WHAT HANGING IS LIKE. A Mistake a Band of Lynchers. Cut Down in Time.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 142, 20 February 1886, Page 5

WHAT HANGING IS LIKE. A Mistake a Band of Lynchers. Cut Down in Time.

Tub following account of the sensations of hanging was sent to a New York paper by a correspondent who was actually partly hung in Missouri by a mistaken band of lynchers :—: — A good stout rope had been obtained. It was securely fastened to the rafters of the bridge. Then I was blindfolded and mounted on a log. For the moment, I admit, I was weak enough to turn palo and tremble. I soon, however, recovered my presence of mind, I felt tb« log drawn from under me. There waa a great jerk, and I felt a violent pain in my neck, as though my scarf had all of a sudden become tco tight. Now comes the most curious part of my experience. After the first feeling of torture, which I admit waa decidedly severe I lost consciousness, and seemed to be transported into a new world more beautiful than anything imagined by the poets. I was swimming, mothought, in a Eea of oil. The feeling was exquisitely delicious. As I swam easily and without effort through tho liquid mass, I noticed afar off an island of the most glorious emerald green in colour. This it was my "wish to reach. I swam lazily and contentedly on. The sea kept every insfcanfc changing its hue, though ifc remained of the same substance throughout. At one instant it was a mass of gold, as though tho sun were shining brilliantly on it, The nsxt moment it was a livid blood-red; but there was nothing terrible or disgusting in this new colour. It kept changing, in fact, to all the hues of the rainbow, yellow and red being the pre] dominant tints. 1 got nearer and nearer to the isle. As I approached it there sprang out suddenly from the ground a number of people strangely transfigured, whose facea 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 ecsta?y. I floated calmly on to the &horo, and lay as a child in its cradle, slightly weakened fiom, as I supposed, the enervating effect of the oily matter in which I had been swimming. At last I opened my eye?. 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 porceived that they belonged to the members of the band. The pain in my neck was great. I was now in entire possession of my sensas. I had fortunately been cut down in time.