The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1880-11-19
PETRrFIEp WHILE ALIVE.
Fifteen Years OF Terri bic Torture Before
Death.
Louisville CouricrJournal


Vile pbvsician 10 a number Of gentlemen
who had been discussing DR.. Tanners pros
meets for a miserable death, "was that OF
man whose death could not affect his rela-
tions. because he had none but the manner
of his death was so awful that it was call
upon common humanity to sorrow. He was
a young fellow who, at the breaking out Of
the war, when he was twenty years old, en-
listed and fought with courage under Confed--
crate banners. His gallantry was 50 marked
that he was promoted from the ranks and be
came captain, with the prospect Of further
Advancement rs the war progressed. In the
terrible wal fare about Nashville he was ex-
posed to the rains and colds and contracted
inflammatory rheumatism, from which he
never recovered, and which caused his resig--
nation. He returned to his home , misera-
BILE creature, and never was able aterwards
to walk. For fifteen long years he was dy-
ing as slowly and surely and with - much
torture as the most refined cruelty Of human
invention could have produced Do you
know what infammatory rheumatism Is !?
No. Well, imagine you we're lying perfectly
STILL with not muscle in play, and the most
excruciating pains shooting like barbed hooks
through every limb and joint. You try In
the delirium of agony to assume another
position. The mere movement OF joint Is
such an awful cruelty that the rack is an in
FAINT horror by the side Of 1t. The inflam-
nation seems to have tuned every nerve and
muscle to the most delicate pitch Of sensi-
bility. and IL
EACH NERVE In THE BODY
Were barred and torn simultaneously the
pain could not be greater. Moments become
hours and hours become ages Of suffering.
Imagine these tortures prolonged through ff-
teen years of time, each year drseging out
like century, and you can picture what bis
life was. Opiates? Of course oplaies were
administered; but what Of the moments
when their influence had waned, and when,
rushing upon him like wolves Of torture,
made ravenous by hunger, the psins broke
through the veil Of issensibliity= and tugged
at his frame with teeth Of crualtys The
very immunity which opium gave added an
other horror when Ii Was Withdrawn. He
was kept under its influence - much a. pos
sible. In nine years he had completely lost
every power Of muscular action, and sat In
his chair a living corpse, only to b moved to
his bed, where he became . mummy with
the spark of life still glowing. The time
shortly came when he no longer lay in his
bed, but, sitting up in his invalid chair, be-
came the enthroned embodiment of soul
too miserable for life, too sacred to be freed
by other hands. II there were in the
Sphinx of Egypt an immortal soul and hui
man intelligence, can you imagine its tor
ture? Day after day looking upon the same
dry wastes for centuries; day after day, with
u fixed gazing upon a molten horror Of hot
sun and not blind; year after pitiless year
smothered in an awful existence which
makes every pain so exquisite that it almost
becomes an audible and living persecution
So he sat, year after year, with his muscles
fixed in iron; his eyes looking upon world
as dreary as misery could paint it his voice
sinking in his throat only to be expelled by
hunted nature in wild and piteous cries
when the pain racked into helpless cowsrdice
the strong heart that had led his men up into
the dreadful caverns of cannons' mouths
without finch. But there came o time
when the restless '4
DAYS AND NIGHTS OF ACTIVE TORTURE :
Became to him as delightful reminiscence.
The time came slowly, and like eternity. II
you were to confne man and let one drop
Of water fall on his head every five minutes
it would kill him. But before death would
come years Of suspense that would move
like the changes Of fixed stars. There would
come that awful suspense Of time when tIs
drop would fall like the crash of universe
upon the doomed head. The time came
when the very life stood still, and the soul
was imprisoned in marsoienm. 4 Fixed
and rigid, the poor boy was = Sphinx en-
dowed with life and deprived Of / nation
Every bone in his body became ossided BY
the chalky deposits, aud not even move
meht that provoked ,deathless agony became
| possible. Even the joints OF the neck be.
came rigid, the fingers stiff and the limb'
| petrifed. He was stone frame, with . Gov
ering of flesh and the soul of living man
The muscles Of the eye even failed, and tn,
lids falling upon the weary balls shut In for
ever the darkness that hung about him lik'
the gloom Of the grave. Then came, v i'll
the same step Of measured eternisy, ,Itl,e ossi
ication of the Joints Of the jsws stsd wa
fed between the rigid teeth. adHew islowl.
death moved cannot be described, but 'whel
the infiammation had seized his heart In tha
prolonged spasn Nature could no ionge
give warning Of its agency. Whist tortufe
took place under the drawn eurtsini Of tha
human mysterity can no more be told ths'
the. secrets Of those horrors in the loves
dungeons Of the inquisition. Desth came
butt vas like the fading Of the mistAine iI
to the clouds, and 'as we oodlabcut hi
chair - one dared to utter his thought-
1 no enc could teillwhether the soul was stil
in its prison or whether death was life Or u
was death. When he was buried his Axs
limbs were broken by hasAlssD n oget
that he might be placed in . osAA 5al u
II Mysterious Hais-catung. .gf,as =