The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-07-26
LITTLE THINGS IN LIFE.

Some of the slight Causes that Have Pro-
duced Important Observation-Disclosures and
Incidents Bringing Death to Some and
Fortunes to Others-what Fate Had in
store.
How slight thing causes death, and
yet through what beatings and failings,
explosions and shootings, wars and bat
ties, shipwrecks and perils on land and
sea, some persons pass and still survive
to good old age. A short time ago a
child in this city choked to death on
grain of coffee. Mrs. Marks, a lady
of siXty-two, undertook to remove
wart on her forefinger by an application
of concentrated I've exhibiting degree
of wisdom similar to that of the man
who fired his barn in order to burn out
wasp-nest in the eaves), and her sys-
TEN was thus poisoned. A Mr.. Nc
Cabe. of st. Louis, had a slight
pimple on his cheek. ''Cut it off,"
he said to the barber. He did,
and in ten days time a cancer devel-
oped, and Mr.. McCabe paid the forfeit
with his life.
Fear causes many accidents, showing
how powerful some people simagination
is to hatch out the eggs of disaster into
Va dtottll olCh-
ness. General w. S. Harvey, the In
dian-fighter, used to tell story of
young Lieutenant who went with him to
an Indian banquet. Among other deli
cacies they had some rattlesnake,
stewed, fried and boiled. The meat
was white, tender and juicy. The Lieu
tenant ate heartily of it, and pronounced
it finer than any spring chicken he had
ever eaten. At last the General said to
him: ''Do you know that was rattle
snake you liked so much?" The Lieuten-
ant turned deadly pale, was seized with
violent retchings, and died before morn
ing with spaSms 9th stomach, brought
on entirely by imaginary fear.
Surgeon-General Francis, of the In
dian Medical Service, tells of drum
mer who was suddenly aroused from
his sleep by something crawling over
his naked legs. He imagined it was a
cobra, and his friends collected by the
cutlery thought so, too, and he was
treated accordingly. lamentations, such
as are customary with the natives on
these occasions, were resOrted to, and
the poor fellow was fagellated with
twisted cloths on the arms and legs in
view partly to arouse him, but princi-
pally to drive out the evil influence
(spirit) that for the time being had taken
possession of him. With the first dawn
of light the cause of the fright was dis
covered in the shape of a harmless
lizard, which was lying crushed and
half killed by the side of the poor drum
mer, but it was too late. From the
moment when he believed that poison
Gus 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 seventeenth
century. He was at work on a picture
in which were represented several death
heads, grinning skeletons, and other
objects calculated to inspire the beholder
with contempt for the vanities and
follies of the day. In order to do his
work the better he went to an anatom-
ical room and used it for studio. One
sultry day, as he was drawing these
melancholy relics of mortality by which
he was surrounded, he fell off into a
quiet sleep. from which he was suddenly
aroused. Imagine his horror at behold
ing the skulls and bones dancing around
him 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 window onto the
pavement below. He sufficiently recov-
cred to learn that the cause of his fear
was slight earthquake, but his nervous
system had received so severe a shock
that he died in few days.
Frederick i. of Prussia, was killed by
an accident of fear. He was one day
sleeping in an armchair, when his wife,
Louisa, of Meeklenberg, who had for
some time been hopelessly insane, es-
capped from her keepers and made her
way to the Kings private apartments.
Breaking through a glass door, she
dabbled herself in blood, and in rag
ing fit of delirium east herself upon the
King. The latter, who was not aware
of the hopelessness of her lunacy, was
so Mortified at the appearance of a
woman clad only in linen and covered
with blood that he imagined. with
superstition characteristic of the age,
that it was the White Lady, whose
ghost, according to-time-honored tradi-
ton, invariably appeared when death
was around the house of Brandenburg.
He was seized with a fever and died in
six weeks.
More ridiculous was the death of the
French Marshal, De Montrevel, s'whose
whole soul, says ST. Simon. ''was but
ambition and lucre, without ever hav-
ing been able TO distinguish his right
hand from his left. but concealing his
universal Ignorance with an audacity
which favor, fashion and birth protect
ed" He was a very superstitious man,
and one day salt-cellar was upset at a
public dinner in his lap, and SO fright
ened was he that be arose and announced
that be was dead man. He reached
home and died in few days, in 1716,
literally scared To death by the absurd
casualty of . salt-cellar's turning over.
Slight accidents, trivial in themselves,
often produce most iIl-timed and fatal