River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-11-06

1 the arteries, and bound IL up. But the
| loss of blood had been SO great that the
heart fiuttered wildly and feebly in It's
efforts to contract upon its diminished
contents, and Fourier, anxious, and
| pale himself almost as his victim, treIn-
| bled when his finger felt in vain for the
bleeding artery and caught only faint
tremulous thrill. so feeble that he
scarcely knew whether the heart was
/ beating at all or not. In terror he
threw open the ends of the little tent
and famed him, and moistened his lips,
and gave him brandy, and hastened to
| begin the experiment for which he had
waited so long and for which both sub
! jects were at last ready.
He told his savage that the Yankee
was dying, but that he had communed
with his god, who would let him live If
| blood was given in return. Then he
reminded him of the time when he lost
blood, and that it had done him no
harm. The African, trained for this
/ duty with so much care, did not fail
him, but barred his arm and gave the
blood. The god was brought forth and
caught it, and the sacrifice began. As
! the silver bowl hoated in basin of wa
ter so warm that the thermometer in its
| side marked SO degrees of Fahrenheit,
! Fourier stirred the blood with the
| bundle of wires to collect the fibrine
| and prevent the formation of elots; he
then drew it into the syringe through
the strainer, and forced it through the
perforated needle, which he had previ-
/ ously thrust into a large vein in Shir-
| ley's arm, carefully avoiding the intro
| duction of the slightest bubble of air
| Time after time he filled his syringe
and emptied it into the veins of
the wounded man, until at length he
saw signs of reaction. The color
came, the breathing became more
natural, the pulse became slower,
fuller, regular. By and by he moved,
| sighed. opened his eyes and spoke.
| He asked question: What has
happened|
While he had been lying there much
had happened. Life and death had
battled over him, and life had tri-
umphed When he recovered from the
effects of his fall and found himself
bleeding he tried to rise and staneh the
flow, but, already exhausted, he fell
| back almost fainting from the effort.
He called repeatedly for help, but his
only reply was the hideous face of his
guard, silently leering at him for mo-
lnent, then disappearing without word.
! At last it occurred to him that he had
been left there to die, and he reused his
enegies to his aid But Shirley accom-
| plished nothing; he could not even raise
his hand to the bleeding shoulder; with
every effort the blood flowed more copi-
ously. His mind was rapidly becoming
benumbed like his body, which shiyered
as though it was mid-winter. Darkness
came over his eyes, and he fell into
dreamy state that soon passed into
| seeming inconsistencies again. Never
| theless, while the doctor came and
went and did his work, and the savage
scowled at him, yet gave his LIES blood
to save him, though he lay like q dead
man and saw them not, nor heard them,
nor even felt the needle in the flesh, his
mind was not idle. Strange doubts and
fears, wild longings and regrets, sweet
! thoughts of long-forgotten happiness,
and fair visions of the future, busted
his brain. Memory unrolled her scroll
aud breathed upon the letters of his
story that lapse of time and press of
circums tances had made dim, till they
| grew clear, and with himself he lived
his life again, and nothing was lost out
! of it or forgotten There was his moth
er's face again, with the old, old loving
smile upon her lips, and the tender
mother-Iove in the depths of her beauti-
full eyes. There before him, bright and
! dear as ever, We're the scenes of his boy
| Infao1l
many rude cutting Of names and dates,
the master knitting his shaggy brows
and tapping meaningly with his ruler
upon the awful desk while some white
haired urchin foundered through an i'll
learned task and his classmates Uttered
at his blunders.
Then the college days few by with
their romance and delight. Commence
ment with its "pomp and circumstance"
its tedious ceremony and scholarly dis
play. Once more he trembled as he
rose to make his commencement speech.
! He, the aristocrat of his class, had chos
en- to speak against Caste" and
though he spoke with the enthusiasm
of an untreid man, it was with devoted
honesty of purp ose, of which his earn
| eSlutSS was Nlt1CoSs anu VI N4A4Sh LIS
| future was to give ample proof.
| Through the bewilderment of applause
| that greeted him as he finished he saw
only the glad, smiling face of Alice
Wentworth nodding approval; of the
rest, hundreds though they were he
saw nothing. Her congratulation was
enough.
Then came tender scenes, and Alice
| Wentworth was to be his wife. Another
| change, and he is in the midst of ruder
| scenes. There is war, civil war, and he
| is soldier; once more he seems to be
| in Virginia, and there are marches and
| counter marches, camps and barracks,
| battles and retreats, and all the great
and little miseries of long campaigns.
| The silver leaflets of a major are ex-
changed for the golden eagles of col
onel, and all the time, amid sterner du-
ties, he finds time to write to Alice
! Wentworth, and never q mail comes in
to camp but he is sure of letters dated
''Home" and full of words that make
him hopeful and brave.
| Negro troops are raised, and, true to
his principles and to himself, he re-
signs his commission to take lower
rank in colored regiment. Now the
scenes grow dim; confused sounds far
off disturb him; low music, familiar yet
strange, now. distant, now at his very
ear, attracts him; wierd, shadowy
mist encloses him, concealing even the
things which were visible to the minds
eve, and memory and thought have al
most ceased. Thus he feels himself
drifting away-drifting away like a boat
that has broken its mornings aud drifts
out with the ebbing tide-whither?
But the rich, warm, lusty blood of the
African quickly does its work. The
heart, which had almost ceased to beat,
because there was not blood enough for
it to contract upon, reacted to the slim
illus, and as it revived and sent the new
life pulsating through all the body, the
whole man revived Fourier, under
one pretext or another, but really by
force of his relentless will, kept his VIC
tim by him for years after their escape
from the south. He noted from time to
time certain curious changes that took
place in his physical nature, and record
ed his observations with scientific pre-
cision in book kept for the purpose,
for the renewal of life had entailed re-
suits of an extraordinary character, as
the reader may have already anticipa
ted At length he wrote: "My hy-
pothesis is verified: it has become
I