Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1876 — Speaker Kerr’s Last Hours. [ARTICLE]

Speaker Kerr’s Last Hours.

We glean account of the last hoqrs of Speaker Kerr from a special telcgratn to the Chicago Time*: For thirty-six hours he had frequently recurring paroxysms of pain of the most excruciating character. Latterly this pain became so great that his moans could he heard in the adjoining rooms. This difficulty Dr. Pope explains by saying that the intestines had been almost entirely wasted away. Indeed, the abdomen rested finally upon the backbone, the entire thickness through that part of the body not 1 being more than two - inches. Tie anodynes prescribed by Dr. Pope

scarcely had the effect to materially mitigate the sufferings of Mr. Kerr, who often begged that some opiate might be given him by which he might be enabled to die in peace. Wednesday night he rested well, or at least suffered little .pain, hut last night lie scarcely closed hit eyes. Shortly lifter midnight,however, he dropped into a quiet sleep. About two o’clock he awakened in a great fright, and staring wildly at his attendant, whispered huskily, •' What i 9 the matter with me ? Oh, God! lam suffering!” The doctor and family were at once summoned and everything that medical skill and the sympathy or his loving and devoted friends could suggest was done. From that time he seemed to be marked by the hand of death. His shortness of breatli continued without intermission, alternating with frequent paroxysms of suffocation. Several of these during the afternoon were expected to be final, and his friends were constantly by his bedside. Among these were the Hon. S. S. Cox, of New York; the Hon*. M. Blair, the Bov. Mr. Harris, President of the Female Seminary at Staunton, this State; Mrs. Kerr, and her son, and Kerr’s two Secretaries. When the summons came, they were temporarily out of the room. The tenacity with which Mr. Kerr held on to life continues to be a surprise to every one here. For more than an hour before his death Mr. Kerr’s extremities were as cold as marble, his pulse in wrist and arm had entirely ceased to beat, and it wus difficult to detect at that time the faintest flutter of the heart. Still, startling as it may seem, he was even then able to raise his hands to his head, and at the request of Dr. Pope clasped the hand of your correspondent with a tight grip. “ Never in all my experience,” said Dr. Pope, “ have I seen such a phenomenon. When a man’s pulse ceases to beat he usually dies, but Mr. Kerr can lift his arms and legs and talk at times ‘in a loud voice.” Where the mysterious strength, the wonderful tenacity, came from, is a problem for the scientists to solve. For a long time Mr. Kerr had been satisfied that his end was near. To friends who sought to cheer him by professing to see in his looks a change for the better lie has simply replied: “ No, I am not better; 1 am worse. I am not getting well.”

A few days before his death Mr. Kenhad a conversation with his son, in the course of which he said: “ I have nothing to leave you, my son, except my good name. Guard it and your mother’s honor and live as I have lived.” He leaves a very little of this world’s goods —not enough to supply his family with a living. In the conversation to which I have alluded he further said: “Pay all my debts, if my estate will warrant it without leaving your mother penniless. Otherwise pay what you can and then go to my creditors and tell them the truth, and pledge your honor to wipe out the indebtedness.” Michael C. Kerr, the deceased, was horn near Erie, in Crawford County, Pa., on the 15th of March, 1827. His people were modest farmers, whose ancestors had come to this country from Ireland. Kerr worked on his father’s farm until he w-as sixteen. He then gained an opportunity of Africa. This took place only a year ago, is fresh, interesting and up to the times. The geography class will reach Africa during June. The latest and best poems by Longfellow, Whittier, etc., are reprinted in almost every paper. Take these live, freslx items, choice bits of history, latest poems, literary anecdotes, etc., into the class-room. Call attention to this and that point; suggest reading and more research in this direction, recommend such extracts from last week’s oration for next week’s declamations, and it will serve to quicken the diligent and stimulate the indolent.— A. F. Blaisdell, in New England Educational Journal.