Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-11-29

All my life long have been singularly
destitute, believe, of that physical shrink
ing from death which so many human
beings feel SO acutely. do lot mean To
say l am in any hurry to die; as long rs
things go tolerably well with me in the
world have no insupportable objection to
living, but whenever l stand face to face
with death, as happened to me several
times in the course of my career, l regard
the prospect of humiliation with perfect
equanimity. | can honestly declare that
on all such occasions my own doubts and
fears have been for the safety and pecuni-
airy position of the survivors, especially
those more Immediately dependent upon
me.
For myself l have never felt one mo-
ment's disquiet. And | attribute this ell
tire absence of fear of death to the unusual
fact that l have already tried dying and
found it by no means a painful or terrify-
ing experience. | mean what I say quite
literally. l have not the slightest hesita-
ton in asserting that once in my life |
really and truly died-died as dead as it is
possible for human being to die, and that
afterward | was resurrected. 1 have felt
and know the whole feeling of death-not
part of it only, but the actual en1 of dying
4
done with, and when l came back to life
again it was no mere case of awakening
from what is foolishly called suspended
animation" but genuine revival, a res
toration of vitality to a man as dead as he
ever can be or will be-
1t happened in this wise, and though it
was good many years since l have still
a most vivid recollection of every moment
of it: l had been skating on lake in a
very cold country. l am Intentionally
vague because l do not desire 10 disclose
my personality. The surface WAS smooth
as glass and perfectly free from snow or
ridges. But not far from where | was
skating some men had been cutting out
great blocks of ice the day before for sum
mer use.
During the night this open SPOT of blue
water had frozen over slightly-perhaps
an inch thick skated incautiously from
the solid ice on to this thinner. piece, and
moving with considerable impetus went
through it as once and was carr ed on I'M
der the thicker and frmer ice beyond it.
The first thing / knew was that / found
myself plunged suddenly into ice cold wa
ter. and struggling for my life in skates
and winter clothes against chill and drown
ing
went down like lead When came I'D
again it was with my head against the
solid ice. If l had had full possession of
my faculties | would have look ed about
for the hole by which broke through and
endeayored to swim under water for it.
But was numbed with the cold and stun
ned with the suddenness of the unexpected
ducking; so, instead of looking for the
place by which l had got in, tried inef-
fectually to break the ice over my head
by humping and butting against it.
In so doing, do not doubt, must have
made matters worse by partially stunning
myself. At any rate l could not break it,
and was soon completely numbed by the
cold. gasped and swallowed great deal
Of water.
/ felt my lungs filling. A moment of
suspense, during which / knew perfectly
well l was drowning, interviewed, ana then
died. was drowned and dead. knew it
then, and have never since for moment
oubted it.
Just before died, however, noticed
deliberately noticed, for am PSI ycholog-
ical by nature-that my whole past life did
not come up, as had been given 20 under
stand it would, in a single flash before me-
On the contrary, felt only a sense of cold
and damp and breathlessness, n fierce, wild
struggle, a horrible choking sensat ton, and
then all was over.
was taken out stone dead Unless ex-
treme remedies had been applied / would
have remained stone dead till the present
moment If nothing more had been done
my body would have undergone no further
change till decomposition set in. Heart
and lungs had ceased to act. / was truly
dead; there was nothing more that could
happen to me to make me any deader.
However, a friend who was slsat ng with
me raised the alarm, and ] was shortly
after pulled out again, still dead. with q
boatboOk. They tried artificial respira
ton, brandy, heat-all the recognized
means Of reviving a corpse afterdrowning.
After awhile they brought me hack. be-
gan to breathe again.
Ii there had been no artificial res aspiration
| would never have revived again, and my
body would have undergone dissolution in
due course, without any return of con-
seriousness whatever. So far as conscious
ness goes, therefore, was then and there
dead, and never expect to be any deader
And the knowledge that have thus once
experienced in my own person exactly what
death is, and tried it fully, has hao a great
deal to do, think, with my utter physical
indifference to it. | know how it feels, and
though it is momentarily uncom Portable
it isn't half as bad as breaking your arm
or having tooth drawn.
In fact the actual dying itself, as dying
is quite painless-as painless as falling
asleep. 1t is onlyith previous struggle
the sense of its approach-that is at all IN
comfortable. Even this is much less IN
pleasant than / should have expected be-
forehand, and l noted at the time that
there was a total absence of any craven
shrinking-the sensation was mere phys
ical one of gasping and choking When
ever | have stood within measure bic dis
lance of death ever since my feeling has
been the same-I have been there already,
and see no cause to dread it. OF course
one might strongly object to a painful end,
on account of it's painfulness, and one
might shrink, and ought to shri1k k, from
leaving ones family, especially if young or
insufficiently provided for, but death it.
self, as death, it seems to me, need have
absolutely no terrors for sensible per
son.-Pall Mall Budget.
Outwitted Their Friends.