The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1848-05-26
From the Boston Evening Transcript.
DEALINGS with 1 he Dead

Dealings with the DCads
told that anecdote of the inconsolable widow,
related in my last, to old Grossman. lie and Smith
were helping me at grave, in the Grinary ground
Bless my heart, how things have changed. We
We're digging near the Park street side the old
Almshouse ironted on Park street then and the
Granary stood where Park street church now
stands, until 1909, and the long building called the
Massachusetts, Bank, covered a part OF Hamilton
Place, and the house once occupied by Sir Francis
Barnard, and afterwards by Mr. Andrews, with It's
fine garden, stood the of Winter street. on
the site OF the present granite block; and-but J.
am burymg myself, sexton like, in the grave of my
own recollectons- i say, | told Grossman that
story-the old man, when not translated by liquor,
was delightful company, in a grave yard-we were
digging the grave OF young widows third hus-
band. Grossman said she poisoned them. Smith
was quite shocked, and told him MIR. Debois was
looking over the Almshouse wall.
Grossman said he didn't mean that she really
gave all three of them ratsbane, but it was clear
enough she was the end of them all, and he had
doubt the widow would be good customer, and
give us two three jobs yet, before she left of.
This led me to tell that story. Smith said there
was nothing half restless an Irish widow
He said that a young Tipperary widow, Nelly
McPhee, | think he called her, was courted, and
actually had an offer from Tooley O'shane, on the
way to her husband funeral. =" She accepted, OF
Smith, Tooey DEAR, said she, ~ are too late,
foor waaks ago it was I shook hands WI Paddy
Sweeney upon it, that | would have him in dacent
time arter McPhee went anunderboord." Well
said Grossman, " widows of all nations are much
alike. There was Dutch woman, whose husband,
Diedrick Van Pronk, kicked the bucket and left
her nconsolable. He buried on Copps Hill
Folks said grief would kill that widow She had
figure of wood carved that looked very like her
late husband, and placed it III her bed, and con-
stantly kept it there, for several months
In about half u year, she became interested in a.
young shoemaker, who got the length Of her foot,
and finally married her. He had visited the widow,
not more than fortnight, when the servants told
her they We're out of kindng stuff, and asked what
should be done. After pause, the widow replied,
in very quiet way" Maybe it ish veil enough
now, to sphlit up old Van Pronk, vat sh up sh,air"
Some persons have busted themselves, in a sin
gular way, about their own obsequies, and have
left strange provisions, touching their remains.
Charles V, according to Robertson and other
writer's ordered a rehearsal of his own obsequies-
his doAestcs marched with black iapers-Charles
followed in his shroud-he was laid in his coffin
the service for the dead was chanted. This farce
was, in few days, followed by the real tragedy
for the fatigue exposure brought on fever which
terminated fatally Yet this story, which has long
been believed is distinctly denied, by MIR. Richard
Ford, in his admirable handbook for Spain; and
this denial is repeated in No. Isl of the London
Quarterly Review.
Several gentlemen, of the fancy, of the present
age, and in this vicinity, have provided their cot
fms in their life time. This is truly blue beard
business and, beyond its influence In frightening
children and domestics, it is difficult to imagine the
utility of such an arrangement. Alter few visl-
tations, these collins would probably excite just
about as much of the memento mort sensation as
the same number of meal chests.
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, states
that John Zisca, the general of the Hlses ordered
a drum to be made OF his skin, after he was dead,
persuaded that the sound of would terrlty his foes
When Edward ]. of England, was dying, he bound
his son. by OATH to boil his body, and separating
the bones, to carry them always before him in bat
tie against the Scots; as though he believed VIC
tory to be chained to his joints.
The bodies of persons executed for crime, have
in different ages and among different nations been
delivered to surgeons for dissection. ltseems meet
and right, that those, who have been worse than
useless in their lives, should contribute, in some
small degree, TO the common veal, by such an APP
preparation of their carcases In some cases, these
miserable creatures have been permitted to make
their own bargains, with particular surgeons, be-
forehand /; who have, occasionally been taken IN,
by paying guinea to INSCRIPTIONS fellow, who
knew, though the surgeons did not, that he was
sentenced to be hung in chains, or, as it is common
ly called, gbbeted. The difficulty OF obtaining
subjects, for anatomical purposes, has led to out
RACES upon the dead. Various remedies have been
effectual. Surgical students will
not be deferred by the Requescat in pace, and
the Courts, between the demands of science and of
have been in the predlcament Of asses
between two bundles of straw.
1t seems scarcely conceivable, that pittance
should tempt man to take his fellows life, that he
might sell the body to a surgeon. In 1909, Burke
was executed in Edinburg, for this species of muir
der 1t was his trade. Victims were lured by this
vampire to :" the chambers of DEATH" strangled or
snffocated. without any visible mark of murder,
and then sold to the surgeons. This trade has been
in London at much later day. Deem
Der 5, 1884, a wretch named Bishop, and his accom-
plce Williams, We're hung for the murder Of an
how Carlo Eprrari and frendIpss
whose body they sold to the surgeons. They con-
fessed the murder of Ferrari and several others,
whose bodies were disposed of in similar manner.
From a desire to promote the cause of science,
have, now and then. bequeathed their
bodies to particular surgeons These requests have
been rarely insisted upon by the legatees. and the
of the testator have seldom been carried
out by the testators a remarkable exception how
ever occurred in the of the celebrated Jeremy
Bentham, an account of which must defer for the
present, for funerals are not the only things which
may be of unreasonable length.
A SEXTON OF THE OLD. SCHOOL.