WHAT HANGING IS LIKE.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 273, 15 May 1886, Page 4

WHAT HANGING IS LIKE.

[By One Who Has Tried It.]

The following account of the sensations of hanging is sent up by a correspondent who is a member of a kind of 44 suicide Club," and was actually, he says, partly hung the other day, in the presence of several friends:—

A good stout rope had been obtained. This was securely fastened to the rafters of the barn roof. I pulled at the rope with my hands to make sure that it would not break. Then I permitted myself to be blindfolded and mounted on a chair. For the moment, I admit, I was weak enough to turn pale and tremble. I soon, however, recovered my presence of mind. Putting my head through the noose, I gave the signal. I felt the chair drawn from under me. There was a great jerk, and I felt a violent pain in my neck, as though my scarf had all of a sudden become too tight. Now comes the most curious part of my experience. After the first feeling of torture, which, I admit, was decidedly severe, I lost consciousness. I seemed to be transported into a new world, more beautiful than anything imagined by the poets. I was swimming, methought, in a sea of oil. The feeling was exquisitely delicious. As I swam easily and witliout effort through the liquid mass, I noticed afar off an island of the most glorious emerald green in color. This it was my wish to reach. I swam lazily and contentedly 011. The sea kept every instant changits hue, though it remained of the same substance throughout. At one instant it was a mass of gold, as though the sun were shining brilliantly on it. The next moment it was a vivid blood-red; but there was nothing terrible or disgusting in this new color. It kept changing, in fact, to all the hues of the rainbow, yellow and red being the predominant tints. I got nearer and nearer to the isle. As I approached it there sprung out suddenly from the ground a number of people strangely transfixed, whose faces seemed to be known to me. I at last reached the land. A magnificent chorus of voices, human and those of birds, burst forth. I closed my eyes in ecstasy. I floated calmly on to the shore, and lay as a child in its cradle, slightly weakened from, as I supposed, the enervating effect of the oily matter in which I had been swimming. At last I opened my eyes. The magic charm was at once dispelled. The divine harmony ceased. The faces were still peering at me with an expression of eager curiosity, but I perceived that they belonged to the members of our society. The pain in my neck was great. I was now in entire possession of my senses. My friends had fortunately cut me down in time. I was still weak—too weak to at once relieve my friends' curiosity. When I was able to speak I told them my experiences. Though I drew a charming picture of the bliss which I had felt, not one of them would consent to try my experiment. They all considered my conduct heroic, but absolutely refused to emulate me. They said I looked so ghastly!