Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-12-19
coNceanine SUDDEN DEATH.
Ie Growing Frequency Attributed to this
Excitement of Modern Life.

necessary To support existence, which
10 many men sea that has no haven,
struggle that knows no lull must newt
ably tell one may reasonably suppose, OIL
the heart action II man escapes tn,
ordinary forms of nervous arrangement
Sudden death. whether the result O
morbid agencies SO subtle that they evads
diagnosis or 80 insidious that they an
ucipate prognosis 10y suddenly and unex
pectedly terminating life, is becoming sc
common that 1t forms one Of the distinct
i've features of modern pathology The
form in which II commonly appears now
may be said 10 be the result of obscure
cardiac affections, and il was compare
lively more rare both in ancient times
and among our fcrefathers, compared
with It's present frequency
During the earlier aud even the me
diRval centuries OF the Christian era, sud
den death was regarded with especial
horror and in the litany Of the Anglican
church is represented as heading the list
of the most terrible calamities incident 10
humanity In pagan antiquity, on the
other hand. sudden death was held
to be the crown OF the blessings that
heaven could bestow on man. The
X
gentle being while their conceptions Of
an after life were gloomy
Socrates regarded death "a ian indiffer
ent accident Much depends on the
circumstances under which death presents
itself as well as the state of mans con
science and the condition Of his worldly
affairs AS years roll on death becomes
less and less dreaded Aged people gen.
orally leave life without regret julius
Caesar Is said TO have wished for sudden
DEATH but he said so Just before he was
slain, and when the mission of his life
had been accomplished Charles II could
apologize to his courtiers for being such
an "unconscionable time in dying" Vol
taire, and Hume, and Rousseau weighed
pros and cons for sudden death. and
affected 10 sum up in its favor, but such
subject Is sorry matter either for epi.
gram OF rhetoric.
In nine cases out of ten death Is a
great calamity II finds men unprepared.
II deprives them Of the alleviations which
rob the summons of many OF its terrors,
1t often entails embarrassment and mis-
cry by cutting OIL all opportunity of
making testatory arrangements thereby
bequeathing a direful legacy OF feud and
estrangement To families who might have
bved IN harmony
The moral and a very practical one ii
Is. is that the increasing frequency Of
sudden deaths is TO he regarded with
alarm, softened by a hope that med
ical science may be able to arrest its
progress and that proper regard for
their domestic responsibilities will induce
sensible men not TO continue to defer the
proper arrangement Of their affairs which
ten seconds may make too late.
The three men whose lives, tempera-
ments and habits were peculiarly typical
Cd the times in which we live were un-
doubtedly Lord Macaulay William Make
peace Thackeray and Charles Dickens
These three men, renowned writers, and
each a master OF his art. all died com
paratively young and all died suddenly
and the first two of heart disease Death
came upon them, not with slow and
measured steps. but without note of
warning Apparently there was pain
less passing from time into eternity
Look AT the work these men did Ma.
caulay had already won high reputation
for prose and poetry at the age Of 90. and
the famous article on Milton, which al
once won him a reputation as a essayist
that his subsequent performances in that
line merely confirmed was published be
fore he was IS years old.
Macaulay for over thirty years had
three lives. as it were He was a pohti
clan. he was man Of letters, he was
man OF society a great debater and
good working official a distinguished
a
whose company was sought for his con
versation by all who could obtain it
Hard brain work in parliament and in a
mans library is scarcely compatible with
grand dinners and breakfasts which.
with delicacies OF food and wine, were al
most as tad as the dinners.
Thackeray and Dickens suffered greatly
from the same cause They were free
bvers, they loved society These two (
did an immense quantity of literary /
work Thackeray scarcely fell off in
point Of execution hardly In construc
ton. 10 the last Denis Duval.
story which he left incomplete, promised
70 b% as good as any Of its predecessors
except Vanity Fair" which is its au
thors best work Dickens was far more
successful IN bis latter work. "Our Mn
tual Friend is a performance more am
bilious than able, with a heavy, involved
plot, and the bali Of Edwin brood
that has been published is not good
enough To make any reader wish for
more Of it. Dickens overworked himself
until paralysis gave him warning. un
happily not heedeI, and the end came
suddenly
A very elegant writer in a beautifully
written essay entitled Erroneous No.
tons OF Death Reproyed, observes; in
particular il Is thought that this final
event passes with some dreadful vista
ton Of unknown agony over the depart
ing sufferer Il is imagined that there is
some strange and mysterious reluctance
IN the spirit TO leave the body: that il
struggles long 70 retain its hold. and is al
last torn with violence from its mortal
tenement, and, iD tine. that thus conflc,
between the soul and the body greatly
ADDS 10 the paugs OF the dissolution Blu,
II may b. Iusiy presumed from What
usually appears tiat there is no particu
lar nor acute suffering, not more than Is
often experienced during life. nay. rather
that there Is less. because the very powers
OF suffering are enfeebled. the very capa.
cities Of pam are nearly exhausted. "
Death Is 10 he regarded rather as a
deep than conflict OF our faculties. il is
'epose-the body $ repose after the busy
md toilsome day OF life. Cor. Troy
IimeA
A Difference Between orators. d
The orator secures but a poor success