Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-10-20
"OUT WITH THE TIDE"
a Doctors Testimony as to the Time
When Men Die.
From the Hartford Times.l

From the Hartford Timesl
Francis Gerry Fairfield, writing
from the shore town of Madison, Conn,
to the Albany Argus, relates the ap-
pended curious facts concerning the
simultaneous occurrence of death, in
most cases, with the ebb of the tide
Mr.. Fairfield first speaks of Dickens
acceptance of this idea, in his account
OF the death of Barkis. By way of
illustrating his subject, the old doctor
went on to tell story in some par
tlculars parallel to that of Barkis
This young man was very skeptical as
to the basis in fact of the ancient no.
ton, and SO addressed himself for
three years to the verifcation of the
alleged relation, by ascertaining the
hour and minute of every death that
came under his notice, and comparing
this datum with the tidal movement.
Some four years ago the young
skeptic commenced his record with g.
view to verify or disprove the
world-old hypothesis. During three
years of careful observation and in
quiry he amassed a, record of fifty-one
deaths. Only two of these occurred
when the tide was rising; and these
two we're deaths from fatal accident.
At the age Of "a the young scientist
himself was stricken down by typhoid
fever, and eventually succumbed to
the disease, after laying for many days
on the very verge of dissolution.
On his death-bed he sent for his
brother in New York City, but the lat
ter was, unfortunately, so circum-
stanced that it was impossible to re-
spond Immediately to the summons,
and delayed day after the receipt of
the message. On theclosing afternoon
of his life, hour after hour, till the last
incoming wave had deposited it's rid
dies OF the sea, the dying man waited
in patience, exclaiming now and then,
or rather signing, as the tall, old-fash-
toned clock in the corner of the roorl,
like g. gigantic coffin with figures end
hands, told off the seconds with g.
monotonous tick-tack, tick tack of his
tribe
"I'm afraid. Valley won't get here
till after the tide turns! Mother, what
time is it"
And still the tall old clock, whose
exactly circular, silver-frosted dial re.
sembled one of the cyclopean faces in
some old Hellenic bas-relief, went on
telling off the seconds with the same re-
lentless tick-tack that Hawthorne has
described with such symbolical signi6-
canoe in the "Scarlet Letter." the last
incoming wave broke on the lonesome
sands of the sound shore; and the ebb
set in that "takes SOUL" The dying
man lost hope as the fated moment
went by and VALLEY did not come.
VALLEY won't get here, mother, till
Pm gone," he murmured, wearily. 81
shall be dead before the tide turns
again."
The prediction was verified. He
went out with the tide, as Barkis did
in the wonderful etching of Dickens,
and as the souls of many more have
gone before and since. The longed.
naturalization Valley arrived less
than an hour after the last outgoing
wave had receded-but too late. The
tide of life had ebbed forever; it's last
pulsating wave had receded from the
enfeebled brain.
So ended the old doctors story
whose parallel | avelistened to many
times in the folklore of this primitive
community-stories of the old and
young, the grave and gay, whose souls,
like that of Barkis, had gone out with
| the tide.
"Mind you," reiterated the grim old
practitioner, "I prefer no explana-
ton of the fact. But fact it is, sir,
and no superstitious fancy of sea-go-
ing population, that the pulses of the
living human heart rise and fall with
the tidal movement of the sea-.
From your own theory of the
phenomenon. Within the last five
years, in a district embracing
sixty square miles or SO by the sea, ]
have noted the hour and minute of no
less than ninety-three demises in my
own immediate practice, and every
soul of them has all gone out with the
tide, save four who died suddenly by
fatal accident. 1t is riddle-a mys-
terry. But I who have sat with my
fingers on the wrist of many feeble
patient, and noticed the pulse rise and
strengthen, or sink and vanish with
the turning OF the tide, know that it is
fact"