The free South. (Beaufort, S.C.) 1863-1864, August 29, 1863, Image 4
VOL. L
IF!
Ah ! dearest, if our tears were shed
Only for our beloved dead;
Although our Life's left incomplete.
Tears would not be so bitter, sweet,
As uow! ?ah ! no.
Ah! dearest, if the friends who die
Alone were those who make us sigh;
Although Life's current is so fleet,
Sighs would not be so weary, sweet,
As uow! -ah! no.
Ifoft more pain it did not ?rive
To know that our beloved live.
Than learn their hearts have ceased to beat,
Clrief would not be so hopeless, sweet,
As now!?ah ! no.
THE MANIAC DOCTOR.
JLm Adventure in a Railway Caritefe.
It mast be confessed that it is a very
provoking thing to receive a letter on
Christmas morning, calling you two hundred
miles away on " immediate and important
business." Yes, it is a very provoking
thing, indeed?at least, so I found
it, both in anticipation and in very deed ;
but there was no help for it. Snooks, my
lawyer, wrote and told me that if, on the
25th, I was not at C , I should probably
lose?never mind what, but something
which induced me to pack my portmanteau
in all haste, send for a hansom,
and drive to the X. Y. Z. station. When
I arrived there, I found that I was just
too late for the train I had come to catch,
and that the next one did not start for
three-quarters of an hour. Inwardly cursing
my ill-fortune, I went to the waitingroom,
and endeavored to make myself as
comfortable as I could ; but despite all
my attempts, I think I never knew time
to pass so slowly in all my life, except a
certain twenty minutes about which I am
going to tell.
Although, as I said, the time went very
slowly, nevertheless, it did go ; and, in
process of time, I found myself snuglv
ensconced in a first class carriage, which
had but one occupant besides myself, a
cheerful looking, little, old man, with
gray hair and a strange, restless look
about the eyes. Directly I got into the
carriage, he addressed me in a familiar
"way:
44 A merry Christmas to you !"
??rr>?o Rjimft to vou."saitl I. rather gruff
]y, as I was not in the best of humor, and j
did not feel inclined to be cheerful or
neighborly.
"Why, bless me ! sir," said the little
old man, renewing the attack, "you
haven't anything wherewith to keep yourself
warm on this cold winter's day ; allow
me to offer you one of my traveling wrappers
; I always take care to be well pro- I
vided with such things when I go on a
journey." And my companion took from
his side a rolled-up rug, unrolled it, and
taking a small mahogany box from the
folds, threw the rug to me.
"Thank you, sir," said I, feeling in
spite of myself a shade more cheerful.
O, no thanks, no thanks ; I do it for
my own benefit, not for yours, I assure
It
you.
" How do you make out that ?"
"Why, I like to have a comfortable
face opposite me ; and, besides, the grand
experiment you know."
" "What grand experiment ?" I said,
somewhat startled by the man's excited
* inaijner.
" O,* nothing, nothing," said he, coloring*
violently ; " only that is to say?exactly,
are you a Freemason ?"
"No, sir.',
a Tiv<*?m?srm ? Whv. bless me !
you ought most certainly to become one."
Why so?"
'Because you would then know that
they've got a sort of?that is to say?in
fact, a secret."
' I know that already."
Really? I declare you are the most
jextraordinary man I have ever met; wMl
I've got a secret too, and that's my grand
experiment."
As it's a secret, I suppose you will
not tell me what it is ?"
'O, yes, I will though, but?perhaps I
lad better not; never mind I'll tell you :
it is simidy this, to discover what are the
different feelings of different persons on
different occasions."
*I should hardly call that an experiment"
Wouldn't you, now ? Curious that;
yes, very curious, for, to tell you the
irnth, I don't myself know whether I am
Suite justified in calling it an experiment,
lut enough of that matter for the present.
"Mav I ask where you are going to V"
"To C i
" Have you friends there ?"
" None, I am sorry to say. I am called
there on some disagreeable, though
important business.''
" Then may I have the pleasure cf your
tompany to dinner when we arrive tl ere ?"
41 Thank you; I shall have the gieatest
THE FREE SOUTH, SAT1
pleasure in accepting your kind invitation."'
"By-the-by, do yon know how many
times we stop before we reach C ?"
"Only twice, as this is an express
train ; once at M , at 2 o'clock, and
the second time at F , at 5."
ti rtWrt slllA of. / 1
AUU YVI1CI1 iUC mc uuv uv v/
"At half past six, I believe."
"Thank you."
"Thus, for a time, our conversation
ended, but we often renewed it again, and
I began to regard my companion as a
clever, kind-hearted, thoug rather eccentric
old man.
Some time after we had passed M ,
my eccentric friend composed himself
for a sleep, and was soon snoring, and it I
was not long before I followed his exam- j
pie, but my dreams were troubled. First
of all, I dreampt that I was being hung : I
then that I was being handcuffed ; and, I
last of all, that a great weight was upon
me, and that something was pressing '
heavily upon my chest. I then woke with
a start, to find myself bound band and
foot, with a rope passed round my neck,
and fastened to the umbrella rack behind,
in such a manner that, if I struggled in
the least, I should inevitably choke myself
; and my fellow traveller was standing
over me, with one knee on my chest.
44 "What! are you going?" said I; but
my sentence was cut short by a gag, which
my eccentric friend thrust into my mouth
aud tied behind my head. He then stood
away to look at his handiwork, with eyes
glaring like those of a wild beast, and his
whole frame trembling with excitement.
"Now," he said with a wild laugh,
" now I shall be able to trv mv grand ex
periment! now I shall be able to find out
whether the heart can be extracted while
a man is alive without killing him ! Twice
I have failed, but the stars ha've told me
that a third time I shall not fail. 0 fame,
glory, 'immortality, I have you in my
grasp ! What! pitiful fool, do you turn
phle and tremble ? If you do die, you
will die a glorious martyr to science ; if
you live, you and I will share the glory of
this grand discovery !"
From tliis ridiculous rhodomontade I
perceived that my pleasant eccentric traveling
companion was a raving maniac.
What was I to do ? I could not move
hand or foot, or even speak, and the
madman was arranging on the seat
in front of me a collection of bright steel
instruments, which he took from the mahogany
box which I have mentioned before.
Was there any hope for me ? I
tried to remember how long it was after
we left M before I went asleep, as
I thought that if we only got to F
the mauiac would be discovered, and I
should l>e relieved from the horrible death
which now seemed imminent; but as I
had been dozing sometime before I went
regularly off to sleep, I found that I could
not in the least remember what time had
passed.
After some time spent in preparing his
instruments, my persecutor began to prepare
me by unbuttoning my waistcoat
aad baring my breast. At length everything
seemed to be to his satisfaction, and
he took up a sharp, keen-bladed knife. I
shall never forget my sensations when I
saw that little glittering instrument, so
soon to be dyed with my blood. I felt a
cold shudder run all through my body,
and I longed to close my eyes, bnt they
seemed to keep open by a sort of horrible
fascination. After trying the edge of the
knife, and preparing a cloth, and giving
one final look to his instruments, my
eccentric friend pressed his finger close ;
above my heart, and said :
"This is how I am going to manage it, !
my friend ; I am going to cut a circle in I
the flesh, about the heart, with this knife ; j
it will not hurt much, as I shall only just
cut through the skin, and the knife is exceedingly
sharp. I shall then proceed to
dig deeper with this instrument, and finally
extract the heart with this !"
The reader may imagine my sensations
during this cold-blooded recital, for I am
utterly unable to describe them; but
when the sharp steel first pierced my
flesh, and I felt the worm blood nowmg
out, all my past life seemed seemed to
pats before my mlud in a moment of time,
only to make my desire of still living, and
the horror of an i0nominous death tenfold.
Slowly the sharp knife plowed in my
flesh, making my blood freeze in the
veins, and my eyeballs burn and feel ready !
to burst from their sockets, and now I j
felt my reason gradually leaving me ; the
strain upon my nerves was too much? J
they must give wav ; but I considered
that, if they did, m/only hope would be
gone ; for if I moved I should be choked
with the rope round my neck.
Slowly the sharp knife, impelled by the
steady hand, continued its deadly course.;
and now the circle was nearly accomplished,
when I felt that the speed of the train
was bein? gradually diminished. A ray
of hope illumined my breast. I looked
DRDAT, AUGUST 29, 1863.
into my corapanionion's eyes to see if he,
too, noticed that we were nearing F ;
but he was too intent on his horrible work.
At length he leaned back, and said :
"There now, only about an inch more,
and I shall commence the deep cutting !"
Only about an inch ! And the station
was yet some way off. Only about an
i inch ! My life hung upon the merest
thread.
It was not long that tlie experimenter
admired his diabolical work, he soon fell
to it airain ; but I sa^y the lights on F
station flash past the window of the carriage.
I saw a strange arm seize my tormentor
; I heard a loud and appalling cry
like that of a baffled wild beast, and I be
! came insensible.
For weeks after this I lay between life
I and death, in a brain fever, brought on
! by the intense excitement and fear of
those twenty minutes.
A True L?ve Story.
Cobbett tells us how an Euglish yeoman
loved and courted, and how he was loved
j in return ; and a prettier episode does
i not exist in the English language. Talk
! of private memoirs of courts?the gossip
! of the cottage is worth them all. Cobi
bett, who was a sergeant-major in a regii
ment of foot, fell in love with the daugh
ter of a sergeant of artillery, then in the
! same province of New Brunswick. He
1 had not passed more than an hour in her
company, when, noticing her modesty,
| quietude, and her sobriety, he said,
| " that's the girl for me." The next morni
ing he was up early, and almost before it
was light passed the sergeant's house, j
There she was on the snow scrubbing out j
a washing tub. " That's the girl for me," ;
1 again cried Cobbett, although she was i
not more than fourteen, and lie was near- I
ly twenty-one.
"From the day I first spoke to her,"
he writes, "Ihad no more thought of
her being the wife of any other man than i
I had the thought of her becoming a chest j
of drawers." He paid every attention to j
! her, and, young as she was, treated her j
with all confidence. He spoke to her as
his friend, his second self. But in six j
j months the artillery were ordered to Eu!
land, and her father with them. Here J
was indeed a blow. Cobbett knew what I
! Wnrtlwi/'li xvjis r.nd what temnhition a '
young a pretty girl would be sure to un- t
dergo. He therefore took to her his t
i whole fortuue, one hundred and fifty I
| guineas, the savings of his pay and over- '
! work, and wrote to tell her that if she did
not find her place comfortable to take
i lodgings, and put herself to school, and
| not to work too hard, for he would be
I home in two years. "But," as he says,
[ "as the malignity of the devil would have
it, wc were kept abroad two years longer
! than our time, Mr. Pitt having knocked
up adust with Spain about Nootka Sound.
O, how I cursed Nootka Sound, and poor
bawling Pitt." But at the end of four
years Cobbett got his discharge.
He found his little girl a servant of all
work, at five pounds a year, in the house
of a Captain Brisac, and, without saying
a word about the matter, she put into his
hands the whole of the hundred and fifty
guineas unbroken !
What a pretty, tender picture is that !?
the young sergeant, and the little girl of
eigUieeil, Wliu 11UU tvcpl iui iuui jcno iuc
treasure untouched, waiting with patience
her lover's return ! What kindly, pure
trust on both sides. The historical painters
of our Boval Academy give us scenes
from English History of intrigue and bloodshed.
Why can they not give us a scene
of true English courtship like that ? Cobbett,
who knew how to write sterling English
better than any man of his own day,
and most in^n of ours, does not forget to
enlarge upon the scene, and dearly he
loved his wife for her share of it; but he
does not forget to add that with this love
was mixed self-gratulatiou 011 this indubitable
proof of the soundness of his
own judgment."
Preserve the Newspapers.?We earnestly
urge upon our readers the propriety
of preserving the files of newspapers now
published in a durable form. They contain
:.n invaluable record of pat ing events,
and shadow forth more truthfully than j
inv inhsenrent historv can do. the nnn- i
ciples, feeling and opinions which uffcct
the great conflict in which the nation is
now involved.
Two gentlemen of the bar were wending
their way home one night, when one
drunker than the other, was nabbed by
the Charlies and put in the lockup. A
friend on learning the mishap, asked the
other why he did not bail his companion
out.
44 Bail him out," said the lawyer, "you
could not pump him out."
Mean souls, like mean pictures, are
often found in good-look frames. 1
NOl34.
*
Miscellaneous Items.
It is a fact creditable to barnyard
nature, that while curses come home to
roost, roosters never come home to curse.
Why would a battalion of ladies be perfectly
safe in action ? Because cotton
breastworks are impenetrable to balls.
If the storm of adversity whistle around
you, whistle as bravely yourself; perhaj**
the two whistles may make melody.
A Missouri paper says that the Digger *
Indians are never known to smile. They
must be grave Diggers.
A New Orleans paper says: "A tnur
Union womau is like the suggar we soipetimes
get-a combination of sweetness and"
grit,"
A wisa rrtfin thinks none bis snnorior
tvlio lias done him ail injury, for lie has
it then in his power to make himself superior
by forgiving it.
A lady editor in the east says that if the
men want their children to look like them,,
the fewer jaunts they make to California
the better.
Fire is a good tiling in the house ; but
it should be in the chimney and not in
the wife's temper?cooking the victuals.
not roasting the husband.
Would you not have known this boy to?
be my son from his re^mblance to me T*~
asked a gentleman. Mr. Curran answered
: "Yes, sir; thtwnaker's name isstamped
upon the blade."
A preacher once said that ladies were
very timid ; they were afraid to sing when'
they were asked; afraid of taking cold ; .
afraid of snails and spffters?but he never *
knew one afraid to get married.
A paper describing a counterfeit bank
bill, says the vignette 4'is cattle and hogs, .
with a church in the distance." "A good:
illustration of the world," adds the Boston?.
Transcript,
" My dear," said one of thoso mature*
husbands to his lovely young wife, "supposing
I should be conscripted and could
not tind a substitute V" "Never mind,,
my lovt*" replied the angel, "I could
find a substitute, if you couldn't!"
A man advertises himself in a Philadelphia
paper as " a great natural bone-set- ter."
Vanity Fair remarks that what we*
want is a great national bone-breaker, to break
the backbone of this rebellion.?
Gen. Meade is the man.
Jones, since his marriage, lias taken to*
talk slightfully of the holy estate. Brown
was telhmr him of the death of a mutual
friend's wife whom "the disconsolate"
had courted twenty-eight years and then
married. She turned out to be a perfect
virago, but died two years after the wedding.
44 There's luck !" said Jones; 44seewhat
the fellow escaped by a long courtship
!"
THE FREE~SODTHT
PUBLISHED EVERY
Saturday Morninf^
AT BEAUFORT, S. C.
Wilkes 6c Thompson - - - Proprictors*James
6* Thompson - - - - Editor*C.
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(Who la author ial to receive eubscriptioiuj.)
3. M. PETTINGILL & CO., No. 6 State street, Boston,
M&jm., Agents.
TERM S?Two Lollajuj per annum, in advances
JOB PRINTING
OF EVERY DESCRIPTION
NEATLY I)ONE AT THIS OFEZCENEW
GOODS. ~
Messrs. G. Bobbins & CoHAVE
JUST RECEIVED, DIRECT FROM NEW
YORK?
Gent's Boots and Shoes, most de?
sirable styles, also
Hosiery?Ladies and gents.
White and other Gloves.
Violin and Guitar Strings.
Mnsqulto Netting, different patAmerican
Watches, for which wo*
end ageueral assortment of new
goods suitable for this department, to which attention ia*
respectfully called.
SLITS OF CLOTHES MADE TO ORDER by corcpc
tent workmen?tit warranted.
fr~coldiers baying Caps and Boots will get the Colonel's
order when coming to cs as per orders from
Headquarters?otherwise none can be sold. n27
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Slittler* Ticket#?Fire, Ten, Twenty-five
and Fifty cent#?on hand and neatly printed
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