The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-10-08
When One is Nearest Death.

Very curious and interesting Is
the temporary uneasiness OF all
housekeeping humans and animals
at about 3 O'Clock every morning.
At that hour they give little means,
awaken partially or wholly, and then
either drop back into slumber or in
to death. Physical giants among
men, and lions among animals, have
this experience, just as the frailest
babies or weakest kittens. Viewed
ia any and every light, the oc-
currence is remarkable. Why is it
not at midnight, at ! a. M, 2 a. m,
or, in the case of the late sleepers,
why does it not come at 6 or z
o'clock.
At the hour of 3 O'Clock every
m orning every night-sleeping man,
woman or child and animal is nearer
to death than at gany other moment
in all the other "a hours 1t is then
that the more active of the vitals
come the nearest to stopping or
running down. They come so near
it that if they came to breathe-an
atom-nearer it they would stop.
The machinery of life comes with
in just hairs breadth of stopping
at some moment near a. IN. The
way of this is explained as follows:
The composure of the body when
lying still produces not only rest,
but the same element OF danger so
omnipresent to all machinery left
unattended absence of watch
full brain.
In welcoming the hours of sleep
you unconsciously welcome death S
most advantageous time for con-
quering you. Every moment you
are asleep your physical self is run
ming unmatched by the engineer.
The supply of coal Good for the
furnace is withheld. The steam
(blood in the pipes runs low. This
neglect of the engine room of the
body continues, until some moment
at about 3 o'clock a. M, the ma
chinery all but stops. In the healthy
or fairly healthy body the coming of
this moment produces a mild shock
to the system, and this shock un-
consciously causes you to throw out
your arms and legs, rub your nose
violently, moan, take deep breath
and turn over Your doing all this
or most of it-has literally and of
S )ber truth saved your life. 1t gives
fresh impetus to the almost stopped
a,tion of the heart, which in turn
restores the well-nigh stopped cir
culation all through your body.
TIE moan'and deep breath quick
ened the action of the lungs, and
a 'oused them to their usual rate of
speed. The rest that their organs
had received by being allowed to
run slow-to run almost down
enabled them, with the re-starting
administered by the O clock COM
motion, to successfully begin an
other run, carrying you over the
death point and allowing you to re-
sumo completion of the full period
of rest necessary to the brain and
to the nerves and muscles of the
limbs and other portions of the body.
AS to what causes the little shock
that carries us over the bridges of
death the wisest of the wise know
nothing. The theories about it are
legion. But they are only theories.
The percentage of deaths at this
marvellous moment exceeds that of
any other in the "a hours, while the
number of old people who die at
about o'clock in the morning is APP
palling in excess of their death rate
for any other time. In all cases at
all critical it is said that the ply
stefan breads the hour of a. m. a
hundredfold more than scarcely any
other incident in practice, while, to
all that lives and breathes it brings
the most momentous time of all
Observation-Disclosures Enquirer.