The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1886-09-07
DEATH BY DROWNING.
What Happens Whom Persons Sink
In tho Water.


In all flights Of imagination the
water, whether of classical myth or
popular folk lore, is regularly recurrent.
In one form OF another, as the obstruct-
ing barrier or the gracious medium, the
magic fluid that makes or mars en-
chantment, the food from which sur
passing treasures are retrieved, or in
which life Is finally lost, we find this ele-
ment conspicuous; and 1t would, in
deed, boa curiously interesting compil-
alton that should bring together all the
streams and channels osnnytli and story,
the fountains, rivers, meres, tarns and
lakes thatha been eventful i'll legend
and fable. 1t would be found that in
nearly all of them, where. the closing
tragedy Of life has it's scene laid in the
subaqueous abode of the water folk,
there is the tendency OH the part Of the
narrator to make death by drowning an
easy and painless escape from existence.
Enamored water fairies como and claim
the strong swimmer or carry off tho
bathing girl playmate. The dark
blue water from the glaciers runs lev
cold and very deep. Thedoomed youth.
however, plunges in, and all Of Il sud-
den the water-drops around his head
glitter by as if lit with blue: flames and
tinkle by like the Ginning of bells, and
the Ice Maiden rises from the ground
and kisses the swimmers feet, where
upon cold, deathly chill strikes through
him as he sinks; and then all is still.
Happy was he thus to pass from life
|. TO life, says Hans Anderson. n %, do
those who have been rescued from death
by drowning, even when life had SEEM
ed extinct, speak Of their last moments
OF earthly consciousness with horror.
They remember the struggle, followed
by brief bewiderment Of sounds and
u still more brief flash Of thoughts but
after this a gracious forgetfulness over
came them and they seemed to sink into
sleep. Men and women have thus de-
scended into the abyss Of death, and
looked into It's secrets, Gas far perhaps
as ever human eyes can have looked and
been permitted to return.n At q GER
tain stage of the descent the vision is
struck as by some phosphoric radiance,
ana the water breaks UP into glittering
points, and simultaneously, SO some
have left on solemn record, "a mighty
theater engenders within the brains,
In moment, in the twinkling OF an
eye, every act, every design Of the past,
lives again, and light falls upon the
whole path Of life backward into the
shades OF infancy. The very instanta-
neity Of the process, however, presenting
everything, not in succession, but rs co.
existent, deprives the sudd den retrospect
OF its terrors and unconsciousness, they
pretend, comes with a sense Of relief
and even physical pleasure. The I'M
fortunates, the weak ones, or the most
sorely tried, whose names stand on tile
deathroll Of our London rivers, have
not probably any definite preference be-
fore them when they seek from the cold.
dark water the sOlace which earth will
not offer. They see in the rolling tide
merely a form Of suicide which is free
from many Of the shocking Incidents Of
other modes of self destruction, and one
that needs no money to compass it nor
preparation beforehand to insure it's
certainty, and then all is over 50 soon,
too. No wonder, thon, that when tho
fascination Of suicide takes hold Of the
wretched they should turn to the dark
river as to a friend; and little wonder
in this terrible city of ours that the tale
OF tho dead should be annually 50 great.