Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-11-28
PROLONGED TORTURE.
RIDING AWAY FROM DEATH ON A
HORSE DETERMINED TO GO
AT A FOOT PACE.

was a green yoaDg country boy, and
had commenced studying law in At
tica-that little place we Just passed.
In the summer time a friend OF mine,
who knew | was deviliSh hard up,
suggested that | go out to his farm
and spend a couple Of months while
lie and his wife made a visit TO Phil
adelphia. l was only too glad to do
it. He lived about fouR miles from
Attica, half the way over a turnpike
that had been diScussed-a lonely,
but rather pretty, location.
"The only other person there was
a farm hand. There wasn't much
to do, AMI had a high old time.
One day, | remember it was boiling
hot-in July, %Ithink-the hired man
went TO a picnic aud left me alone
on the farm. Toward moo | got a
diabolical toothache. 1t was the
jumping kind; felt every moment or
two as if somebody had hit the nerve
with a tack hammer, and | went raw
ing about the place like ii mailman.
| tried everything coald think of
until l recollected all of a sudden
that there was a small bottle of whls-
key on the pantry shelf.
81 had sampled it before, and
knew just were it was, so | rushed
in, grabbed the bottle and took a
swig. AS | set it down ! glanced
at it, and to my unspeakable horror
read the word .Laudanum , Oh Il big
black label. 1t struck me instantly
that | had got the wrong bottle, and
also that l had Il strange taste in
my mouth. They kept a lot of med
icine and odds and ends in the pan.
try, and that accounted for the mis-.
take.
"For moment my brain was in
a whirl, and then | collected my
thoughts and rapidly surveyed my
chances. did not know exactly how
much opinion there was IN laud-
anum, but realized that | bad Ger
tainly swallowed enough to kill a
dozen men, and that my only hope
lay in obtaining prompt medical as
sistance. / thrust the bottle into
my pocket to indicate how much
had taken and ran for the barn.
"Therc was only one horse on the
place-an old, wind-broken, dirty
white bag of bones, that hadn't
been out of a walk since the yeaI
one. The way | slung the harness
on to him was n caution to snakes,
Ny hands trembled so that | could
scarcely fasten the buckles, but i
finally got our ~rattletrap sof a two.
seated buggy hitched up and started
for town.
~ didn't stop to shut the gate.
! just leaned over the dashboard
aud hammered the old horse with
the whipstoek until he broke into
a scared gait, half trot. In IL mo.
ment or two he got used to the licking
and 1t was almost impossible to keep
him going. IL Bergh had seen me
/ would certainly he in the peniteu.
tiary to-day for cruelty to animals.
| smashed him over the back until
great welts stood out like inrrows OH
a plQwed field, and bowled and rayed
and swore. 1t seemed to me We
were scarcely moving at all, and the
minutes went IN Numerically OPP
posite ratio. | wonld have got out
and walked, but dared not trust my
legs for the distance.
Meantime | felt the poison work.
ing in my system. A deadly iassi.
tude crept u me. had read oil
such things and | felt them in all
their ~magnifed horrors. IL seemed
in some strange, inexplicable way,
as i'll had IA dual existence, one
weakly, eager 10 lie dnwn and sleep,
come what might, and the other
fred with all energy of despair to
reach the town. No tongue "A tell
the battle | fought between those
two impulses.n
The stranger took ont his hand
kerchief and slowly wiped the beads
of perspiration from his forehead.
"Incil by inch the horrible iuer.
tia crept owe ne. Ny body seem
ed enormously enlarged. Ny arms
were yards long ant my hands oil
gigantic size. You know, perhaps,
that this is one Of the effects Of opium
poisoning. II appeared to mel fear
that | cannot make myself under.
stood-tliat the n of will travel.
ed very, very slowly, and waned
and died out before it reached its
end. When / wished TO raise my
hand, for instance, it seemed to take
ages to communicate the desire to
tue muscles, and then they sere too
feeble TO respond. Do you follow
megv
81 believe | understand you.n
II looked with Understandable an
xiety for teams Oh the road, but
there was fifflp tTaval M tim tt,rn