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Domestic News
September 23, 1855
The Daily Union
Washington, District Of Columbia
What is this article about?
Extract from a Norfolk letter recounts a terrifying scene of nursing a raving, dying man who threatened the attendant and yelled 'fire,' dying during a fierce thunderstorm while his 85-year-old mother agonized nearby.
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Full Text
A THRILLING SCENE.—Extract from a Norfolk letter:
"Hardened as I thought I was by two weeks' residence among the dying and the dead, I could not resist a thrill of horror that overwhelmed me on one occasion, when attending a dying man, who was a raving maniac, and threatened my life because I would not let him get up; and to raise an alarm would every now and then cry fire with a most unearthly yell. And to add to all this, just as he was breathing his last a tremendous thunder-cloud came up, accompanied by the loudest clap of thunder I ever heard. I assure you my feelings were anything but pleasant at that time, during which his poor mother, 85 years of age, was wringing her hands and walking the floor in the greatest agony. It would have required a man with a heart of stone to have resisted shedding a few tears of sympathy with this poor woman, whose heart seemed to be broken."
"Hardened as I thought I was by two weeks' residence among the dying and the dead, I could not resist a thrill of horror that overwhelmed me on one occasion, when attending a dying man, who was a raving maniac, and threatened my life because I would not let him get up; and to raise an alarm would every now and then cry fire with a most unearthly yell. And to add to all this, just as he was breathing his last a tremendous thunder-cloud came up, accompanied by the loudest clap of thunder I ever heard. I assure you my feelings were anything but pleasant at that time, during which his poor mother, 85 years of age, was wringing her hands and walking the floor in the greatest agony. It would have required a man with a heart of stone to have resisted shedding a few tears of sympathy with this poor woman, whose heart seemed to be broken."
What sub-type of article is it?
Death Or Funeral
Disease Or Epidemic
What keywords are associated?
Norfolk Letter
Dying Maniac
Thunderstorm Death
Elderly Mother Distress
What entities or persons were involved?
Dying Man
His Mother
Where did it happen?
Norfolk
Domestic News Details
Primary Location
Norfolk
Key Persons
Dying Man
His Mother
Outcome
the dying man breathed his last.
Event Details
The narrator, hardened by two weeks among the dying and dead, experienced horror while attending a raving maniacal dying man who threatened the narrator's life, cried fire to raise alarm, and died amid a thunderstorm; the man's 85-year-old mother was in agony, wringing her hands.