This file portion of www.watertownhistory.org website
Young Love
Written and contributed by Ben
Feld
What on earth is this younger
generation coming to? They are supposed
to be so well educated, so intelligent, so aware of all the new theories and
developments, and yet we find them acting as if they are living in the Dark
Ages. Here we are in 1878 and we find
some of these love-sick people still believing what we have been calling
“witchcraft” for many years.
Last night I read in the Watertown Gazette that a “romantic”
young lady nearly lost her life at a hotel in Ontario, Canada, trying a
foolish, ridiculous, and downright dangerous experiment which must have been
dreamed up by some idiot a hundred years ago.
This young girl had apparently been
unable to attract a young man and now must have been desperate to become
“matramonified.” Or maybe she was just
an unintelligent, naïve girl looking for a thrill. The newspaper didn’t give any clue about her
personality. It only says that she had
heard an old saying that any girl who swallows a raw chicken’s heart will have
for a husband the first male person who shakes hands with her. This gullible girl accepted that as
scientific fact and attempted to swallow a chicken’s raw heart, but
failed.
I would think so! Who ever swallows something that large? In fact, who would swallow a raw chicken
heart even if it were the size of a marble?
Just the thought of it makes me want to choke -- which she did. The heart stuck in her throat and would not
move either way, down or up. But
somewhere near her was a friend, a very good friend, a friend to whom that girl
now owes her life. That friend called a
doctor who did something, the newspaper didn’t say what, and saved the girl
from an untimely death by choking. The
girl was very, very lucky.
And stupid!
That reminds me of an account I read
of two much more sensible young people, very much in love, and very much
victims of their love. It happened, the Watertown Gazette said, in Keokuk, Iowa,
where about
In the excitement of the moment, Mr.
Gray threw is arms around her waist and drew her to him with a quick passionate
embrace. He was not conscious of using
unusual strength, but the girl gave a short, sharp scream, and exclaiming “Oh,
Charley, I’m gone!” fell dead in his arms with her head resting on his
shoulder.
That was a sad but beautiful
incident. Not at all like a happening
here in Watertown, just last week. Maybe
you will think this illustrates true love; and maybe it does. Maybe it was a case of desperation, and maybe
it was, as they say these days, a case of a young man being crazy with the
heat. This July has been rather warm,
you know.
Anyway, Alert Flechsig, from
Milwaukee, arrived here on the train Saturday evening and immediately went to
the residence of his intended bride, a young lady in the Seventh Ward. He says everything was peaceful and serene
during his visit.
He returned to the girl’s house the
next day, and, according to him, nothing special happened. But before leaving, he asked her sister for
some matches, which were given to him.
He then left his beloved’s roof and shortly afterward was found at the
Milwaukee & St. Paul depot in paroxysms of pain giving every indication of
having been poisoned.
Dr. Spalding was at once summoned
and soon found out the cause of the trouble.
Young Albert admitted he had eaten the matches with a view of self
destruction, although, he declared, the dose was worse than he had bargained
for, and if he lived through it he would never do so again. His throat, Dr. Spalding revealed, was badly
burned and his stomach dreadfully swelled in his bowels and chest.
He was taken to the home of his
lady-love, and for a time his case looked rather dubious; but he gradually
improved and was eventually put on the train back to Milwaukee.
The editor of the Gazette made light of the whole
situation, treating it as a case of unrequited love and saying “it is hoped
that when he makes the right match it may prove the true antidote to his
present condition and feelings. But I
don’t think he should be so flippant; especially now that it has been learned
that Albert had had a quarrel with his father before leaving Milwaukee which
motivated him to attempt putting himself out of existence in this novel and
almost effectual manner. The young lady
denies that any action of hers could form a motive for his desperate action.
I suppose each of us will have to
seek our own explanation of the whole affair remembering the old saying that:
In the spring a young man’s fancy
lightly (?) turns to thoughts of love.