The Opelousas courier., 1883-09-29
DEATHS FROM FRIGHT.
Instances, Ancient and Modern, Collatet'
from Auth entic History.

The distinction between fright and
fear ought always to be borne IN
mind. Fear can be mastered by an ef-
fort; fright has come and gone before
the brain has had time to come to the
conclusion that an effort is possible.
There is no fear in human beings so
strong as the fear of death, and yet,
"there is no passion in the mind of
man." says Bacon, truly enough, $50
weak but it meets and masters the fear
of death. Revenge triumphs over
death; love Sights it; honor aspireth to
it; grief fiieth to it; fear preoccupieth
it," Pity, which is the "tenderest Of
passions" led many to kill themselves
from compassion for Otho's suicide.
Even tadium vitae, mere utter weari-
ness Of doing the same thing over and
over again, will lead a nan to defy his
Unborn fear of death. But what pas
sion can guard against fright?
A Hebrew, according to Lodovicus
Wives, once crossed a narrow plank
over a torrent, in the dark, and, visit
ing the place next day, saw the extrem-
ity of his last nights risk, and died of
what? Not of fear, obviously, be-
cause there was nothing to be afraid
of, but possibly of fright. So, again,
persons have been known who always
tainted at the smell of certain flowers,
notably, that of the May blossom, but
it would be ridiculous to accuse them
Of being afraid of hawthorn.
Surgeon-general Francis. of the In
dian medical service, tells of a drum
mer who was suddenly aroused from
his sleep by something crawling yer
his naked legs. He imagined it was a
cobra and his friends, collected by the
outcry, thought SO too, and he was
treated accordingly. lamentations,
such as are customary with the ma
tives on such occasions, were resorted
to, and the poor fellow was fiaggellat-
ed with twisted cloths on the arms
and legs in view partly to arouse him,
but principally to drive out the evil in
auence (spirit) that for the time being
had taken possession of him. With
the first dawn of light the cause of the
fright was discovered in the shape of
a harmless lizard, which was lying
crushed and half killed by the side Of
the poor drummer, but it was too late.
From the moment when he believed
that a poisonous snake had bitten him
he passed into an increasing collapse
until he died. The drummer was not
a strong lad, and the shock was too
much for him.
The most remarkable death from
the accident of fright was that Of the
Dutch painter, Penteman, in the seven
teenth century. He was at work on a
picture in which were represented sew
eral death heads, grinning skeletons
and other objects calculated to inspire
the beholder with a contempt for the
vanities and follies of the day. In Or
der to do his work better he went to
an anatomical room, and used it for a
studio. One sultry day, as he was
drawing those melancholy relics of
mortality by which he was surrounded,
he fell off into a quiet sleep, from
which he was suddenly aroused. I'M
agine his horror at beholding the
skulls and bones dancing around the
room like mad, and the skeletons which
hung from the ceiling dashing them
selves together. Panic stricken, he
rushed from the room, and threw him.
self headlong from q window to the
pavement below. He sufficiently re-
recovered to learn that the cause of
his fear was a slight earthquake, but
his nervous system had received so sc.
we're a shock that he died in a few
days.
Frederick /. of Prussia was killed
by an accident of fear. He was one
day sleeping in an armchair, when his
wife, Louisa of Mecklenburg, who had
for some time been hopelessly insane
escaped from her keepers and made
her way to the kings private apart
ments. Breaking through a glass
door she dabbled herself in blood, an6
in a raging fit Of delirium cast hersel1
upon the king. The latter, who wa
not aware of the hopelessness of her
lunacy, was SO Mortified at the appear
anee of a woman, clad only in liner
and covered with blood, that he imag
ined, with a superstition characteristic,
of the age, that it was the White Lad,
whose ghost, according to the time
honored tradition, invariably appeared
when death was around the house O
Bradenburg. He was seized with
fever and died in six weeks.
More ridiculous was the death of til,
French marshall, De Montrevel
"whose whole SOUL says st. Simon
twas but ambition and lucre, withou