Year: 1871

wretchedness and sorrowful tenderness
depicted on her cnuntenance l can never
forget. Il could not but feel selfish salts
faction in the unmistakable evidence of her
intense affection. i lorged to comfort her,
but my eyes, which were blankly staring
upward, would not change their expression
nor turn to follow hers.


81 am sorry TO say that there can be
no doubt that your husband is dead,
said the undertaken with his professional
whine. They often have that lively
color. l remember once when L had
charge of the funeral Of"


Never mind, Mr. Sniff. Do what y on
think proper without consulting me" said
my wife, struggling to suppress her emo
ton, and turning to leave the room.
| "Come, Tom; now let's get him in the
ice as soon as possible. It's high time, the
weather Is so warm" said Sniff in his
natural voice to his assistant.


He approached me, took my nose be-
tween his thumb and finger, lifted my head
little and deposited it with slight
thump in an exact perpendicular. He
| then closed my eyelids, and retained them
in position by something metallic placed
as a weight on each, so that the little had
been able to see was shut from view, and i
| WAS left in utter darkness.


With no veIy gentle hands was trans
| ferred from the temperate zone my own
parlor to the Arctic regions of the ice
coffin. Pounded ice was under me,
| chunks Office were around me, huge blocks
| of ice were over me. A reminiscence of
| my early boyhood, when, heated by the
exercise of skating, I plunged directly
into an open hole in the ice-pond, was first
brought wildly to my mind. | next felt
that l was realizing in my own person
what Gustave Dore has so strikingly de-
picted in his painting Of the frozen re-
gions of hell, where the miserable victims
are twisting their stitfened limbs in endless
contortions among the floating boulders of
ice, always cOngealiDg but never con-
gealed Soon a numbness, commencing
in my fingers aud toes, crept gradually up
my arms and legs, until they appeared to
be gone entirely, and 1 was only trunk.
By degrees my body became insensible,
and at last | felt that there was nothing of
me but my head. l recognized my exist
ence fully, but it was not in my body
only in that little sphere the head, which
seemed to occupy the entire coffin.


/ was now fully satisfied that 1 was
rapidly approaching death. 1 believed
that my body was already frozen, and
that my spirit would soon leave the brain,
w LiJCH SScIlCO " DC 1lS le@SJ
place before taking its flight / gave up
all hope, and was endeavoring to prepare
myself for the change which would occur
when the slender thread which held me
to the cranium I inhabited should be
broken


While so waiting, by some process
which l can neither explain nor account
for, suddenly saw distinctly all that was
in the room in which my body was lying.
More than this, l saw, apparently just be-
low me, as if l were floating in the air
above it, the ice-box in which my body
was lying, and in it my own body. There
it lay, covered with ice, my pale face look
ing directly upward, my eyelids closed,
and on each of them five-cent nickel.
My philosophy was now completely
| fioored. Whether was dead or alive |
could not determine. I still seemed in
some way connected with my own body,
but not an actual occupant of it. had
no sensation, and doubted whether I should
ever again experience any. had no longer
the dread of suffering which had distres ed
me when was expecting scientific mutila.
ton in the waiting room of the station. l
even could watch the preparations for my
own funeral with something of the in
difference of an unconcerned spectator.
The undertaken was viewing his finished
work with apparent satisfaction, and,
gathering up the spoils of his trade, was
preparing to leave the room. I did not
| feel entirely satisfied with the familiar
carelessness with which he had manipu-
lated my body so soon as my wife left the
room, rolling it about with professional
recklessness and indifference. I had
known Sniff somewhat intimately, and
thought, for old acquaintance sake at
least, he should have shown little con-
sideration for,m mortal remains. for
| gave him, howevtr, when l afterward
witnessed the scientific manner in which
he displayed to the best advantage my
features in the handsome coffin he had
provided, and the real qualification he ap.
peared to take in seeing his work well
| done.


| can only glance at what occurred while
I was waiting for my funeral. l remem-
Der how, during the long night, watched
over my own coffin, linked to, yet appar-
emily separated from, my own body; view.
ing my own pale countenance by the dim.
ly burning gas-light overhead /; listening to
the never-ceasing drip, drip" of the water
from the melting ice; observing how the
morning sun again shone cheerfully, but
could not dispel the gloom of my little
household; how the undertaken busted
himself about my body, unconscious that
he was watched by his late occupant how
my friends came during the day, viewed
the remains Of their late companion, ex
pressed their sympathies to my wife, and
| went away.


I must not omit to mention mysterious
| phenomenon which occurred while / was
apparently separated from my body. Dur
ing the day my wife had passed Longer
| time than usual without entering the room
in which l was. l felt a desire for hel
presence, and was wondering how she
could be occupied. While so doing 1 un
expectedly found myself by her side il
the room on the second floor where she
was accustomed to spend most of her time
she was sitting, apparently in sOrrowfu
meditation, in the easy chair / had so otter
seen her occupy, while near her was the
vacant seat usually selected for myself
Her sad, pale cOuntenance did not alter it:
expression, and she evidently knew moth
ing of my presence A dressmaker in the
room, engaged in the preparation o.
mourning apparel, was equally ignorant O
the presence of third person. | founC
that by simple effort of the will 1 coulG
come and go as L chose, and during the
day 1 experienced a new and unexpected
source of consolation in watching, though


unseen, at my wife's side.


This new power of locomotiop, of which


I accidentally discovered that 1 was tn,


possessor, l exercised still farther. Ny


thoughts st one time reverted to th'


scene of the accident upon the Eri
road, and in moment / wa


there. The spectators of two days be


fore had deserted the place, the overturned


engine had been righted and placed on


truck, the fragments of the demolished


cars had been removed from the sight o
| l,o hN
rible prison, was open and unoccupied, ant
only a baggage-master and switch tende
were to be seen in the neighborhood.
My thoughts turned to my red -haireC


companion and fellow-sufferer. Will


thinking of him found myself in nea


inland village which had never befor
.. visited. A modest wooden house, paintet


white and with green venetian blinds
presented itself to my view. Led by som
influence which l cannot explain, l foun'
, myself inside room which seemed to b
the narlnr There L SAW q neat coffin