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Lawson, Alfred, 1869-1954

"Born Again"

Ten thousand different pains were shooting back and forth
in every part of my body, but the most excruciating of all was a
terrible pain in the center of my back, which caused me to think that my
spinal column had been dislocated. And then as if all of the tortures of
a refined civilization had suddenly been thrust upon me, as though some
supernatural hellish agency was instrumental in causing me to go the
full limit of human suffering, those two devilish orderlies took hold of
me, one by the head and the other by the feet, and without any leverage
whatever to break the strain upon my backbone, they raised and then
dumped me into the tub of ice-water below. I had always considered
myself invulnerable to bodily pain, and from early youth had schooled
myself against outward manifestation of suffering, no matter what the
circumstances might be, but on this occasion the power of resistance
deserted me entirely and I gave vent to a howl, of rage like the
bellowing of a maddened bull, and partly arising, endeavored to clutch
the throat of the unfeeling beast at my head, but too weak to accomplish
my purpose I fell back into the tub exhausted. At the same time the
orderly took hold of my own throat and almost strangling me, beat my
head against the tub several times cursing me under his breath in the
vilest of language at the same time.
"Look out you don't kill him," cautioned the other orderly at the foot
of the tub, "or we might have to go through another of those damned
investigations.


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