Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-10-11
DEATH OF, O'LEARY.
a COMMENTARY ON SOME
MEMS FEAR OF DYING.
A Medical Statement to the Effect That
Most Men Die Without Fear When
Their Time Comes and O'Leary Ger
tainly Was Not Alarmed.

carriage 10 come round one after.
noon at the end of visit. l was
convalescent but not quite out of
the doctors hand :, and we often pro-
longed his profess onal quarter of
an hour in friendly talk. sit is a
curious fact, but either men have
lied in the past or death has lost his
terror in our own time. l have at.
tended many hundreds of death be Is,
and 1 never saw any one near his
or her end who was afraid to die"
~ remember" he continued af err
q pause, 'once hearing of a curious
little conversation which took place
in the H hospital when | was
house surgeon there. 1t was told
me by the priest, who was friend
of mine. 1t was so light an cpl 5ode
IS to be hardly worth repeating. but
it touched me when | heard it and
think it bears on the subject we are
dlscussin g."
..Pray let me hear it," said I, and
this, as well as / can remember it,
is the story DR.. Collins told me:
1T was late one evening and the
lights were turned down in No, 3
ward OF the H hospital The
patients were lying silent save for
the occasional tosSings and mutter-
ings which told that restless minds
and bodies were in vain pursuit OF
sleep. Sleep is very capricious in
her visits to the sick.-nuw and then
she hovers over a bed. and the man
lies flushed and uneas /. it is true,
but unconscious of the world of pain
to which he will sh )rtly wake. BY
some pillows she pauses Just long
enough to make the heads upon
them fancy, as their eyelids close,
that for once they have cheated the
night; but after "a troubled doze they
start up again, pa nfully wide awake
this time, and the next five or six
hours rendered all the more intoler.
able by the mockery of rest which
preceded them. Besides these de.
lusive tricks sleep comes armed with
other tormentS Most people have
a special nightmare of their own,
which visits them whenever fever
has laid its burning touch on BODY
or minl-Some fantastic deIusion
which in hours Of health and day
light they can discuss and even
smile at but which rise of tenn
perature transforms into the terror
that walketh by night.
The man who was lying on the
bed at the end OF the long ward was
beset by the idea of wheels. There
is something terrible about a wheel.
as Ezekiel knew in his night watches
long ago, when he heard voice cry
in his hearing: .'Oh Wheel" and
trembled at the words. This man
could see quite we'll that great
wheels were approaching him from
every direction; the room was fu |
of them; he was one himself, re.
yolving quickly till he felt the bed
clothes burn beneath him with the
friction. Now he was I'm sell { again,
but all around him they were turn
ing, some swiftly. others very slow
ly, which was more awful still.
There was one large black one draw
ing nsare' and nearer to his bed,
till it seemed as if it must crush him
as he lay. He shrieked aloud with
terror. but the wheel stopped beside
his pillow and at his cry it changed
into the doctor. who was stoopin >
over him. AMI then from the doctor
into the priest Yes, it was the
priest, but what was he sa ing and
with a desperate effort the wander
ing mind steadied itself for a mo-
ment AMI the phantoms fled back
into the shapeless night be hin him
Father Molloy stopped over the
msn's pillow. "My SON." sail the
priest gently, '.your pains will soon
be over; the church is always read 7
for you-have you any thing on your
soul TO night?" t.
Faith, your riverince. ~" said the
man. in faint. dry voice. "lt's a
month since l have had wan big
drink. and it's an Everlasting thirst
that is on nv soul, so it is: and may
the Gu so Of St. Lawrence con shume
the man who brought me into this
bitter. burning camp"
He was drunken old gunner who
had s~ent most of his life between
the cells and the canteen. and, hav-
ing found no rest in either. had
driftel to that last refuge to forlorn
ones. the Ii hospital, where ne
had come to die.
The priest tried to rouse the
clouled mind to sense of the past
and OF the future, but it was hope
less attempt The past drifted be-
fore the dying man in broken visions
Of cant en- re ,elries, and wild ad-
ventures, and comrades wickeder
than himself. The future was silent
ana held no promise that his spirit
could seize-the gate of ST. Peter
refused to swing back upon its
hinges before eyes so sole and dim.
A day later Father Molloy came
his rounds again and found an mpty
bed where he had knelt on the pre-
ceding night. when did OLeary
die" said he to the occupant of the
next led, land how did he go at
lastp"
"Ah, your reverence, it was yes.
terday he died, and quite peaceful. "
answered the other, looking up at
him from his own pillow as he spoke.
How was that" said the priest.
You heard M talk with him, and |
could get no good at all OFT of him. -
.Well sir. said the man. latter
Won had uone he tDrnS rOund tn ma