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Show How It Feels lo Be Tlanged. In the Wide World Magazine, Richard Rich-ard Hicks, an old-time actor, tells of his narrow escape from being hanged on the stage of the Queen's Theater, Dublin. He was playing the part of Achmet, a particularly villainous character, who, after a long career of crime, is, to the general satisfaction of the audience, captured by two British soldiers and promptly hanged. "One night, while struggling with my captors, cap-tors, the rope slipped from my shoulders shoul-ders and knotted itself round my neck, Just as I wis being hauled up," says Mr. Hicks. "Never shall I forget that awful moment. Directly I felt the tug at my neck I gave a convulsive kick and tried to shout 'Stop!' but the word could not escape from my twitching twitch-ing lips. I could only make a gurgling noise. Frantically I kicked and struggled. strug-gled. Pain there was none, strangely enough, beyond a choking, suffocating sensation, and I could hear the tumultuous tu-multuous applause of the audience.who were hugely entertained with what they imagined was my realistic acting. Then a terrible sensation, like molten lead rushing down my spine, pervaded per-vaded my body, and I thought my legs were bursting. I gave another mighty struggle and strove ah! how I strove to scream. I seemed to behold a mighty rush of green water, and my ears were filled with the roar of a cataract. I have a dim recollection of seeing a great crimson sun shining dimly from behind the waterfall, and I can remember falling indefinitely through space. Two days afterward I recovered consciousness, and then I suffered indescribable agony. The suffocating suf-focating sensation still remained, but it was accompanied by an unquenchable unquencha-ble thirst, not to mention fearful pains in my body and limbs." |