The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-14
Faced @eath
-Four inees
Sensations of Man While in Peril oil
His Life-A Curiosity Eut
No Fear.

From the New York Sun
What are the sensations of person
who is suddenly brought face to face
with death while In the full possession
or his faculties? There are evidences
that persons who are suffering great
pain, as from injuries, welcomes death
because ii brings relief with its near
approach. and those whom disease has
exhausted seem 10 know nc more of
their coming dissolution than that they
are sinking to rest
u can imagine that a person who was
in full possession of his faculties and
suddenly found himself about TO meet
death would be possessed of an over
wheming fear" said The obserFant Jer-
sey.nan when appealed to upon this
subject, but nay own experience does
not warrant this conclusion. | do not
believe that am possessed or any
more than ordinary nerves and BRAY
cry, and | have never done anything TO
indicate that / am more than an aver
age person in these respects; but TOUR
times ! have been in imminent peril or
my life and each time under circum-
stances which led me to believe that
death was but a matter of seconds.
THE first great peril of my life oc-
Cured in Perth Amboy, Al years ago.
when | was less than years old; but
| remember ali about it as well as II II
were an occurrence of recent Date. l
was playing about an unfinished frame
building with a boy of my own age,
ramed Lecompt. We were climbing
about the frame on the second moor
when ] lost my footing and fell down
through the floor beams. | went down
through the floor beams OF the nrst
story and struck, head foremost on q
pile of bricks in the cellar. In the sec
ond or two of my fall ] was fully con-
seious of my peril, but | recall no feel-
ing of terror, only a vague hope that
| should not be hurt. | was uncon-
scleus when | was picked UP, and when
| came to / remembered my last SEN
sations and felt of my arms and legs
to see if they were broken, and was
content when / found that they were
whole and I had received no worse
harm than a sore scalp.
THE next occasion of deadly peril
was in 1863, when i was tramping
through the Adirondack region with
Stephen 8. Van Shack of New York, |
never knew just where the scene of this
adventure lay until recently, when IN
looking over new map OF that country
| traced our route from Troy 10 Fort
Edward then to II jrL Nilltlin lis nry,
and up Lake George to Ticonderuga
and Grown Point, into the Adirondacks
to Elizabethtown, to the foot OF Mount
Marcy and then the tramp back to
Troy lbs miles over the old plank road
that led past Schroon lake. There, on
the map | found Wash Basins, and
reconized it as the place of my deadly
peril.
I'VE had caught ride with farmer,
and having been with him for mile or
two and told him that we were sight
seers, he stopped his wagon, and,
pointing to path that led into the
piney woods to the right, said:
Won want to see "a Sl2nI take
that path
1--WE thanked him, and without ask
| ing any questions. plunged into the
/ woods | was in the lead. \ quarter
| of a mile from the road ] suddenly
4 emerged from the woods and before
! had time to look about me | found
| myself sliding along the face of rock
| which sloped gently away from the
| woods. The rock was covered with a
coating of pine needles, which were as
smooth as glass. Anyone VINO mas
| tried climbing over earth paths under
the pine trees know how the feet will
/ slide on the dead pine needles. SID
| along surely but not rapidly, and eoulo
i not stop my progress As slla
/ biaccd my feet and looked ahead. MOI
/ more than 10 or Is feet ahead | saw
/ that the rock ended III midair, and thai
| before me lay a deep valley. To make
any move to stop myself seemed to be
merely to make disaster more immi'
AYNSx
nent ana dld hothlhs 9oe u - !.
! feet more hrmly, as IL were psihs
! driven forward On slleh h -
strong wind. As ! drew near .l9 80 -,
Of the rock cohhdehiig eAPealsa ma
| | would continue my course fissit w
1t, and be dashed 10 aeath, any sel ..
| had no thought Of terror. At the very
| brink the surface of the rock tnfhee
| upward little, ana TINS affeseeu my
| progress, when my very toes we're y =
with the edge. As | came 10 s .ala
still the scene before me was % 81 -, n
ing that all thousht ol my uahsei ~
Il was on the edge of q table feck
which, think. must have bseh Soo let
above the BOTTOM u ale Nalies, -
was a sheer drop from there nel9W
From the left came a stream OF water
and this plunged in fall, perhaps ~
feet high. into a basin OF rock, Nhicl
was rs round and perfect as Ndsn
bowl. From the edge OF tns BASIN IN
water poured over into ahothef iail
ha Il.