Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1921-05-19
HEART TROUBLE
Continued from Page Ons)

Mr. WllSOn Ola not make puDuG
what he had said to Mrs. Lane of the
man who stood by him in his cab
met for seven years. The blow fell
| most sharply at the home here OF
Mrs. Philip C. Kaufman, his only
daughter.
To some of the former secretary's
most intimate friends here there had
come before his death a remarkable
message dictated by him in the hos
pital at Rochester, Minnesota, after
, the operation which preceded his
death, by only a few days. The mes
sage showed that he had undergone
the operation with full consciousness
and acceptance Of the fact that he
might not survive. 1t told in detail
of his sensations before. during and
after the operation, of which he was
fully, conscious as the condition of
his heart would not permit the use
OF a general anaesthetic. The mes
sage follows in part:
ut is Wednesday afternoon and I
am not sitting up in bed talking to
my good friend, Cotter. Until yester-
day I did not clearly visualize any
one thing in this room and did not
know that it had a window except
that there was a place that noise
came through, but 1 did know that it
had yellow oak door that stared
at me with it's great big square eye
! all day and all night. Last Friday,
you see, about ten in the morning, I
took the step that 7 should have TAX
40, =,
most tentatively, | crawled onto a
chair and ate my first mouthfui of
solid food. But four days ago man
aged to shave myself and l am re-
/ garded as pretty spry.
| Il have seen death come to men in
various ways, some rather novel and
western. l once saw a man hanged.
And L have seen several men shot
and came very near going out that
way myself two or three times. but
always the other fellow aimed poorly.
| was being shot at because I was
newspaperman. and I should have
been shot at. There must be public
! concern in what is printed, as well
as its truth, to justify it. That is
something that newspapers should
get to know in this country. After
the earthquake in San Francisco 7
saw walls topple out upon a man.
And I have had more intimate
glimpses still of the picturesque and
of the prosaic ways by which men
come to their taking off.
But never before have I been call
ed upon to deliberately walk into the
Valley of the Shadow and, saw what
you will, 1t is great act. I have
said during the past months of end
less examination that a man with lit
| tie curiosity and little humor and a
little money who was not in too great
pain, could enjoy himself studying
the ways of doctors and nurses as he
journeyed the invalid's path. 1t was.
indeed, made flowery path for me,
as much as any path could be in
which man suffered more humilia-
! ton and distress and thwarting and
. Illustration, on the whole, than he did
pain.
But here was a path the end of
which I could not see. I was not
compelled to take it. My very latest
doctor advised me against taking It.
could live some time without talk
ing it. 1t was bet on the high card
with a chance to win, and took it."
At this point occurred details re-
garding the preparations for the
operation. with a note of the fact
that general anaesthetic could not
be applied on account of the pa
TENTS heart, which had been cut
ting UP some didoes.' The state
ment continues:
For two days I had knowledge
that this operation was to take place
at this time and my nerves had not
been just as good as they should
have been. Those men who sleep
- hours perfectly before being cleo
trocuted have evidently led more
tranquil lives than I have, or have
less concern as to the future. All.
now I was to know the great secret:
For 40 years I had been wondering,
wondering. Often had said to my
self that I should summon to my
mind when this moment came, some
words that would be somewhat
synthesis of my philosophy. Socrates
Sdlu W tilOSt WIZ SlOOu ny dIteT ne
had drunk the hemlock: No evil
can befall a good man, whether he
be alive or dead I don't know how
far from that we have gone in these
o4O0 years.
1.-The apthegm, however, was not
Apostle to me, because it involved
a declaration of that 1 was a good
man and I don't know any one who
has the right to so appreciate him
self And had come to the conclu-
sion that perhaps the best statement
of my creed could be fitted into the
words I accept which to me meant
that if in the law of nature my in
dvidual spirit was to go back into
the great ocean of spirits my one
duty was to conform. Lead Kindly
Light was all the gospel I had
accepted"