AN AUSTRALIAN WAKE..

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 69, 3 July 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

AN AUSTRALIAN WAKE..

The case of Ryan against a man rejoicing in the unusual name of Abel Death, was of this extraordinary character. 1 lie?,reader may start—as T own at first I did—when I found I had to deal with such a bill of particulars as the following i-tems, which disclosed that a mar. was summoned before me to pay for spirits drunk at his own wake, and that the waked man stood on the floor before me as defendant. The bill was of this character: —" Abel Death, farmer, debtor to Phillip Ryan, publican. For sundry spirituous liquors furnished for the wake of Abel Death, and drunk thereat, L 3 10s; six ponnds of tobacco, pipes, and cigars, L 3 ; total, L 6 10s." The facts of the above case were these :—Death, the defendant, came home one day, and was suddenly seized with an attack of delirium tr'emens. Mrs. Death became alarmed, and sent for the doctor, an ex-convict, residing at the neighboring town seven miles off. The doctor was quickly in attendance, and on inspection of the patient, declared the case to be hopeless. He pronounced it to present a complication of maladies beyond his medical skill to cure. It exhibited, he said, manifestations of sanguinous apoplexy, combined with half-a-dozen other incurable symptoms, not one word of which Mrs. Death understood. However, it was enough for Mrs. Death to know that her Death must die that evening ; and the doctor advised that the best thing that could be done was to allow him to die in peace. For this purpose he recommended the patient should be removed to a barn or outhouse, and there laid upon a bed until the vital spark had fled. He was accordingly removed ; and Mrs. Death, desirous that every honour after the fashion of her country (Ireland to wit) should be paid to her Death, told the doctor there should be a " fine wake" that night. To this the doctor assented, anl moreover accepted an invitation to attend the wake. As it would have taken some time to go to town and^purchase the " funeral bakerneats/' or rather funeral beverage, Mrs. Death prevailed upon the doctor to write an order to a publican in town to furnish suitable supplies as specified in the above bill of particulars. With this requisition the doctor complied, and towards evening the messenger came back with the goods as ordered. A. hasty visit to the patient found him moti nle?s, with _ his. ejfrsr"closed, symptoms, as the doctor said, that usually precede the calam-tous event at hand. It was agreed amongst the par ty—consisting of Mrs. Death, the doctor, and four or five convict servants in Death's employ—-that the preeence of death should be dispensed with, and that they should wake him b| proxy. Acoordingly, a bed was placed in the room of the house in which they assembled, on which Death's My was supposed to be placed, as *' ajpleasure of the imagination." The otlier parts of the ceremony were complied with strictly. The tobacco pipes and spirit bottles were in constant requisition throughout the night, and the intemperate carousal lasted until morning. By that time the party fell asleep, and by that time also Death redirivus was restored to his senses. He had a sound sleep ; the sudden and severe attack of delirium tremens which he had provoked by three days booze at a neighbor's house abated, and he was soon "himself again.'' He got up, and entering his house was astonished at the display of bottlos before him, and not less so by the number of sleeping partners in establishment. They woke up, and the were at. first inclined to take him for a ghost, as they had looked upon the doctor as an infallible prophet, whose prediction of Death's death that night was sure to be verified. He was determined, however, to convince them that it was no ghost, but Death himself. He seized the poker for offence or defence, as the exigency of the occasion might require, and soon brought the whole party to their bearings. On these facts being proved with as much gravity as the nature of the csse admitted, I dismissed the claim against Death, adding, to the plaintifTs inquiry, " who was to pay for the liquor?'' " I suppose the party who ordered it." "On this hint lie spake.'' Six months afterwards, in the same town, the doctor figured as the defendant at the suit of the same pi lintiff for the same item. The docioi's defence was that he only obeyed the bidding of Mrs Death in writing the order ; but I held that, though the doctor was protected as to any medical prescription he might write, yet he had no authority to drench Mrs Death's and all Death's men (the doctor inclusively) at his patient's expense and spirits. Accordingly, I made him pay the bill. The only honest claim he had upon his patient was for rendering him the service of leaving him alone. — Thirty Years' Residence in New South Wales and Victoria, by R. Therry, Esq.