A VERY MOURNFUL CHAPTER. DEATH AND SPIRIT RESURRECTION OF SQUIBOB. [Reported by his friend Skewball.] SAN FRANCISCo, June 15th, 1853. EDITOR HERALD-It becomes my melancholy duty to inform you of the decease, under most painful circumstances, of your friend and contributor, the unfortunate "SQUIBOB." It has been evident to the public for some days past that his faculties were becoming much impaired, and his friends had noticed, with regret, growing evidences of imbecility, evinced by a disposition to make unnecessary and inappropriate puns, and a tendency to ridicule the Board of Aldermen, the code of duelling, and other equally serious subjects and sacred institutions. Hopes were still entertained of his rallying, and many believed that he would yet be spared to us; but, on the 13th instant, he was seized with a violent attack of the Evening Journal-a species of intermittent epidemic, which made its appearance regularly at four o'clock each afternoon, and under the influence of which he rapidly súnk. He sent for me late yesterday evening, and I had the mournful satisfaction of being with him in his last moments, and of closing one of his eyes. I say one of his eyes, for the other persisted in remaining partly open, and his interesting countenance, even in death, preserves that ineffable wink of intelligence which so eminently characterized him while among the living. I found him suffering much from physical and mental prostration, but evidently well aware of his approaching end, and calm and resigned in the contemplation of that event. Some idea may be formed of his condition "from a remark that he made: " 'I sent to the cook for a broiled pork chop," he feebly articulated, “and he sent me a fried one. It is satisfactory, in one's last moments thus to receive the consolations of religion from a San Franciscan Friar.". I could not resist an expression of horror at this sad evidence of the alarmingly low state to which he had been brought. He smiled sadly, and said, with ineffable sweetness, “Never mind-it's better so. My friends have all advised me to die, and it is my safest course. If I had continued in the papers, some bellicose individual would have 'called me out,' and the Herald would have been rifled of its sweets."" He was here seized with an alarming paroxysm, during which his hands were extended in a right line from the tip of his nose, the fingers separated and "twiddling (if I may be allowed the expression) in a convulsive manner. On recovering, his eye fell on a copy of the Evening Journal He shuddered, and muttering, in an incoherent manner, "I am done Brown," turned away. I then gave him a glass of "Bimbo,” which appeared to arouse his energies, and he requested that his daguerreotype of "Greene," in his great character of Sir Harcourt Courtly, might be shown him. As I held before him the representation of that artist, a barrel organ in the street below struck up his favorite tune, "The Low-Backed Car." As the well-known sound struck on his ear, a light spread over his countenance. Sitting up in bed, he seized the miniature and clasped it to his breast. "Where is M. W. ?" he screamed. "Give it me quick! quick!!" I hastily handed him yesterday's Herald. His eye fell on the lines. Gazing alternately on them and the miniature, and eagerly listening to the organ—“ Poetry! Music! and the Drama!" he exclaimed-" Farewell! farewell, for ever!" The light passed from his visage, his eye glazed, and falling back upon his pillow, his gentle spirit passed away without a struggle. I had left the room to give directions to the weeping Nancy, with reference to the disposal of the body, when returning, judge of my surprise at finding him sitting up in bed. "Look here, old fellow," said he, "By George! I quite forgot my last words-" This is the last of earth !—I still live!!—I WISH THE CONSTITUTION TO BE PRESERVED ! ! !— HERE'S LUCK!!!!" Then lying down, and closing one eye, with a wink, the intense meaning of which beggars all description, he expired-this time "positively without reserve." P. S.-The funeral ceremonies will take place to-morrow, at 11 o'clock, at " Patty and Barren's," when the public generally are invited to attend (with rifles). The "Tangarees " (of which association the deceased was a member), and the "Moral Reform Society," will form around the bier (lager), and accompany the body to its last resting place. Winn is now busily engaged in the melancholy duty of modelling his features in soft gingerbread. A copy of the bust in candy he promises shall be sent to the offices of the Herald and the Evening Journal. A Spiritual Medium (one of the tipping ones) has just been experimenting in the room with the remains. The following questions were put, eliciting the following an swers QUESTION." Is the spirit of Squibob present?" QUESTION." Are you happy?" ANSWER." Rather." The Spirit here asked, through the Medium, the following question— "Are the public generally glad I am dead?' A regard for veracity compelled every person in the room to reply: "Very!"—when the table on which the experiments were being conducted was violently capsized, and the remains, sitting up in bed, threw a boot at the Medium, which broke up the meeting-the Medium very properly |