TRUTH AND FICTION

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1685, 15 June 1904, Page 59

TRUTH AND FICTION

Fate does not disdain a lead from man’s imagination. The dead man's diary of his last days of starvation, which has just been published, recalls scenes in fiction which readers will readily recollect. Those who are familiar with James. Payn’s Lost Sir Massingberd may bear to be. reminded of this strange sequel which that work had. A year or two after the publication of the novel, there came about a discovery which might have suggested the mystery of the book. A hurricane in the Miami Valley blew down a huge oak, in the hollow trunk of which were a skeleton, and some old shreds of clothing and a pocketbook. Tlie latter told the story of the strangest tragedy. The remains were those of a man who had fought in the jßevoluntionary Army, had been an aide to Washington, and fought under St Clair against the North-Western Indians in the rising on the Wabash in 1791. He was among the wounded, was captured and destined for the torture. While, being carried to the Indian town at Upper Piqua, lie managed to make his escape, though liard chased by liis relentless foes. As he ran he saw a hollow oak, an, despite a mangled arm, managed, by tlie aid of a tree growing at the side, to clamber up and drop into the hollow. Then he discovered his mistake. The drop was deeper than he had imagined, and there was no escape. In liis pocket book, by the faint light overhead, he kept a diary of his sufferings. “November 10.—Five days without food !.. When I sleep I dream of luscious fruits and flowing streams. The stars laugh at my misery. It is snowing now. I freeze while I starve. _ God pity me !” The entries of the imprisoned creature covered eleven days, and disjoin tedly set forth the story of St (fair’s defeat by tlie Indians. The tree hud kept its secret for 70 years before the storm overturned it and showed once more that Nature does a little piracy in working out her schemes.