, 1877-03-16
A cAnly Narrative
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A., I'd rrprNiurtiuu Thc's;ory = here
slycn. 4. n-arly A. possible. On the uord-
"a a. narrator. and strikinrly Illus
t-.,.. the truth of statements often
m.de rrg1r,ling sensations cNIcficnced
when immortal pcul Of certain kind. 4.
Nv cx1criencc has been a remarkable
an, Tsi.,c have suffered death. and
still I live. | mean that twice have
gone through all that constitutes death.
excrpt the actual extinction of the vital
snark Both times | was considered
dead and 80 pronounced by medical
experts. and both times / passed and
remained for some time beyond the
point Of sensibility. The first time was
by drowning, and the second by freez-
ing. The sensations Of both instances
are as fresh and vivid in my memory as
when they first happened, years ago. l
Was crossing bridge over a wide but
shallow stream, in q lonely place, and
accidentally fell off. When l say shall
low. 1 mean for such a wide body Of
water. 1t was over my head for two or
three feet. 1 saw nobody near me, and
could not swim q stroke. l knew how
deep the water was, and gave myself up
for lost. The quickness OF the sense
when sudden death seems impending
has frequently been noted, but still,
without experience, no one can realize
IL II is as if ones own life was spread
out in one panorama before him, every
norton of which was visible at once.
Every minute detail of things long for
gotten, and which when they happened
were so triAing that they apparently
made no impression on the memory,
stood out in sharp and bold outlines.
I remembered, for instance, games Of
marbles played when 1 was boy, and
a futile attempt I once made to trans
mute a "commoney" into a white
alley" by greasing it with lard, wrap
ping it in q rag and roasting it in the
hre. 1 remember how the marble
burst by the operation, and how piece
of it struck and cut the cheek of boy
who beguiled me into the experiment,
and the satisfaction / experienced at
the retributive justice. 1t seemed as if
everything I had ever done, suffered or
thought was presented to my memory
at a single fash.
Then 1 struck the water, when sound,
which 1 have since learned to hken to
the roar of Niagara, burst on my ears,
and stunned me with its overwhelming
volume. remember brief instant Of
struggling and clutching, and then a
sense of sinking sinking-sinking,
until I reached the depth of thousands
of fathoms. I neither suffered pain
nor felt alarm, but had a vague feeling
of being irresistibly borne to some ca
tastrophe, the climax of which would
be terrible. Suddenly 1 found myself
possessed with the power of floating or
waiting myself along by mere volition.
With delicious feeling of languid in
dolence l suffered myself to float about
not in the water, but in the air
skimming over the surface of the ground
in whatever direction I chose, hither
and thither as a wayward fancy led. I
was conscious that it was a new power,
and exulted in its possession and reas-
oned on its nature. 1 found that my
body was as light as the air in which
it moved, and imagined that a thistle
down would feel as I did if possessed
water again, and everything around me
had a roseate hue, which speedily
changed to green, then 20 violet, and
finally to utter darkness, and then all
was blank.
As I subsequently learned, some men
in skif half mile away had seen me
fall into the water and hurried to my
assistance, but I had disappeared be-
fore they had reached the spot. Many
minutes elapsed before they found me,
and full half an hour afterward be-
fore the physicians who had been sum-
moned arrived. They pronounced me
dead, and that they made any attempt
to resusitate me was due solely to the
persistence Of an intimate friend of mine
who had accompanied them.
Nearly dozen years after the above
experience / became a citizen of the
West, and commenced opening a new
farm in a sparsely settled country. The
place was about ten miles from the near
est town, and one pleasant day near
the last Of December / went to the lat
ter In light spring wagon to get some
supplies for Christmas festivities. The
day was 80 mild that l did not even wear
an oyercoat About the time 1 started
home, which was little after sundown,
it began to grow suddenly cold, and
presently storm, almost amounting to
ahurricane, broke from the north, bring
ing with it the temperature of Nova
Zembla. In this region of marked eli
matte vicissitudes 1 never before or since
knew any so great. The mercury fell
in an hour to forty degrees below zero.
Under ordinary circumstances 1 could
easily have made the ride home in that
time, but was going in the teeth of
the wind, 80 that / could make but lit
tie over half the usual speed. 1 suf-
fered severely from the cold, but no
more than 1 had many a time before