The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-01-19

| Were it not so the dying man through
whom fatal current or bullet had just
passed would be in so great agony that he
could perceive nothing, not even the ad-
vent OF death, and could much less an
nounce that he was dying.
More mysterious than the incOncelvably
quick preparation of the man who has re-
celved fatal injury is the readiness with
winch condemned men mount the scaffold
10 be hanged. l am prepared to hear all
sorts or arguments against an assumption
that IN this case there has been effected
natu raj preparation for death. 1t will be
sald that the condemned has become "re-
signed" (Which is really but another name
Tor natural preparatory, or that he is sus-
tanned by pride, or that he has firmly
liked his hopes on a future life OF happi-
ness (which again is but another wording
for natural preparatory.
! The subject is very obscure, but all the
more fascinating for that. Many men
who had been thoroughly resigned to the
scaffold have been reprieved but none of
them has furnished a record of his exact
mental condition at the time when he
! thought death was at hand. 1t is a sig
niticant fact, however, that when re-
preved, even after mounting the scaffold,
the condemned has never, so far as have
been able to learn, exhibited any extraor-
binary emotion. There was no wild and
delirious JOY over the return of a prospect
of prolonged life. On the contrary it is
generally remarked IN the reports of such
cases that the condemned showed no
marked emotion, being very much less
moved than the bystanders. We may
imagine that he was really ready to die;
that, as in the case of the well man shot
through the heart, nature had brought
him to accept death cheerfully. The
agitation which n any condemned men
exhibit on the scaffold may or may not be
nf ha in nntf c fbora
are other ways of accounting for it.
The reprleved man, assuming that he
has parted with the instinct to live, will
recover it quickly and of course uncon-
sclously. In other words, he will never
realize that he has been in any very strange
mental condition, vastly different from any
that he had ever experienced before, for
these changes must be beyond his percep-
ton, just as an insane man rarely knows
of his intirmity. Hence we could not ex-
pect reprieved man to give a record of
his impressions.
The question now opens into a broad
and bewildering field. 1t brings us face to
face with martyrdoms, in which death has
been met with perfect cheerfulness. 1t is
conceivable that here, as with con-
demned man, there has come about a nat
ural preparation for death analogous to
that seen in the case of the man dying of a
! slow disease or killed by a shot through
| VIZ he'1t. a hho"IcuSo VI ZIG Sc4 Ialn "
of death within a definite time or under
known circumstances has performed the
| function of disease or fatal injury. The
inquiry reaches far beyond this, but we
must stop it here. The suicide clearly be-
longs in the category of those in whom
the preparation is complete, for in such
case it must be that the instinct of life
the thing which makes rs avoid causes
! that produce death-haS persisted. The
fact that the suicide not only accepts
death, but goes out of his way to bring it,
often employing in that pursuit means
which infiict the most terrible pains, is
sufficient proof that death is welcome when
! life is no longer feasible.
The subject is so involved in mystery
that little more than speculation is pos
sible in discussing it, but is sufficiently in
| teresting, even though it may not be i'm
| portant, to attract far more attention than
! it has received.