The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1884-12-28
PRAYING TO BE KILLED.
A HORRIBLE STORY OF SUFFERING
FROM THE HOSPITAL.
A Froneh OHicer with Both Feet and
a Hand Frozen OR--FruitIess APP
psals OF Freezing Man for succor.

A Froneh Officer with Both Feet and
a Hand Frozen OR-Fruitless APP
peals Of . Freezing Man for succor.
The SUNDAY TATrLEB of last Sunday,
published an item about the discovery Of a
badly frozen man in Pennsylvania Rail-
road freight car, and of his removal to the
Charity Hospital. on the brow Of Bergen
Hill. He was unconscious when he was
laid upon his cot in the surgical ward. The
house physician was called at once to his
bedside When he tapped the frozen ex-
tremities of the sufferer with his knuckles,
they gave forth such sound as would
have been made by the tapping Of brass
drum. The doctor said that both his feet
and probably one of his hands would rot
of, II they were not amputated, and gave
it as his opinion that the man could not
possibly live.
When the hospital surgeons visited him
on Sunday morning, he had recovered
consciousness He realized that without
either feet or hand, life was worse than
useless to him, and with mute eloquence
and pleading face, he begged the doctors
to kill him. When they drew their knives
to cut away the dead flesh from his decay
ing limbs, he barred his breast, and mo-
toned them to plunge their weapons into
his heart
The man is French1nan. Warden Os-
borne says that he is man of education.
He was formerly an officer in the French
army. He carries with him his discharge
and his passports. They show his name
to be Emil Frederic Cournier. He has
managed, in his lucid intervals, to make
known his story to those of his attendants
who are able to understand his language.
He came to this country, he says, only a
few months ago. He was in quest OK the
fortune that all Europeans think is to be
picked up in the streets of the new world.
When he arrived here he found it impos-.
sihle, because he did not understand the
English language, to find position for
which his talents, requirements and expe-
renee fitted him, ard, rather than do
nothing, he had become barber. The.
chair at which he last worked, IN Philadel-S
rhia, earned SO little that the head barber
refused to employ him longer, and he was
obliged to look elsewhere for an engage
ment even at the humble occupation the
fates had picked out for him. Without
money of his own or friends to help him,
he started last week for New York in
search of something to do The journey
was begun on foot, but he managed to
steal ride on a train. When the train
reached Elizabeth, a week ago Thursday
night, he thought he had arrived in Jersey
City, and dismounted Discovering his
mistake, too late, he started for this CITY
on foot. The night was terribly cold--the
coolest, in fact, we have had this season.
He was not properly clad, and had never
experienced such cold in Paris and, as q
natural result, he became chilled through
before he had gone far. The walk over
the meadows, where winds at tempera-
ture below zero, swept with unbroken and
untampered fury, was, when his condition
and want of hardihood are considered,
equivalent to walk with DEATH
He trudged into Marion with both feet and
hands benumbed to perfect insensibility
with the cold He began to feel drowsy, and
seemed to be losing all power of locomo-
ton. He decided to beg the privilege at
the first house he reached of sitting by the
stove to warm himself. The door was
slammed in his face. He dragged himself
to the next house only to suffer the same
experience From door to door he crawled,
begging at each that he be saved from
death, but wherever he went he was re-
garded as tramp, looking probably for an
opportunity to steal, and from each he was
turned away The chill of death kept
creeping upon him, and when he saw an
open car standing in the railroad yard he
crept into it, and drawing his knees to his
chin lay down d sleep. He was so ex-
hausted and Denumbed that slumber came
to him unlimited, and almost as soon as he
had stretched himself on the floor he was
unconscious. How long he slept there he
does not know He must have been there
during all the bitter cold of Friday night,
for It was not until late Saturday night
that he was discovered and taken 10 the
Hospital in an ambulance. -
He was still alive when reporter of
TATTLER walked down the neat ward in
Hospital to the cot on which he lay yes
day. His frozen hand and the frozeni
foot were wound up in clean linen
dages. The right foot was expose
view. The sight was sickening. Hal
to the knee the flesh and tendons 4 Z
leg had rotted away, and the bon, r.
had covered lay bare. Flesh still 51
the foot, but it was dead and fast
decay. The stencil was horrible.
Osborne said that the other foot 81 E
presented the same kind of ~
The physicians had told him Cha 8
limbs would have to be amputs DR..
Varick is waiting for the line of demarca-
stion to discover itself, and even after it
Ehb<been revealed he will hesitate to per-
form the operation. He says the man will
probably die under it.