Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-08-03
Falling Long Distances.

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! fering that Immediately precedes deaf
has always been a question Of interes,
, No reporter would think of describin
an execution without attempting to CIV
an ana ysis Of the feelings of the con
} demned man on the scaffold. The re
membrancc of the death agony of a love-
one often causes more acute agony thai
the idea Of eternal separation. Peopl,
have brooded until they were almos
driven to madness over the thought tina
they might be buried alive and awake t
brief consciousness in their collins. Ii
this skeptical and pessimistic age ii ii
not SO much death that is feared as the
pains that are supposed to accompany it
Novelists have attempted to picture the
thoughts of a drowning man during the
few seconds that intervene between sub
mersion and total loss Of sense. One Of
the most graphic pages in Victor Hugo
is that in which he imagines the sensa.
tons OF a man fallen overheard in mid
ocean waile the ship is pulling out of
sight and he is gradually lapsing into in
sensibility. Sympathetic persons have
speculatea on the agony of anticipation
tina: must fiji the mind OF a man falling
from a great height, and consoled them
selves with the thought that he was dead
before he struck the earth.
Dhpc,o1o;,t la-, sxoI ~.
selves in the general question, and es-
pecially in that IN reference to persons
falling from great heights. Persons who
have been resuscitated after drowning or
hanging have been able to give some de-
scription Of their sensations, but those
who have fallen considerable distances
and escaped death have not, so far as
known, thrown any valuable light on the
subject. 1t has been supposed that the
thrill of terror analogous TO that which
any n feels when re perceives that he
is in danger of falling and saves himself
by q sudden effort, is of such intensity
when the elevation is lofty as to immedi-
ately arrest tie vital functions and cause
death without a moments suffering. In
cases OF this kind the newspaper reports
usually and the consoling thought hat
the victim Of the accident or suicide was
probably dead before striking the earth,
and consequently spared both physical
and mental suffering. There never seems
to have been any solid foundation for the
prejudice. since it is difficult to suppose a
person could be a~sphyx,ated in falling for
three or four seconds az the rate OF from
fifty 10 seventy.tive feet a second, the
time it approximately takes to reach the
earth from an elevation of from $50 to
$50 feet.
The most that we can suppose is that
respiration is suspended and that there
results a sort of syncope or condition of
partial unconsciousness, not Of sufficient
duration to cause asphyXia. Almost any
one can hold his breath for a minute.
Persons who give public exhibitions re-
main easily under water two minutes, and
coral and pearl divers for more than
twice that length of time. There are
facts on record to prove this view Of the
case. Intending suicides who have
thrown themselves from the suspension
bridge a. Cincinnati, "A height Of eighty
feet, have Deer saved. To fall this dis
lance would require about two seconds
and the striking OF the water would be
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more remarkable case is That Of the
young woman who threw herself from
the Clifton bridge in England, which is
at the height of $50 feet above the river.
The time of the fall was about four sec.
Onds, IS there was a strong wind blowing
and her skirts being inflated slightly re-
the downward movement. She
was at once fshed out Of the water and
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covered. Her only injuries were some con
tusions on the thighs and back and a
displacement Of the breast bone.
Of sixteen others who had attempted
from the same bridge only one
man had been taken from the water alive,
and he survived but e short time. The
young woman in question remembered
nothing from the moment she left the
until she recovered consciousness.
The doctor who reported the previous
case said that he had never known before
Of the survival Of any one who had fallen
100 feet. Such an instance, however,
in Paris at a time when throw
ing One's self from one Of the lofty col
or other public monuments was a
favorite mode of suicide. A mau threw
himself from the column of the bastile,
which is 1856 feet in height, but, falling
on a tent erected for some workmen at
the base, rebounded and struck the side
walk. The fall had been deadened in
such a fashion that, though painfully
bruised, he was able to get up and walk
away shortly afterward, if not cured of
the suicidal mania, resolved, probably, in
TO seek death by a less painful and
more certain method.
The most notable cases of survival
alter falling long distances is that related
hy Il French writer, H. de Parville. Iii
that cf an + ISL Indian living in the island
Of O8hin, who fell from a cliff 30C metres
high, which is just the altitude of the
to wer + feel. His fall was broken by
masses or dense vegetation at the foo of
the precipice, and ne escaped without
serious injuries. 1t is hardly probable
that the Eifrel tower will ever ne a fav-
orite place for suicides, the outer slope
Of the walls rendering a perpendicular
fall for any considerable distance impos-
sible. The favorite method at presentin
Paris is TO leap from the upper window
Of the tall houses to the street or into
the court, and death is certain. Ii per
son has no domicile he would perhaps, lind
the towers or other lofty monuments con-
v~enient. but as in Italy, all persons who
have in their manner anything suggestive
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