Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1884-11-23

there would be feeling of intense fatigue
about my arms and chest, as though in very
truth had made the super-earthly journeys
had dreamed Of
FL bad been able to put down on paper
the thoughts and fancies that thronged my
brain in those days days could have writ
ten as never did before or since. Every
sense except eyesight was sharpened; inten-
si6ed to great distance; ordinary sounds
seemed at times cannon-loud. j caught
ideas and suggestions with perternatural
auickness But could not write line. |
could not steady my attention long enough
to read column OF newspaper dispatches.
The serial had been finished some time be-
fore this-fnished in the midst of an agony
which viii be horror to me, although
Live n Thousand Years.
II some of the characters came to a violent
end it was only the faintest reflex of the
Thoughts that swelled in my soul. Talk
wasa torture. dreaded the sight of human
beings. 1t bored me unspeaksbly to talk
or be talked TO. At nv best | always hatei
CAB. During those months talk was tor
ture to me- Many time / walked squares
out of my way to avoid baing spoken to BY
some one knew. shrink from meeting
strangers to this day. All this time good
friends, kind friends, were saying to me:
"You need cheerful company Well
come up to your room. You shut yourself
Of alone too much"
Great heavens!
used to walk till | was ready to drop
with fatigue, hoping to tire myself out and
bring forgetfulness. A story had read in
childhood haunted my recollection. 1t was
of Chinese merchant who had murdered
bis young bride For punishment he had
been sentenced to remain without sleep till
be died. He sat in chair, surrounded by
a guard armed with sharp lances. If he
showed symptoms of nodding off these
progged him with their lances and pierced
his skin. He lived nineteen days, it was
said, and died in a raving torment 1t was
all as clear as the light Of day to me.
fl could have remained awake till |
died, like the Chinaman, well and good.
| Death would have been welcome; death AT
any cost would have been a glad release.
But as it was l slept by fits and starts per
haps two hours out OF the twenty.four, and
that kept me alive, although certainly | en-
| dured ell the torture to which the Chinaman
was subjected. To me the one good, the
unattsinable, was rest and oblivion. Oh
tor one nights sound sleep. A voice in my
soul, like the tick Of a clock, tolled without
ceasing the words:
.Heayen-is-An-Eter
keaven-ls-an-eternal-sleep.' | suf
tered frightful neuralgia pains in my head.
There were Pushes of indescribable exaIta
ion Of spirit, followed BY hours and days Of
depression, enough to drive one to suicide.
In truth that was the scored dread on my
mind day and night. feared lest in spite
# all my will power | should be driven to
.elfdestruction at last. Better people than
famous men, had been under the. same
circumstances The thought entered into
ii nv movements. Hours were spent in
alking the Chesapeake sands. gaze5
ut upon the splendid, tumbling, lion like
-rcakers, and longed to be at rest. If one
lore beautiful, more majestic and shining
Ran the others curled over and broke Its
,hite crest, | thought how such as that
,ould carry me of my feat, toss me about
Ike drf,wood, till it tired of its play and
hen cast me upon the shore dead and stone
old. The sea casts all things out upon the
ands at last
How easily it could happen. Would they
say it was accidental Or would women
xag their heads as one thought of passed
hem, and say Suicides mother?' Would
he cruel street children screach after nv
ibid Suicides boy" Suicides boy"
Every device that could be suggested was
ried to bring sleep.
On the advice of a marine surgeon fused
70 pour out half a tumbler Of raw whisky
| dilute it with little water and drink it
That helped few nights. then it sickened
me, ard / gave it up. had refused all
along to take choral, but even that was
RED at last choral in orange sirup, large
| quantities.
The Long Spell of wakefulness
began to yield. | took the choral very
| cautiously. watching meanwhile like a hawk
lest it should become a habit. That was
more 10 be dreaded than death. Then my
| physician, who had been watching me with
profound interest, prescribed mixture Of
ysler;an, bromide Of potash and bromide OF
| ammonia heavy doses, 10 be taken day and
night Slowly, imperceptibly, comparing
one week with another, came back to the
world. Iwore it out at last. had been
hree quarters of a year without one good
nights sleep.
Coming back to the world, the flesh and
be devil, the first thought was for clothes.
Il asked your sister where you were so
oug," said the dressmaker, land she said
me, I'm afraid Mrs. - will never
SAINT any more dresses never felt so
bad in my life. You've brought me all my
best customers"
You will laugh, but it was a tribute Of
genuine feeling.
recovered all but my eyesight, which
has never been quite what it was | sleep
ouudly. thank heaven. But some times
he cid horror comes for a night, and then
nun afraid Of going off again. But l never
ave done so, and do not fear it now SO
much. have gone back to work. ] write
With greater ease and rspidity than | ever
id before But somehow the world has
never looked quite the same. For one
hing, the halfmesineric sleep and the fash
re images and tablesux have never en-.
irely disappeared In a few instances these
have been exact pictures of trivial incidents
hat actually took place few hours later.
can not explain it.