Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-11-19

particular spot in which lay would
be visited, and in that case it would be
too late. Starvation woulI do for me,
even if the injury had received did
not In nay anguish l.'hrie'scd aloud,
but was duly conscious ali the time
that nobody could hear rae Visitors
and custodians alike ma I have de-
parted hours before; and even if 1y
cries were heard from the streets be-
low nobody would attribute th~m to
their real source.
To the feeling of acute anguish sue
ceeded one of blank despair no
longer speculated on the possibility of
being discovered dead or alive There
was dull lead-I feeling at ny chest
and found myself repeating nechan-
ically old rhymes and jiGGles and say
ing the alphabet backward. as ! once
learned 70 30 II seeking relief from in
somnia Yet at the same time was
conscious that my whole life was pass
ing in review before me as they say it
does when one is drowning or being
hanged remembered that saying,
too, and without any cessation of the
review ! wondered in my double con-
seriousness if | were undergoing the
sensations Of a drowning man or of
one being hanged, and | wished |
could put them down on paper for the
benefit of the rest of mankind What
struck me as singular was that the
clocks kept on striking twelve. The
second time they did this ! thought /
must have lost consciousness for an en-
tire day and that this was the second
midnight. But when the third stroke
of twelve came from half a dozen
clocks / knew it could not be two days
since had fallen. thought first that
had become demented; and then it
occurred to me that If | were ! could
not reason about it in that fashion so
the clocks themselves must be crazy
This theory satisfied me until the
striking began again VIXEN ! went off
in another fantastic speculation. My
friends had discovered that was miss
ing and were having the bells rung to
keep my spirits up
. OH the long. long, weary hours /
spent in waiting for n glimpse of day.
light had no hope that daylight
would bring me any relief, but the
prospect of staying where it was end
lessly midnight seemed uncomfortable.
| groaned and wcpt and dug my nails
into the palms of my hands until it
seemed as if the blood would come;
but did not even feel any sense of
pain.
1t must have been after the clocks
had struck midnight a dozen times or
more-l kept no exact account-that
saw in the distance at what seemed to
be the farther end of the cathedral
roof two faint glimmers of light Pres
emily there were two more, and then
two more, until there was n regular
procession of them. tried to shout,
but had become so weak with cold and
suffering that | could not raise my
voice above a whisper The lights
nevertheless approached, growing
gradually stronger until could see
that they were borne by several black
robcd figures who were marching be-
side coffin As the procession moved
slowly towards rlc began to wonder
what it Ul-aat AMI whether funerals
took place at midnight on the roof of
Milan cathedral Thcn | spcculated a
moment on the propriety of disturbing
the obsequies even in my extreme
need Suddenly it dawned on me that
this was my own funeral, and knew
that was either dead or had gone mad.
In the supreme anguish of this discovery
all memory of past suffering was
blotted out and ! entered On a new
period of the most exquisite torture.
Fortunately it was of brief duration.
As the foremost of the moving figures
reached me felt a grasp on my arm
and a voice called in my ear:
Wake up, father; it's time to be go
ing down guess you must have had
vour yoke turned"
1t was M daughter, and beside her
were the rest of the party, flushed with
their ra:lb!e on the ROOT straight
eacd out my cramped limits, which
Hast have gone to sleep about the time
! did, aai pulled out my watch had
been there inst fifteen minutes.
don't mean to lie understood that
my hair really did turn gray in that
night Of horror on Milan cathedral
In the FIRST place there is not much of
it and what there is has been tolcrably
gray for some years But | do mean
to say that ! am no longer incredulous
as to the possibility of such capillary
change as the story books tell about.
am quite sure that if any man or
woman really had just such an expe-
rience as / thought hal his or her
hair would turn gray provided, of
course, he or she had any hair that was
not gray already Detroit Free Press