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Page 62
"Pym scarcely heard the word 'farewell;' for he was crossing the
threshold of the house as Masus�lili uttered it, and Peters was turning
to follow. They ran as rapidly as the snow and the cutting wind would
permit, and had covered the necessary three miles in about half an hour.
The air was growing intensely cold. They met a party of three exiles,
who were helping to scour the city for any food that might have been
left in deserted homes. These men informed Pym that, in spite of the
promptitude and haste of the rescue parties, more than a hundred persons
had been frozen to death; and that frozen hands and feet by the thousand
had been reported. The Hili-lites were so extremely susceptible to cold
that, at a temperature of 20� Fahrenheit, if they were not well
protected by clothing, they soon became drowsy, then slept, and, if not
found and resuscitated within a very short time, died. One case was
reported in which a woman, only six hundred feet from one of the rescue
stations, was frozen to death in somewhat less than an hour, though she
must have been thoroughly chilled when last seen in an apparently
natural condition. During the day a party of three exiles, whilst on one
of their rounds, had visited the house of this poor woman, and had
carried her three children to the nearest station; and the woman
herself, who was at the time hurrying about the room gathering together
a few articles, it was supposed had followed close behind them. In this
way she was overlooked, until, in the somewhat crowded room to which the
children were taken, the youngest child, a little girl of four years,
broke into tears and began to cry out for her mother. Then two men
hastened back, and found the woman unconscious and apparently dead. The
usual methods of resuscitation were inaugurated, and long continued, but
the woman could not be revived.
"Peters says that he has during his life-time seen a number of persons
who were frozen, several of them fatally; of which a part were in the
Eastern States, others in the far north; and that these Hili-lites froze
to death very differently from those in the northern part of the north
temperate zone. He mentions the case of a Canadian who was exposed to
extreme cold during a whole night. When found, the poor fellow was not
only unconscious, but apparently dead. The arms and legs were frozen
through and through, and the entire body was rigid. He was resuscitated,
but afterwards lost his hands and feet. In Hili-li persons lost their
lives from exposure to cold whose bodies were very little--a few of them
not at all--frozen. The explanation of this difference is to be found in
the fact that an animal dies when bodily temperature in the interior of
the body reaches a certain degree of reduction, which point of reduction
in the Hili-lites is much less than in persons habituated to life in a
colder climate. In persons accustomed to a climate as warm as that of
Hili-li, the heat-producing functions are feeble, and the heat-expelling
functions are very active; but this does not fully explain why, in
Peters' words, 'the people there froze to death without freezing.' Any
person dying as a result of exposure to cold, dies long before any of
the vital organs are frozen; and the Hili-lites no doubt ceased to live
with a reduction of bodily temperature which would not have seriously
inconvenienced a resident of Scotland or Canada. In the storm of which
we speak, the people were nervously depressed as a result of fright.
However, from all I can gather, the temperature was at times certainly
as low as 40� Fahrenheit below freezing, at which degree almost any
thinly clad person might freeze to death.
"But the hour is late, and, though I had expected to close Peters' story
this evening, such a conclusion is, owing to my prolixity, scarcely
practicable. If you still expect to start for home in three days, I
shall certainly in one more evening complete the telling of Peters'
experiences in Hili-li. The day after tomorrow I shall be engaged during
the entire evening, and if we delay our next meeting till the following
evening--your last in Bellevue--it is possible that something may happen
to prevent our meeting; so, if you are willing, my next and last visit
to you here shall be tomorrow evening."
I expressed my satisfaction with the arrangement, and he took his leave.
The following morning, I gave to Arthur, in my own way, an account of
the storm in Hili-li, meanwhile leisurely dressing--a performance which,
except under pressure, I have never in the morning been able unaided to
accomplish in less than an hour. I had completed my toilet, but not my
story, when in rushed Castleton.
After a little general conversation, I seemed naturally to return to the
Peters story; and now, in a five-minute talk, I so closed it to the
point reached by Bainbridge as to satisfy Arthur, and not weary the
restless doctor. As I ended, Castleton said:
"I didn't get in to see you yesterday. The last time I was in we were
talking of names; and to tell you the truth, it was a matter of names
that held me back yesterday at the very time I was going to come up. You
see, I have an old friend here in town, ----; you've no doubt heard of
him--ex-member of Congress, and as good as appointed Minister to
Venezuela right now. A scholar of the deepest erudition; a speaker and
writer of great force and nicety, and of exquisite literary taste.
Yesterday we met, and during our talk he told me that his book, the
result of many years of thought, was completed. Now, for my part, I
never believed that a rose would smell as sweet as it does if we called
it a turnip. If Poe had, instead of 'Narrative of A. Gordon Pym,' named
his story, 'Adventures of Dirk Peters, the Half-Breed,' he would have
sold twice as many books. My friend is about to publish his book. 'Its
name?' I asked him. 'There can be little choice of names for a
translation of Montesquieu's "Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans,"
with notes by myself,' he replied. 'There can't?' said I; 'well, my
friend, let me tell you there can. Now compare this name: "Montesquieu's
Considerations on the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the
Romans, with illustrative notes," etc., with a name like this: "The
Roman Aristocrats Ripped, Rooted, and Routed"; or, "How the Roman
Plutocrats were Peppered and Pounded." Heavens and Earth! what do the
masses know about decadence? Why not name his book (and so I said to
him), "How the Rich Romans Rotted"? Half the people would think from
such a title that the Romans were enemies of the United States, and that
Montesquieu and my friend were after them hot and fast; and then the
story would go out that the French were helping us again. "General
Montesquieu" would be heard on all sides, associated with endless
repetitions of Lafayette memories. Lord, Lord! I sometimes think a man
is better under-educated than over-educated."
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