The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

BOSTON, November 14.

DEATH BY FRIGHT

We some time since noticed mention made of the death of a child in Virginia, occasioned by fright. The circumstances which led to this dreadful catastrophe were not of unusual occurrence. The child was playing with its companions, and was told by them, in sport, that a rag-man was about to carry him off in his bag. Alarmed with fear, the child ran into the house, when the object of his terror, unfortunately also coming into the house. he uttered a shriek and instantly expired. This is not the first nor only instance of the fatal consequences of fright upon children, and even upon adults peculiarly susceptible of fear. A case is now present to our recollection, of a young woman, whose mind has been entirely unsettled and who has been doomed to a life of idiocy, by the unprincipled folly of a young man, who was endeavouring to make sport of her fears. Such conduct has no apology. He who is guilty of it, is in conscience as accountable for its consequences, as he who levels a deadly weapon and destroys the life of a fellow-creature. Reflecting upon the unfortunate fate of this child, whose death we have just mentioned, will not prudent mothers, the guardians of infant children, abstain from the foolish, yet frequent practice of alarming the fears of young children? We never hear the fond parent tell the naughty child, "Be good, or I will give you to the negro man, to the rag-man," &c. without reflecting that these unmeaning threats may doom the little innocent to a life, made miserable by unnecessary fears, and perhaps unintentionally be the means of terminating its existence by a fate, similar to the one we have just recorded.