The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-09-16
PETRIFlED WHILE ALIVE.

pETRIFlED WHILE ALIVE.
Fiftocn Years OF Slow Tort ure Before Death
AN Extraordinary Story.
zone of the most heartrending cases
that ever came under my notice." said
we'll known Louisville physician to sey.
eral gentlemen who bad been discussing
DIR. Tap1er's prospects of o miserable
death, las that of man whose death
could rc; effect his relations, because he
had nons but the manner ofhis dying was
80 awful that It was call upon common
humanity for sorrow. He was young
fellow who, at the bresking out of the war,
when he was twenty years old, enlisted
and fought with courage under Confeder-
ate banners. His ga;lantry was SO
marked that he was promoted from the
ranks and became captain, with the
prospect of further advancement as the
war progressed. In the terrible warfare
about = ashville, Tennessee, he was ex-
poseo to the rains and colds and contrated
iuilammatory rheumatism, from which he
never recovered, and which caused his
resignation. HeFeturncd TO bis homo
miserable creature, and never vas able
afterward to walk. For 15 long years he
was dying rs slowly and surely aud with
rs much torture rs the most refined cruel.
ties of human invention might have pro.
duced. Do you know what inhammatory
rheumatism is? No. Well, imagine
that you were lying perfectly still, with
no. muscle in play, and the most ex-
cruciating pains shooting like barbei
hooks through every limb and joint.
You try indeliriunl ofagony to assume
another sposilion. The mere movement
of joint Ia such nn Gwfui cruelty that
the rack is nm infant horror by the side of
1t. The Inflammation seems TO have
tuned every nerve and muscle to the most
delicate pitch of sensibility, ard if each
nerve in the body we're barred end torn
simultaneously the pain could not ba
greater: M1a:;s::.s sSseSSo;;ss become ihaa;aTF, ihaa;aTF ;s;:t.
hours becomeages of suffering. Imagine
these tortures prolonged through fiff zen
years OF time, every year dragging out
like century, and you can pictU 10 to
yourself what his life was. Opiates? or
course, Opiates were administered, but
what of the moments when the influence
had waned, end when, rushing upon him
like wolves oftorture made revenous by
hunger, the palma broke through tho veil of
insensibility and tugged at his frame with
teeth of cruelty The very immunity
which opium gava added another horror
when It was withdrawn. He was kent
under its influence as much rs possible.
In nine years he had lost every power of
muscular effort, and sat in his chair O
living corpse, only to be moved TO his
bed, where he became o mummy, with
the spark of life still glowing. The time
shortly came when he no longer 10y in
his bed, but, sisling in his invalid chair,
became the enthroned embodiment of a
soul too miserable for. life, too sacred 70
be freed by other hands. IF there were
i'll .he Sphinx of Egypt and immortal soul
and human intelligence, can you fancy
its tortnreY Day safter -day looking
upon tAo same hot waste centuries day
alter qsay with a fixed gazing upon o mol
ten horror Of the sun and notblind year
alter pitiless year smothered in an awful
silence which makes every pain 80 ex-
quisite that it almost becomes audible
and living prosecutor. So he eat year
after year, with his muclee fixed in iron,
his eyes looking upon world as dreary
as misery could paintit; his voice sink
Ing in his thront, only, TO be expelled by
hunted nature in wild and piteoua cries
when the pain racked into hopeless
cowardice the strong heart that had
led his men up to the dreadful csv-
erns of cannons' mouths without'a finch.
But there came time when the restless
days and nights of active torture became
TO him as delightful reminisence. The
time came slowly and Ike eternity. If
you were to confine man and let one
drop Of water fall on his head every five
minutes, it would kill him. But before
death would came years OF suspense that
would move like the change of;{ixed stars.
Thera would come that awful euspense of
time when the pitiless drop would fall like
the crash of q universe upon the doomed
head. The time casae when the very life
stood etill ard the soul was Imprisoned
in mausoleum. Fixed and rigid, the
poor boy .wasa sphinx, endowed with life
and deprived of movement. Every Joint
In his body became ossified by the chalky.
deposits, and not even movement that
proTosed dsathiesa agony became posi-.
BILE. Even the joint Of bis neck became
rigid, the fingers stiff, aud the limbs ret.
Tified. Ho wGa stone frame, with O.
covering Of flesh AID the soui Of o living
man. The mnacles OF the eye even failed,
and the lids falling upon tho weary balls,
shut In forever the darkness that was
about him like the gloom Of the grave.
iien ea':iI, with the sumo step OF. Ineas-
urea eternity, classification OF The joint
OF the jaws, and he vas fed between the
rigid teeth. How slowly death moved
cannot be described, but when the infam.
nation had seized his heart in that last
prolonged spasn, nature no longer could
give warning OF its agency. Wnat tor
lures took place under the drawn curtain
of that human mystery can no more DO
told than the secrets ofthoaa horrofsin ;he
lowest dungeons of tho Ino.. !. IN.
Death came, but it was like IT, ..adingof
the nist-line into the clouds, and as I we
stood about that chair Eo ono dared to
utter his thnught--no ono could tell.
whether the soul Still inrked in The pris..
on, or whether death was life, oriife was
death. q,
when no was buried his fixed limbs
were broken with hammers, in order that
he might be- placed 10 q colEin."
TsntrDPa aP E;yyap ffs,a4pIatsos,