The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-08-06
---------- -
Deaths From Fright.

The distinction between fright and fear
| ought always to be borne in mind. Fear
can be mastered by an effort; 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 so strong in
human beings as the fear of death, and vet
s'there is no passion in the mind of man."
says Bacon truly enough, $50 weak but it
mates and masters the fear of DEATH Re-
venge triumphs over death; love Sights it:
honor aspireth to it; grief 1yeth to it; fear
preoccupateth it," Pity, which is the stem
derest of passions" led many to kill them
selves from compassion for Otho's suicide.
Even t9diuR rita, mere utter WEAKNESS of
doing the same thing over and over again,
will lead man to defy his Unborn fear of
death, But what passion can guard against
fright?
A Jew, according TO Lodovicus Wives, once
| crossed a narrow plank over a torrent in the
dark, and, visiting the place next day, saw
the extremity 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 scent
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 Indian
| medical service, tells of drummer who was
suddenly aroused from his sleep by some
| thing crawling over his naked legs. He i'm
agined it was cobra, and his friends, col
| lected 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 flagellated with twisted cloths on
the arms aud legs, in view partly to arouse
him, but principally to drive out the evil in
| fuenee (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 strong lad,
aad the shock was too much for him.
| Y The most remarkable death from the acct
dent of fright was that of the Dutch painter,
| Penteman, in the seventeenth century. He
| was at work on 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 better he went to an anatomi-
cal room and used il as studio. One sultry
| day, as he was drawing these melancholy
! relics of mortality by which he was sur
rounded he fell off into quiet sleep, from
which he was suddenly aroused Imagine
| his horror at beholding the skulls and bones
! dancing around him like mad, and the
| skeletons which hung from the ceiling dash
ing themselves together. Panic. stricken, he
rushed from the room and threw himself
headlong from a window on to the pavement
below. He sufficiently recovered to learn
| that the cause of his fear was a slight earth
| quake, but his nervous system received such
a severe shock that he died in a few days
Frederick l of Prussia was killed by an
accident of fear. He was, one day. sleeping
in an armchair, when his wife, Louise of
Mecklenberg, who had for some time been
hopelessly insane, escaped from her keepers
and made her way to the Kings private
apartments. Breaking through a glass door
she dabbled herself in blood, and, in a rag
| ing fit of delirium, cast herself upon the
| King. The latter, who was not aware of
| the hopelessness of her lunac5 was so horri-
| fed at the appearance of a woman clad only
| in linen and covered with blood, that he
imagined, with a superstition characteristic
| of the age, that it was the White Lady,
whose ghost, according to time-honored ira
dition, invariably appeared when death was
around the house of Brandenburg. He was
seized with fever and died in six weeks.
More ridiculous was the death of the
| French marshal, De Montreyel, "whose
whole soul" says st. Simon, ''was but ana.
bition and lucre, without ever having been
| able to distinguish his right hand from his
left, but concealing his universal ignorance
with an audacity which favor, fashion and
birth protected" He was very supersti-
tious man, and one day saltceliar was up
set at public dinner in his lap, and so
| frightened was he that he arose and an
nounced that he was a dead man. He
reached home, and died in few days. in
1716, literally scared to death by the absurd
casualty of saltcellar turning over.