The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-03-08
HIS TIME HAD COME.

S~~N .
ly camped up in the forests of the
Rangeley country, and the days sport
had been a trife heavy if empty. They
had done long tramp. The broad fire.
place yawned a cracking comfort. There
was soothing punch on the table and our
pipes were drawing we'll. The talk had
drifted to casualty and fatality and to
the exchange of views upon the hair
breadth line which divides the chance
of life from that of death in peculiar
cases.
The guide told of young fellow who
had been literally frightened to his
death few years before by the onrush
of big bull moose which he had wound
ed with his last cartridge. The brute
had been knocked over by shot from
the guide before it reached the boy, who,
though unmarked by scar, through
simple terror had lost his hold upon the
spark of life. Instances were named
| where fall of few inches had brought
death, and others where men had fallen
distances of so or go feet only to get
up and walk off unbarmed.
The doctor had been a silent listener
to all this talk and sat gazing into the
glowing Goals until our stories were
ended. Suddenly he went to his shake
down, and from beneath it drew an old
and weather beaten satchel, from which,
after some search, he took an envelope
and returned to his chair.
My theory is, boys, that a man lives
until his times up, and no longer, and
that it makes little or no difference in
his length of life what he does or doesn' IT
do. seldom air this theory. In fact I
don't generally like to speak of death,
an experience which strangely bears out
my theory and which lies many years
back
ST had just fairly settled into the
business left me by an old practitioner
in small mountain town in Vermont.
1t was not town of wealth or great
mortality, and I was not busy man.
Still, my reading kept me occupied for
the most part, and had just enough of
outside work to give me exercise and
maintenance Even then I had formed
opinions and read widely upon the doc
trine generally referred to as fatalism.
/ had observed nothing which contro-
verified my ideas, while there had come
to me much in their support. Early on
a blustery, stormy evening was loung-
ing in my easy chair before a roaring
fire, bordering over very strange dep
osition which I had just read, when
my thought was interrupted by the
sound of wheels and moment later
there was determined knock on the
door, and 1 opened up. A quarryman
whom knew by sight was my caller.
"'For Gods sake, doc, he said,
come over with me to the quarry and
help Big Griggs out of his misery. He's
got tamping iron clean up through his
head
81 got my case, slid into heavy coat
and we were off. The Overlook quarry
was six miles distant and during the
drive 1 gathered particulars Big Griggs
had been drilling for heavy blast all
afternoon, and had loaded for an early
morning firing just before the knock off.
He had been tamping down the powder
charge, short time had made him care
less and there was premature explo-
sion. The tamping iron had been driven
up through both jaws and through the
top of the Uranium and still remained in
the wound. I mentally concluded that
my driver was either drawing the tale
o'erstrong through excess of excitement
Or else that there would be no need of
my services when we reached the pa
tient
"But 1 found his statement of condi-
tions literally correct. Poor Griggs sat
there with jaws locked firmly together
and with about seven inches of iron
protruding from his chin and similar
length from the apex of the skull. The
bar was round, two feet long, with
diameter Of one-quarter inch at one end
and one and one-quarter inches at the
other 1t must have weighed seven or
eight pounds. went to work and made
him as comfortable as could, thinking
meanwhile of the least brutal way in
which to tell him that the long night
must soon come. l was bit surprised
that he was sane, since the wound must
have been very snug to the brain cells,
but he was fully conscious, though in
great pain.
Finally asked him if he wished
any particular thing done or any one
sent for Motioning for pencil, he
wrote:
Nothing to be done. 1 shall live
! for years yet, and there's no hurry.
81 looked at him closely, believing
that, after all, he was not precisely
level. had examined the curious
wound carefully and wouldn't have in
sured his life for As hours on any terms.
But, boys, Big Griggs lived with that
iron in his head for more than six years.
During all that time attended him
carefully, and we had long sign voice
discussions about our mutual belief in
fatalism. He predicted very closely the
date of his death, and later / procured
this somewhat CHASTITY photograph"
He drew from the envelope a photo
graph of skull pinned through by an
iron bar, and in turn we examined the
picture. AS it was passed from hand to
hand each face mirrored the depressing
thought of the years of unceasing suffer
ing which had preceded the awful
nakedness OF the skull. The punch bowl
received renewed attentions, and the
talk broke away into forced and aimless
channels difficult for men to sustain
long. At last one OF them, in we'll in
tended effort to tighten the mood Of the
hour, said:
"Well, doc, when have You figured
on reaching the limit of your earthly
mission? Try and plan to finish this
hunt with us, for we are bound to strike
a moose before we are through.
The doctor had gazed into the Goals
without word since the telling Of his
story, but his lips now parted in slow
and melancholy smile as he calmly an
swered:
81 fancy, boys, that it will come to-
morrow. So sure am l of this that
shall ask you before we have a good
night to join me in what l believe will
be our last toast together. 1t will be to
your comfort, friends, if you can dis
miss my statement as but the vagary OF
an overtalkative comrade who finds
himself in strange mood tonight, but
we shall see.' He continued to murmur
to himself:
"It's a pretty world, senior, but not
all has been happiness. l have seen Of
the travail of my soul and am satisfied. ,
He rose and filled his glass. "Fill ano
drink, boys" he called, and as they
gathered around without volition to re-
sist his within he continued: Drink tc
the unsolvable riddle of life; to the un
fashionable arbitrament Of fate and tc
the untroubled sleep which follows al
in Gods good time.
Three glasses were replaced witt
trimming edge untouched upon the ia