Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 January 1877 — Sensations of Drowning and Freezing. [ARTICLE]

Sensations of Drowning and Freezing.

A reporter, a day or two a**. chancfid to listen to an account of two oecurreuoae In the history of « well-known at. Louisan, of such a nature as to be deemed of the narrator, and strikingly Illustrates the truth of staUanitUi oftA made regarding the , sensations hxperlSced when in mortal peril of certain kin<nc j My be«tt^r«nark^^: of Both times I was considered dead, and so pronounced by medical expats, and both. timea.l fasapd and remand for some tirifetfeJSnd The first time was by drowning and the second by freezing. The sensation of both instances are as fiesh and vivid in my memplace, and accidentally fell off. When 1 say shallow, I mean for such a wide body of water. It was over my head by two or three feet I saw nobody near me and could not swim a stroke. I knew how deep the water was, and gave myself up MauRMUm frequehtly been noted, but still, without experience, no one can realize it. It is as if one’s whole life were spread out in a panorama before him, every portion of which was visible at once. Even minute details of things long forgotten, and which when.thejLliappeufid were ap M l Zt ?n **metnoiy, stand onc***tn sharp and bold I remembered, once made periment, and the satisfaction I experienced at the retributive justice. It seemed as if everything I had ever done, suffered or thought, was presented to my memory at a single flash. roar of Niagara, burst on my ears and stunned me with Jits overwhelming volume. I remember a brief instant of struggling and clutching, and then a sease of sinking—sinking—sinking—until I had reached a depth of thousands of fathoms. I neither suffered pain nor felt alarm, but ffne which would be teriible. 'Suddenly I found myself pop*esse#.ofc the power ©f floating, or weeing CT* aionghy mere volition. With a delicious feeling of languid indolence I suffered myself to float about—not in the water, but in the air—sbinyning over of the S<L •¥ was’ conscioiuHiwuWM ±nes power, and I exulted in its possession and reasoned on its nature. I found that my body was as light as the air in which it moved, and imagined that a thistle-down would feel as I did, if possessed of consciousness. Then I was in the water affdft; and.everothing iMKHIhd me h&fla rSto^e^i“*>e7^changerto freen, then to violet, and finally to utter arkness, and then all was blank. As 1 subsequently learned, some men in a skiff half a mile away had seen me fall into the water and hurried to my assistance, hut I had long before half hour afterward before ttte physicians, who had been summoned, arrived, XUuy MfhMi, any attempt to resuscitate me was due solely to the persistence of an intimate friend of mine who had accompanied them. t?ekrly a dozen -yfiartTffter &e*&bove e*p<*rience I becafog a’feifAen pf ana commenced opening a new rarm in a sparsely settled country. The place was about tea miles from the nearest town, and one pleasant day near the last of December I went to the latter in a light spring wagon to get some supplies for Christmas festivities. The day was so coat tfie time I started home, which was a little after sundown, it began to grow suddenly cold and presently a storm, almost amounting to a hurricane, broke from the north, bringing with it the temperature of Nova Zembla. In this region of marked climatic vicissiforty degrees below zero. Under ordinary dtfcufhstancea l equld "feasily- hg"W Safe could make but little over half the usual speed. 1 suffered severely from the cold, e in a couple of miles of there, I found the weather growing pleasant again. My ears, that had stung and smarted with the cold, no longer troubled me. My hands, though still numb, had a firm grip of the comfortable, except that I was so drowsy that I could scarcely keep awake. I comforted myself with the reflection that I would soon be at home snugly tucked in bed, where 1 could sleep to my heart’s content. Whilst indulging in this pleasThey liad concluded mat, finding Jjhe had returned there for that purpose in case I had started home before the cold began. At eight o’clock, having given that it was ours but took it for a stray, and from motives of humanity called up one of the men and ordered it to be put in the stable. When the man went out and MS frozen stiff, he made an outcry that soon - brought out the household. Fortunately my wife had recently been reading of the .SSK&ESS rubbed with snow,. Plenty of .snow had ZS& within!!?! of animation. Then friction switkcAamt l>ody Seem^as^en^^*^^^^ 8 as if I had been stung all over with wasps or hornets until I was a swollen pulp,

[ ready tAbunt at augrprflnt' Ilk# an overscrewed In rod-hot vjscfi till the Mood was ready to ooze out "from the extremities, and I could scarcely persuade myself that my finger .and toe-nails were not being forced off by4he>pr*asure. Inoon became delirious and a raging fever set In, from which* did not recover for weeks- But when fdig recover my physical condition was better than ever before. I had been slim and’ almost puny liefoi o. but I be■saw? Sk'iM'jl verge of death. Cold,, to. undoubtedly Invigorating, but even with Ay experience fwould advifioth* generality of persons to taka it to Uwhfo iiouM-S»-