Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-12-17
HOW DROWNING FEELS.
A M Who Was Rescued Thought
Stocks and a Diamond RING


h-l Who Was Rescued Thought Of
Stocks and a Diamond Ring.
Its all rot about what fellow thinks
when he is drowning" said Plumper as he
drew bead of red fire on the end of his
cigar after late dinner II have been
there myself. 1t makes me tired to read
those accounts in the newspapers. and to
near 1T preached from the puipits about
the Hash of consciousness as they call it,
"nicn comes to a man just as he goes
under water for the last time and gives up
the ghost. | believe when a mao sinks he
has several moments OF consciousness and
his mind simply keeps working in the
same direction it did when he first went
down.
III tell you how it WAS with myself
While in New York few summers ago
left my wife at the Hoffman and ran down to
Seabr1ght, on the Jersey coast, to see man.
Took bath Of course from the Octagon
beach Not much surf, water warm, and
IL was delightful TO get ont a little way
from shore, cross my arms under my head
and lie there at full length atop of the
waves. | know perfectly we'll what was
thinking about. | had taken little fiier
IN september wheat the day before Would
sell whenever it struck seveuty-six cents.
Dead sure thing. Broker said couldn't
possibly lose, but had bctte.. put up 10 per
cent. margin as a mere NATTER Of FORM
What should do with the proceedsY That's
what occupied me Buy the girl AZ the
Holman a diamond ring Surprise her
with 1t. How she would smile as I hand,i
her the boz!
Hello! Who's there?' yelled as felt a
pretty heavy stroke on my right shoulder.
Supposed some other swimmer was out
there mo hod
me kick. Didn't change nv position at
all Yes, the dear old girl had been beg
ging me for that ring a long time. How
pleased she will look as she goes up to the
window with it for inspection.-tur ming
her hand to the light to get the different
sparklesl III tell her it's forty carats fine.
She doesn't know a carat from a cat And
ehuckied with the fun of the thing and
took big breath TO swell my chest above
the water line. What's THAT'S:
Another rap On my right calf by some
thing underneath me. In an instant was
! pulled below the surface, and realized that
| was being dragged down and ont to sea-
made one desperate struggle to keep up,
| took IN quart Of water or so instead of
the necessary cubic inches OF air, felt
choking sensation for a moment-a gasp
or two, and limbered. was gone. Dear
S-- Ic-o, " hedO WIS DOOOO TO so
up l stood by the ticker. Down she
started-755ss q -55-3}4-3sH-;%, Hang the
sbnfi Close it ont The tape had turned
into beautiful snake, which was slowly
! wrigglng ont Of my bends, while tried
| to poke IT'S head through diamond ring.
Dear Old mamma That was all. Twas
! drowned.
| The next thing knew was lying on
the sand m the hot sun. A ring of men
| ana women stood around me. Two doc
I tors were pumping my arms up and down
over my head to restore respiration. Some
BODY was Chatting my feet 70 get up circu-
latIon. was gasping, choking, struggling,
| hghslng, and the pain of it was terrible
| Drowning wasn't bad at all, but the com
| ing back to life was terrible came out
OF IT all right. Talking it over with the
| two bathmasters the next morning. they
said had been struck by a shark or some
| other hg fish which saw me lying motion
less on the surface of the water. 1t had
| first gfyeu me a nudge on the shoulder to
| see what wa-S, and then made a bite at
my leg, caught res teeth in my bathing
suit and dragged me under They said
they saw me go down and made rush for
me. The fish had broken loose, and was
| timber as rag on the bottom Now this
! just illustrates what said at the start
! that fellow makes a very easy drown of
! it, and so far from suffering review of his
| past life in one lurid moment of conscious
ness goes off smoothly and dreamily into
| the other world st. Louis G4obe- Demo
| crat