The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1881-01-01

zone Of the most 1eart-ssndihg cas-
es that ever Came under my notics."
said ! welIrknpwn Louisville phyaioian,
swas that . .tnaa whose death could
not affect his relations, bectsPs heIhad
none; butsths manner of Biz Dying was
90 awful that It was call upon COM
mon humanity fer sorrow. He waa
yonng fellow who At the breaking out
of the war, when he was twenty years
old, enlisted and fought well under
Confederate banners. In the terrible
warfare about Nashville be was sxpos-
cd 10 the rains and colds, and con
tracted inaammatory rheumatism, from
which he never recovered, and which
caused his resignation. He returned
to his home miserable creature, and
was never afterward able to walk.
For fifteen long years be was dying as
slowly and surely, and with as much
torture as the most refined cruslties
of human invention might have pro-
iduced. Opiatesi OF course opiatss
were administered. but what of the
moments when the influence bad
waned. and when, rushing upon him
like wolves Of torture, made ravenous
by hunger, the pains broke through
the veil Of ipsensibility and tngged at
his frame with teeth Of cruelty The
very immunity which opium gave
added another horror when Il was
Withdrawn. He waa kept under its
influence % much - possible. In
nine years he had lost every power Of
muscular effort, and sat in his chair
living corpse, only to bs moved 70 pie
bed, where be, became . mummy with
the spark Of life still glowing. The
time shortly came when he no longer
lay in his bed, but sitting In his in
valid chair became the enthroned en-
bodiment Of asoul too miserable for
life, too sacred to be freed by other
bands. So be sat year after year, with
his muscles fxed in iron, bis eyes
looking upon, . world Is dreary as
misery could paint "; his voice sink
ing in his throat, only to .be expelled
by hunted nature in wild and piteous
cries when the pain racked In hopeless
cowardice the strong heart that had
led his men 70 the caverns Of cannon's
mouths without finch. FIXED apd
rigid, the poor boy wss asphinx, ,en,
dowed with life and deprived 81 move
ment. Every joint in him become
ossifed by the chalky deposits, not
even movement that provoked DEATH
less agony became possible. Eycn tho
joints Of his neck became rigid, the
fingers stiff, and the limbs pelrifed.
He was stone frame witha covering
Of flesh and the soul ofa living man.
The muscles Of the eye even failed.
md the lids falling upon the weary
balls shut in forever tho darkness that
was about him like the gloom Of The
grave. Then came with the same
step Of measured eternity the ossidca-
lion Of the joints Of the jaw, aud be
was fed between the rigid teeth How
slowly death moved cannot be de-
'cribed, but when the inflammation
bad seized the heart In that last pro-
onged spasm, nature could no longer
give warning Of Ito agency. What
sortures took place under the curtain
of that human mystery can no moro
Do told than the secrets Of those hor-
rors in the lowest dungeons Of the in
luisition- Death came, but II was
ike the fading Of the nist-line into
he clouds, and % we stood about that .
'hair no one uttered his thought--
,one could tell whether the soul still
urked in the prison Or whether death
vac life Or was death, When he wsa
,uried bis fixed limbs we're broken
vith hammers, in order that he might
% placed IN . coffin. 81