Year: 1878

A Fools Practical Joke.


Clarence Newcomb, son of eX-United
States Marshal and ex-Congressman
Newcomb, underwent an experience a
few days ago which he will not soon
forget. The sportive humor of friend
led to the perpetration of a joke which
came near having serious and fatal
| termination. Mr.. Newcomb had step
ped into the vaul: attached to the office
of Lonergan & Thiel, of the detective
agency st. Louis, where he is interest
ed. The vault is used for the storing
of valuable books, papers &c. a gen.
tleman who was in the office at the time
closed the door upon Newcomb by way
of a practical joke. The door closed with
a snap. and Mr.. Newcomb had some
misgivings as he felt himself surround
with darkness which was almost pal
pable. His fears were increased by the
recollection of the fact that, except him
self and Mr.. Thiel, no one was in pos
session of the numerical combination
by which the safe was unlocked, and
that Mr.. Thiel had stepped out few
minutes before. In the meantime the
practical joker went out exulting in the
funny plight in which his victim must
find himself when he discovered that
he could not get out. Mr.. NewcOmb's
reflections We're becoming more and
more serious every moment. He could
not hear any sounds from the outside,
and wondered what had become of his
friend. He tried TO cry out, but knew
that his voice, even if raised to its high
est pitch, could not penetrate through
the thick walls that surrounded him.
He tried, but the reverberations of his
voice in the narrow tomb were almost
deafening. He pounded against the
walls, bruising his hand in an attempt
that he knew must be Intellectual to at
tract attention \ strong and power
full man, he felt himself TO be hope
less prisoner, almost without the slight
est hope of relief.


The ticking of his watch, plainly aud
ible in the dense darkness, admonished
him of the rapid flight of time. The in
tervals between the seconds seems long
er than he had ever known before.
The quiet had become so intense that he
could plainly hear the beating of his
heart. 1t thumped against his side,
like the sound of pile-driver, falling
at regular intervals, and driving-so he
thought-his burial place deeper and
deeper into the earth. He thought he
could hear his blood as it was pumped
,out of his heart and cOursed through
his veins. 1t reminded him of the muir
muir of brook flowing through the
woods and trickling over messy stones.
The action of his lungs had become sud-
denly and strangely audible. Respira-
ton was becoming difficult. The regu-
lar inhalation and exhalatiOn of his
breath sounded like bellows that was
being worked with difficulty. The la
bored action of his lungs, constantly
becoming harder and harder, brought
to his mind the terrible question how
much longer could he live in this con-
fined atmosphere. He calculated how
much air was contained in these narrow
walls, and how long it would support


ife. At the farthest ii appeared to him
that he could not live more than twenty
minutes, and then he would have to
breathe this vitiated air over and over
again. He cried out again but stopped
at the reflection that this was a useless
expenditure of the very hydrogen on
which he must depend for life for some
time to come. The silence began to be
broken by a murmur, which he could
not at first understand. The murmur
gradually increased to loud buzz, and
then he realized that this must be caus-
ed by rush of blood to the head, the eff
feet of his continued confinement. The
buzZIng increased to roaring thunder.
He felt himself stagger and then lost
consciousness.


At this moment Mr.. Thiel came in
hurriedly, having been Informed of the
situation. and unlocked the safe. Mr..
Newcomb had tainted; but was restor-
ed by the free use of water, mixed with
some stimulants. Luckily no bad ef-
fects followed the experience, and Mr..
Newcomb was completely restored in a
few minutes.