Muscatine journal. [volume] (Bloomington, Iowa) 1849-185?, 1853-06-10
Premature Burials.
By EDGAR A. FOE.

| interest is all-absorbing, but which are too
entirely horrible for the purpose OF legiti.
mate fiction. These the mere romanticist
must eschew, if he do not wish to offend
or disgust. They are with propriety ham
died. only when the severity and majesty
of truth sanctify and sustain them. We
thrill, for example, with the most intense of
sspleasurable PAIN" over the accounts of
the passage Of the Beresina, of the earth
quake at Lisbon, of the massacre of st.
Bartholomew, or Of the sitting of the hum
dred and twenty three prisoners in the
Black Hole at Calcutta. But, in these ac-
counts, il is the fact-it is the reality-it is
the history which excites. AS invention,
we should regard them with simple ahhor-
renee.
| have mentioned some few of the more
prominent and august calamities on record;
but in these, it is the extent, not less than
4 the character of the calamity, which so
remind the reader that, from the long cata-
logue of human mseries, might have Sc
lected many individual instances more re-
plete with essential suffering than any of
these vast generalities of disaster. The true
wretchedness, indeed-the ultimate woe
is particular. not diffuse. That the ghostly
extremes of agony are endured by man the
unit, and never by man the mass-for this
let us thank merciful God.
To be buried while alive, is, beyond
question, the most terrific of those ex-
tremcs which has ever fallen to the ]ot of
mere mortality. That it has, frequently,
very frequently, so fallen, will scarcely be
denied by those who think. The bounda-
ries which divide life from death, are at
best shadowy and vague. Who shall say
where the one ends, and where the other
| begins? We know that there are diseases
| in which occur total cessations Of all the
| apparent functions of vitality, and yet in
! which these cessations are merely suspen-
sions, properly called. They are only lem
porary pauses in the incomprehensible me-
chanism. A certain period elapses,s and
some unseen mysterious principle sets in
motion the magic pinions and the wizard
wheels. The silver cord was not forever
loosoned, nor the golden bowl irreparably
broken. But where, meantime, was the
| soul?
Apart, however, from the inevitable con-
clusion, priori, that such causes must
produce such effects-that the well known
| occurrence of snch cases Of suspendedani-
nation must naturally give rise, now and
then to premature interments;apart fronlthis
consideration, we have the direct testimony
of ordinary and medical experiences to
prove that vast number of premature in
termcnts have actually taken place. j might
refer at once, il necessary, to hund'ed
well authenticated instances. One OF very
| remarkable character, and of which .he
| circumstances may be fresh in the memory
of some Of my readers, occurred not very
long ago in the city of Baltimore, where it
occasioned painful, intense, and wildly
extended excitement. Thewife of one ofEhe
most respectable citizens--a lawyer of an
| inence, and member of Congress--Has
seized with sudden unaccountable illness,
| viii ,h bafled the skill of her physicians.
| After much suffering she died, or was sup
| posed to die. No one suspected, indeed,
or had reason to suspect, that she was
not actually dead. She presented all the
ordinary appearances Of death. The face
assumed the usual pinched and sunken out
line. The lips were of the usual marble
pallor. The eyes were lustreless. Thtre
was no warmth. Palpitation had ceased.
For three days the body was preserved IN
buried, during which it had acquired stoby
rigidity. The funeral, in short, was. hasten
ed on account Of what was supposed to be
decomposition.
The lady was deposited in her family
Il vault, which, for three subsequent yeafs,
was undlsturbed. At the expiration of this
term it was opened for the reception of a
sarcophagus-but alas! how fearful shocl
awaited the husband, who personally threw
open the door. AS it's portals swung out.
wardly back, some white apparelled objec
fell rafting within his arms. twas tt,
skeleton OF his wife in her yet unmouldere(
: shroud.
A careful investigation rendered it evi
. dent that she had revived within two day
after her entombmsnt-that her struggle
within the coffin had caused it to fall fron
a ledge or shelf, to the floor, where it wa
so broken as to permit her to escape. !
: lamp which had been accidently left, full Q
oil, within the tomb, was found empty; !
might have been exhausted, however, b
evaporation, On the uppermost of til
steps which led down into the dread cham
. ber, was large fragment Of the coffl
. arrest attention, by striking ON the irci
door. While thus occupied, she probabl
: swooned, or possibly died from sheer te.
ror; and in falling her shroud became en-
!; tangled in some iron work which projecte
! interiory. Thus she remained, and thu
{ she rotted erect.
: In the year 1910, case o. living inhr
nation happened in France, attended wit
: circumstances which 60 far to warrant til
assertion that truth is, indeed, strang'
J. than fiction. The heroine of the story WI
e Mademoiselle Lafouseade, young girl !
'r illustrious family, of wealth and OF gre'
y personal beauty. Among her numero'
e suitors was Julien Bosuet, poor Gtter'
!. teLr, or journalist, of Paris. His talen
!, and general amiability had recommends
= him to the notice of the heiress, by who
. he seems to have been truly beloved; but h
pride Of birth decided her, finally, to r
ject him, and to wed a Monsieur Renelle,
e banker, and diplomatist of some em
S nence. After marriage, however, this ge
i tleman neglected, and, perhaps, even mo
n positively ill-treated her. Having pass'
4 with him some wretched years, she died.
! at least her condition so closely resemble
death as to deceive every one who saw he
s. She was huried-not in a yault-but in |
n ordinary grave, in the village of her natiV
e ty. Filled with despair, and still inaam
). by the memory of a profound attachmer
the lover Journeys from the capital to t
remote province in which the village liz
le with the romantic purpose Of disinterril
IS the corpse, and possessing himself OF
a luxuriant tresses. He reaches the gray
At midnight he unearths the coffin, opens
y and is in the act Of detaching the hair VIII
e he is arrested by the unclosing of the /
re loved eyes. In fact, the lady had been b
i'd ried alive! Vitality had not altogether
W parted; she was aroused by the caresses