American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-11-09
Death UncrOwned.

Death ought to be an interesting sub
ject, since death and regret are the SOLE
certainties of being. We are ever delud
ing ourselves with delightful possibilities
why should we not play the philosopher
| sometimes. and contemplate calmly the
sadness oftruth? Nothing happens which
is predicted except death, and that very
rarely happens as it is foreseen. Present.
iments spring from temperament, moi
from instinct; are born of fancy rather
than the understanding. The soldier,
naturally expecting to fall in battle,
| breathes his last in the bosom of his fam
lily. The quiet scholar, hoping to die in
the peopled solitude of his books, is made
| by all-compelling circumstance the vic
who looks to find his watery home his
| final resting place, is run over and killed
| in a crowded thoroughfare. The hardy
mOuntaineer anticipates his end at the
| base of Il precipice, and is struck down
by the sun on a blazing plain. 1t j. the
determination of Destiny that we shall
not divine her DEGREES.
As man. so far as he may see with his
present light, can die but once, there is
nothing he is so likely to be little acquaint-
ed with as death. He usually shuns what
he has always been tau hit to believe the
greatest of evils, and avoids the vision of
the monster, even when it knocks at his
friend and neighbours door. The great
majority of men in these piping times of
peace seldom see death until it has gone,
except when it comes to them; and
then they rarely ecogniZe it, so different
is the original from the hideous caricature.
Thus death has been for 'ges, contrary
to science and experience, depicted in
its physical relations as a pang and an
agony; and morbid rhetoricians have tor
tured adjectives to portray its intolera-
a ms no aSt cfr0 la1 IS a Ia
lite phrase to express the final dissolu-
ton. when. in fact, with the coming of
death all struggle ceases. As we are I'M
conscious of the exact time of falling
asleep. SO we are also unconscious of the
moment of dying. Outward signs that
are unmistakable and accurate diagnoses
tells us this; but still the average mind
holds to tradition. and believes most i'm
plicitly that which is most imbued with
superstition. So absurd were the notions
associated with the pain OF death, that to
hasten it by violence was long regarded
an act Ofhumanity. In the Old World it
was the custom for generations to jerk the
pillow from under the head of the dying,
to preserve them from what was thought
to be the anguish of the last moment.
They who have witnessed the approach
of death are aware from infallible symp-
toms that insensibility precedes death, and
that cessation from pain, in cases of NOR
tai ntlrt or DOQlly Su1erlng, Is us aiIHoSG
certain forerrlnner.
Deaths from violence, generally cOnsid-
cred far more painful than those from i'll
ness, are often easy, sometimes pleasant.
Subtle poisons (strychnine and bichlOride
of mercury are eXceptions), such as opium
and hydrOcyanic acid, act directly ON
the nerves, produce stupor, and the vic
tim rasses peacefully into insensibility
and oblivion. Drowning. which would
seem to be attended with anguish, is
known by persons who have been rescued
from the very jaws of death to be accom-
panied with sensations not disagreeable,
after the brief strangling has passed.
Several times during boyhood | had this
semi-drowning experience, and as soon as
the instructive struggle for life and the
pain caused by swallowing water We're
over, 1 felt much more comfortable than
have ever felt on land. The sensations l
then enjoyed were really delightful, like
those which follow the taking of laudanum
or the smoking of opium-dreamily soft,
delicious through perfect repose. [ can
well understand how poor devils drawn
out of water have been made angry by
theft preservation, having been snatched
from the only condition Of comfort they
had ever ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS GALAXY.