Morris tribune., 1883-06-02
Tragedy in Heal Life.

An eminent surgeon wrote some years
| ago paper upon deaths in Fiction"
giving a list of the causes assigned by
novelists for the deaths of their charac-
tiers, the symptoms of disease, etc., which
were ludicrous enough to a medica
reader.
In real life the villain and inconven-
lent people do not fade out of the way
like Whit Of smoke, as in these books;
and there is usually about death COM
monplace surrounding, which makes it
undramatic, though it does not rob it of
is horror.
Some physicians and lawyers, whose
experience had shown them much of
| tragedy in the world, while comparing
their recollections lately, agreed in as
sorting that strong emotions are rarely
expressed in actual life by dramatic &C
tons or words, such as playwrights and
noyelists give to them.
81 found" said one, "that men and
| women under the stress OF sudden pow
erful feeling, unusually seek physical
relief in motion, but it is as rule some
motion which is habitual t2 them; not
the Wringing Of hands, or beating of the
For example: it was once my duty
to tell an old woman who had lived for
forty years happily with her husband,
that he had, during all that time de-
ceived her, having another living wife.
"She listened 70 me without word.
Then rising quickly, she took up broom
and began to brush the hearth energeti-
c,lly, and continued to do so for five
minutes. Then she set the broom in its
place, and still silent, walked swiftly out
of his house. She never entered it
again.
SIN cases of sudden death, too, the
grief expressed by those who feel it
most. is seldom so great as we expect.
The fact is, the mind does not grasp at
once an awful disaster. 1t IS filled for
some time with its trivial, ordinary
thoughts. AS they disappear the pangs
become poignant"
A southern physician remarked how
seldom outside of fiction. we see highly
dramatic figures, or ''human effects" as
an artist would call them, 81 remem-
Der one" he said, 'utterly commonplace
in details, yet which made a more last
ing impression OIL me than all the hor-
rors of the war.
cit was in 1862. A rough pine box,
dumped at wavside station by pass
ing train. A young woman in faded
flannel gown and calico sunbonnet, sat
on the platform with her arms about the
box and her head lying On it.
''Nobody came for her all day, and
there she sat while train after train
rushed by, the workmen hurrying about
her, alone with her dead, utterly mo-
tionless, her staring eyes fixed on the
distant sky The whole misery of the
war took shape for me in that most for
lorn figure"
Said Northern man who was present,
81 remember one scene which to me
embodied slavery and gave force to my
convictions respecting it. A stalwart
young mulatto,-a runaway slave, who
had been living in Philadelphia for fif-
teen years, was arrested by planter
from Maryland, who claimed him as
slave. There was fight made about it
and the case was brought into court.
The planter brought the lads mother to
prove his identity, trusting to the shock
of delight and her mothers love, to
bring out the truth, when she should
suddenly be brought before heraboy.
The fugitive stood in the full light in
the body of the court. His mother,
bdlI, Sduub WOLudll, Was leu OuG
from the jury-room facing him.
"Here, NANNY, is your George said
her master.
The woman looked at the fugitive.
She had not seen him for fifteen years,
and she knew if he was not brought
back to Maryland then, she would never
see him again. And-she was his
mother.
"Gving one long, furnishing look, she
raised her hand. Il do not know de
boy she said, aud George remained
free.
eff ever" remarked the Southerner,
"the recording angel dropped tear up
on lie to blot it out, it must have been
that one"
The country is happy, now that North
erner and Southerner can discuss the
war and slavery together and see only
the human aspects OF each Youths
Companion.