Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1872-02-24
SITTING UP WITH A CORPSE.


VI tlelr clayey tenements-I kno
better. Robert Dale Owen m
write in favor of dead men comil
back tc visit the scenes OF their N o
tai tolls. and thousand others m:
write against it; it is all one to N
Shall have my own opinion, until
III try to come back myself and can
and 1t is proved to me, by the be-
authority of the spirit world, ths
ID no one else can. You will say,
make no doubt, as my friends hav
always done, that my fears alarme
me, and that my excited imagin,. Ito
caused me to fancy saw the perso
otmy old friend, DR.. Fenton AtwicA
and heard his voice speaking to me
d when | knew be was crushed an,
mangled corpse, or you will con
clude that l must have been asleep
You will be equally mistaken il
either hypothesis. In the first place
| was not q tlmid man. | neveI
had been afraid Of Anything il
earth, air Or sea l had walked
through lone burying-grounds, and
by cid churches, hundl eds Of times
In the dead Of night, and no "Tam
oShanter " visions had ever yet
caused me to quicken my pace.
had been all my life sturiy, hard,
working person. No eick, puIiug
tancles had haunted me through
long, weary days Of idlene8s. Work
ing for twelve hours on a stretch,
until you are wearied to death, and
sleeping for ten. 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 a plodding chancery
lawyer, never venturing to make a
speech, but drudging as 1 have said
for the clothes l wore and the food
by which life was kept in my body.
DR.. Fenton Atwick had moved to
Darbytown 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" and sometimes in the
autumn al few chills-nothing more.
Strange that DR.. Atwick's should
have been the first death Alas,
poor physician thou vast unable
to heal thyselfl" Our salubrious
climate and bracing mountain air
might battle every effort of miasm
to find a victim amongst us. But
accident-the creature of fate-how
unforeseen ! how impossible to
guard against its treacherous deal
ings The veriest invalid on earth
was safer from that than hale, hear
ty Fenton Atwick,
Idon't know how I got into q sort
of reverie one evening" thinking of
our lives and the popular idea that
we all have mission " to perform. |
l wasn't given to such things. |
should as soon have thought Of join
ing an opera troupe-having no
more idea Of music than a steam
engine-as turning metaphysician.
But there l sat looking out of my
window on the giant mountains,
ablaze with the golden aureole of
The setting sun, with my pen behind
my ear and ponderous volume of
Coke all unheeded before me, ask
ng myself over and over again, Of
what avail my life had been to my
'elt or others, and whittier it was
until the light died from
he western sky, and the shadows
If night, or of death, crept darker
md darker into the room. "Pshaw,
exclaimed; ~ am as visionary as
'hild emerging from, or an old man
,oing into, the realms of the un-
,nown. Very soon we, too, will be
lust as our ancestors are-perhaps
part of that which the young man,
madly by but a few mo-
nents ago, sent curling into my
7indow here, over my books and I
nto my very nostrils. And then l
ur children (not mine, of course,
s 1 am q bachelor, but other peo- '
les) will look out of this very win '
ow, as 1 am doing now, and won J
er what they were made for and +
they are tending Q
md they will find themselves--in '
he dark, as am" l struck my I
elf q sharp blow on the forehead, t
3 if by this means I should effect b
ally floor the goblin thoughts that t
ere bewitching me; and drawing t
parlor match across the green \
erge that covered my table, lit my /
mp and reopened my book. But s
range to say I could not collect
" thoughts. v
81 am tempted" l muttered, "to v
0 for Atwick and FleeC and Jones, u
nd have a rubber at whist, for it
,ems l am determined to be at n
Joss purposes with time this even a
Ig. | sprang up out of my chair /. K
concluded, for a heavy "thud," )
ke the falling of a human body, ii
ruck distinctly on my ear. I o.
anced hastily around the room, o.
I'd as nothing was disturbed, lis II
ned for a repetition Of the sound v
ON without; but the silence was RI
rofound, and l took up my book le
rain. A moment more and / b.
,ard some one walking rapidly y
,Wn the street. at is some visi- Il
r to me l hope" But no; the tt
otsteps pass on. Then there came n
Q sound OF running feet-one, two, st
rec separate persons going by. m
len there was a hssty tread on my OIL
vn steps and some one came up.
turned quickly as the door was re
lshed open. l
"Ah, Fleet, it is you | I am glad
see you. Come in" He did NJ