St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-04-19

chamber together. The sick man turned
pair of eager, burning eyes on my face
and muttered weakly:
II could not die till l told somebody
The secret wouldn't let me die and, God
knows, I've suffered till death is all !
crave. used to think should hate to
die. wonder if | am the same man.
Do you think different soul sometimes
gets into ones body when he is asleep
do. ! think the devil put one of his
imps into me and took my old soul for
his, and then he laughed low, mirth-
less laugh that chilled my blood to hear.
"Yes, the devil has got my soul, but he
left one of his inips to torture me, and
not to let me die until told the secret"
saw that the poor creature was verg-
ing on delirum, and so gave him some
drink from the tumbler and said prayer
for the penitent and urged him to give
up his secret, since its possession troub-
led him so sorely.
."But won't you tell? Promise, with
your hand on the prayer-book, that you
will keep my secret"
"But ought you not to make it
known"
mo, it will neither make nor mar,
now. The man was hung. Do you
hear, the man was hung?" he asked in
a whisper, but so fraught with emotion
that it penetrated the death chamber
till it seemed to fill every corner Of it.
There was a low fire burning on the
hearth opposite, and the light fickered
strangely at this point, seeming to leap
in small blue tongues of fire for second
and then to shrink back with low NUT
terings. The candle. toppled over
and melted the tallow which ran down
the candlestick. ] stuffed it, and then
trying to compose myself, asked:
what man was hung ?"
"Wait till tell you the story" And
then, buoyed up by fictitious strength
born of excitement and determination,
the dying man told his story, as near as
l can recollect, as follows:
my name is not James Colen, but it
will do as well as another. was med.
ical student at a college, in 1S49, and
thus it all happened. | was poor and
earned part of my tuition by helping
the jantor take care of the rooms. |
built fires, swept the lecture rooms, did
errands, and, in short, was errand boy
for the whole faculty, although l was
never absent from lecture nor missed
recitation. My mother helped me what
she could by buying my clothes but she
was poor. lived dogs life at that
time, but it was heaven to what came
after.
The janitor, although he was over
forty, was a gay, risky fellow who
would dance all night at ball as though
he were but twenty. Consequently on
these occasions he was apt to be sleepy
next day, and had more work to do
than usual.
A new building had been recently con.
structed for the medical school. Dr.
gave the ground The was a very rich
MANI and proiessorship was instituted
which was called by his name. The
building had a basement and two upper
stories. You entered in the center, and
On the left hand side Professor-had
mis- chemical laboratory in which there
was sink, stove, hogshead of water,
furnaces and closet. The dissecting
-oom of the college was just opposite
across the entry. Upstairs was the lee
lure room and another laboratory. The
anltor had his apartments, and Just
above them was the medical lecture
room. boarded with the janitor and
little room just off from his
so you will see | was in a position to
know what was going on in the building
at nearly all hours OF the day; my
studies, now in my third year, were for
The most part confined to medicine.
knew both Dr. and Professor and
both knew me, and sometimes talked to
ne, but of course the Doctor only came
to the school, while the Pro-
lessor spent every forenoon there. |
never liked the Professor, but he was a
great man, was All editor and lecturer
and member OF many scientific societies
IN Europe as well as in this country.
But he was very irritable, and came to
know the quick, ungovernable side of his
nature when in course OF time he called
me to aid him in his chemical expert.
ments, which from the nature of my own
studies and turn of mind | could do
much better than the janitor could.
Sometimes his Feasibility bore so hard
upon my own natural impatiepce that it
was hard to keep my hands from doing
him injury. He was experimenting on a
matter closely connected with the circu-
lation of blood in it's connection with
the parasites OF the human body, and he
grew more irritable day by day.
He had money troubles, too and |
learned owed large amount to the Doc
tor, who dunned him numerically more
than once. These two men, and friends
as they were, possessed idiosyncracies
which led naturally up to the terrible
tragedy of their lives. The Doctor was
generous and honest, but he was also
just and quck.tempered. The Professor
was easy-going in money matters and
not disposed to embarrass himself fnan.
cially for the sake of his friend, who
might lose the sum he owed him and
never miss it. There must have been a
dishonest streak in his nature too, for he
sold to relative Of the Doctor the cabi.
net OF minerals which he himself had
to the Doctor, and very soon
the latter found it out.
There was good deal of hard feeling
betwe the two men, consequent upon
this undetermined proceeding. The JAM.
tor spoke OF it to me on more than one
occasion, but he was disposed to lay the
blame mostly at the door OF the Doctor
Tor dunning the Professor so hard.
Sometime previous to this had fallen
in with set oil men who did me no
good; in TACT, gave my mai uraly easil,
influenced nature decided shove down
hill. | was always short of money, and
on several occasions replenished nv purse
by midnight excursions into the sur.
rounding country. Besides this, we did