, galloping madly by but few mo-
ments ago, sent curling into my window
here. over my books and into my very
nostrils. And then our children (not
mine, of course, rs am bachelor, but
other people's) will look out of this very
window, as am doing now, and wonder
what they were made for. and wither-
ward they are tending. And they will find
themselves-in the dark, as l am" |
struck myself sharp blow on the fore
head. as if by this means should effect
ually floor the goblin thoughts that were
bewitching me and drawing parior
match across the green serge that covered
my table, l lit my lamp and reopened my
book. But. strange 70 say, could nor
collect my thoughts.
II am tempted, mnttered' 10 90 ior
Atwick and Fleet and Jones. and nave
rubber at whist, for it seems am deter
med to be at cross purposes with time this
evening" / sprang out of my chair as
concluded. for heavy "thud." like the
falling of human body, struck distinct.
ly on my ear. I glanced hastily around
the room, and as nothing was disturbed.
listened for repetition Of the sound from
without; but the silence was profound.
and took up my book again. A moment