Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1893-01-18
The FEAR OF THE DEATH.

More remarkable testimony as to
how it feels to die is added to the
little fund of positive knowledge we
have on that deeply interesting sub
iect by correspondent of The Pail
Mall Gazette. This particular expe-
rience is entirely corroborative of oil
other testimony we possess on the
matter, namely, that it is not Death
the foe, the grisly terror, but Death
the gentle kindly friend and that he
takes us into the unknown, not with q
cruel grip through ways of horror, but
with a gentle clasp along a road both
painless and pleasant.
The Sun recently told the expert
ences of man who was twice hanged
into complete insensibility and practi-
cal death by lynchers in California,
who described his sensations of death
as being momentarily enjoyable, fol-
lowed by painless passing into moth
ingness. 1t related, also, the sensa-
tions experienced by one who sicken-
ed snto insensibility of death by fever;
and of others who fell from lofty places
and were picked up as though dead.
In all these cases the testimony was
unanimous that the actual passing
from life to death is not only painless,
but in fact physically pleasurable.
The correspondent of the Pail Mall
Gazette relates that he was skating on
a broad lake, when, without warning,
he skated into an air hole. His impetus
carried him q considerable distance un-
der the thick ice, and the first thing
he knew of the accident was when he
found himself struggling for life in the
cold water. He came up with his
head against the solid ice. He thus
describes his sensations as he lapsed
into unconsciousness
81 grasped and swallowed great
deal Of water; I felt my lungs filling.
A moment of suspense, during which
knew perfectly we'll l was drowning,
intervened, and then-I died. l was
drowned and dead. Just before died,
however, l noticed-deliberately no.
ticed, for l am physiological by ma
turc-that my whole past life did not
come up, as | have been given to un-
derstand it would, in single flash be-
fore me-"
The accident had been seen by other
skaters, and in comparatively short
time the man was brought from under
the ice. But, he says, he was to all SEEM
ing stone dead. Heart and lungs had
ceased to act, "and there was nothing
more to make me deader." Extreme
remedies were applied, and he was at
/ last resuscitated.
In describing his sensations during
the few moments that interviewed be-
tween his plunge into the water and
his lapsing into the insensibility of
death, he says there was nothing hor-
rible or terrifying. There was the first
quick shock of the cold water, and a
realization of the disaster, a momen-
tary struggle for breath. and then came
dreamy state, Of which he only re-
members that it was sweet relief from
the struggle, and Il pleasurable drifting
into Nirvana:
"The knowledge that | have thus
once experienced in my own person
exactly what death is, and tried it
fully, has had a great deal to DO, l
/ think, with my utter physical indlfter-
encc to it. know how it feels and, ,
though it is momentarily uncomtorta-
Bile, it isn't half so bad as breaking
/ YOUR arm or having tooth drawn. In
/ fact, the actual dying itself, us dying
is quite painless; as painless as falling
asleep"
The fear of death, natural to human
ity. is natures provision for the prcser-
walton of life ; but that natural fear
has been incalculably increased by
grisly tales of 9rcwsomc horror, found
at every hand in every age, and all, 1t
would seem, sheer imagination as
where Milton tells us that "Deatli
crinn'd horrible, ii ghastly smile," and
all "IIcll tremblcd ut the hideous
name" But such real knowledge as
we have on the subject shows that 'man
makes death that nature never
made" and that the fear of dying is
deaths most awful feature, if not, in
deed, its only terror.
gas" So far as known, the first coun-
terfeiting was done in l75S by man
named Richard William Vaughn
Vaugn was engaged to a young lady
in stafford, England, and desiring to
impress her favorably with an idea OF
his wealth, he employed a number o.