Show I SENSATIONS OF DROWNING The Experiences nf a Alan AVho Barely Escaped Es-caped Watery Grave When the water rushed into my lungs and stomach it felt for all the world like a pleurisy pain which has also given me a tussle in later years but was over in a second writes man who was once nearly drowned Then my body settled quietly to the bottom and my arms fell limp by my side In my half conscious condition I could see all my relatives and acquaintances crowding crowd-ing about mo and looking down on me with tearful faces All the events it seemed of my career passed slowly in review and the good bad and indifferent indiffer-ent acts stood out before me in bold relief re-lief I knew I was drowning and remember re-member thinking Why this is not so hard after all I wondered where my body would be foundand shuddered at the thought that it might never be found I also wondered won-dered whether or not my companion had become alarm d and run away and left me to my fate or whether ho was diving div-ing here and there to find me Then I pictured my burial and how the clods would resound on my coffin when it was lowered into the grave and my fate would be pointed out to other boys by anxious mothers as a warning At the next stage I could hear bells softly ringing in the distance together with little tinkliugs and chirrups sound ing in my ears Then I began to see pretty pictures The colors of the rainbow rain-bow danced before my eyes and intermingled inter-mingled and formed into all sorts of odd shapes I had no pain and no fear of what was expected to follow I seemed seem-ed to be enchanted at the scene before me Everything was light and calm and moved about without any visible impelling force It was like looking Into a large mirorr with every beautiful thing that the most vivid imagination could conjure up revealed thereby The last stage that I entered increased increas-ed the beauty of the surroundings All discordant noises ceased and were superseded super-seded by the softest sweetest musio that could be thought of Apparently I had been transported to a place flooded with right calm sunshine It was neithej MCht 2 w to n j i AlflM a mtfoW 7Th ems utamn dayJThen I setffied to rise from the ground and float off into space like thistle down Higher and higher I went until I seemed to lookdown look-down on the world from a great height and then came a blank The next thing I knew I was lying on the raft with my companion looking down on me with a pale faceNew York Journal |