The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-16 00:00:00

GRAVEYARD SECRE TS.

The mania which seems to exist now for selling antiquated
church property, and removing the remains of the dead
from their last resting-places to make room for the upward
tendency of business, has led to some curious developments
which have startled the community, and in many instances
given rise to suspicions not much to the credit of certain
persons holding high position as churchgoing folks and vir-
tuous members of society. The case of the Sullivan-street
Chut ch was the first that attracted the attention of the pub-
lic. The disgraceful details of the manner in which the
bodies were removed from the vaults of that church must be
still fresh in the recollection of our readers. Many coffins
were discovered in a state of perfect preservation, with the,
shrouds also immaculate, but with nothing else save a
shovel full of dust; and it was generally believed at the
time that certain persons had carried on a very profitable
business in the bodies 4 f the dead interred in the vaults of the
church. But if the developments which were brought to
light by the removal of the remains from the Sullivan-street
Church are to be considered strange, they are nothing as
compared with what has been since discovered in the gravel
of the old Baptist Church, corner of 'Wooster and
Amity-streets. About a month ago the trustees of
the latter church resolved to remove the remains cf the
dead to Cypress Hills Cemetery, preliminary to selling the
pled
talalaoniNdvre.gion
property. Here, as in the Sullivan-street vaults, coffins
were found deprived of their tenants. One day, while the
labourers were engaged in their work, a grave was disco-
vered which had once contained five or six coffins, with
their remains. All but one of these coffins were very nearly
gone. The third coffin was still in a good state of preser-
vation. The curious part of the story remains to be told.
The bodies in all the coffins except the third from the sur-
face, already alluded to. had wasted away into undistin-
guishable collections of flesh and bones. The body in the
third coffin was still left perfect in form, the stockings and
shroud in a good state of preservation, and the flesh hard-
ened almost to petrifaction. Dr. Sayre was invited to view
the body, and expressed the greatest surprise at what he
witnessed. The shroud was covered the entire length with
a smooth white substance resembling wax. On examina-
tion the body proved to be that of a woman. A party of
physicians have since visited the church, at the invitation
of the city inspector. They found the shroud coated with a
thin, white, mouldy substance, which might have resulted
from the deposit of the gases in the coffin, or might have
been the residue of some antiseptic) matter sprinkled there-
in for the purpose of preserving the body. On removing the
shroud the body was discovered to be somewhat .nore
altered than when at first viewed after disinterment. The
skin was of a dark reddish colour, resembling dirty leathert
or the covering of old cheese. The legs, abdomen, cllesarms, hands, and in fact every portion of the
hbaotd
adipose
driedexaminingretainedtissueswiththeverylifter, or Crum-
'odkm°7ninsstakable evidences
performed ' that a post ?notion
be about as Biro
were converttehdTe:itngueennta.
they
ibody iww •
abdominal
owe
culty,.
edistoly after death. ID
were discovered. It
8,0-ested by the medical examiners that the .
inatioll had been
that of some unfortunate creature
of poison, like ilra. Stephens, was
body might be
who had been the victim
s, whose body, it will be re-
membered, was perfectly sat
t black, saturated with arsenic. From the
fact that the hair was jet
in a perfectly sound 3: and that the teeth were
condition, it is conjectured that the
woman, whoever she was, could not have been more than
5 years old at the time of her death. However that
may be, it is pretty certain that the remains must have been
interred over 30 years ago, from the fact that the coffins
found
above the one which contained her body showed by
the dates on their plates that they had lain beneath the
earth for that full period. This is the only way that the
length of time her remains have been buried can be arrived
at, inasmuch as there was no plate on the coffin to speak
fur itself. It is a remarkable tact that there was not the
slightest stench from the body, even from the head, which
had decayed. The prevailing idea seems to be that there
was some foul play, Perhaps the only conclusion that the
authorities will ever be able to arrive at will be that of the
moody Hamlet, that there are stranger things in heaven
and earth "than your philosophy ever dreamt of."--.4Tho
York, herald.

G
case
connection
ioon
wilirtlhF WIFE.—E—,
akloeunttskpaasseitornaniter
Aptreivr
gambling came under the notice of Mrs. Atkinso
onen, thef
authoress of "Recollections of Tartar Steppes." In o
the magazines of the bazaar a lady was observed whose
history might be briefly summarised in the statement that
she was lost and won at cards. Her husband had been a
wealthy Siberian, but, like many of his countrymen, he
was a inveterate gambler. In one night he lost every ko-
peck he possessed—land, house, and furniture followed.—
and last of all he staked his young and beautiful wife. Site
was also "lost," and the victor entered calmly into 10os-RA,,,'
sion of his winnings. It is not a little curious to - hear--
that
the pair thus strangely mated had lived tool
er 20 Years'
and "led a most happy and euquplary iiie.,,