The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1866-05-17
a LIVING GRAVE
Man In Trance.--Remarkable Escape
from Living Grave.

The Cleveland Her,ld relates the follow.
lug as occurring in that city:
| A yonng German recently married to a
handsome lady y0fvery respectable parent.
age, WAS taken suddenly illrat his place,lo
business last friday. He was place i'm a
carriage AID taken to his residence on
Erie Street, where he laidlin agony .nntil
Sunday. when the diease so prostrated his
physical powers thath lay motionIess up
on the bed. while weeping friemis sur
rounded the couch. Tosllappearanccs he
was dead. and it was so decided. sg
Arrangements were about to be made
for The intermcnt. when the young wife,
feeling she could not give bun up so soon,
insisted that the funeral he postponed un-
til Tuesday morning. To CRAFTY the wo-
main thus brought sospeedily to mourn the
loss aer husband. the funeral was post
poned. The disconsolate wife spent most
Of the day on Monday In the same room
with the corpse, weeping as though her
heart would break. and still clinging to
the idea that he could not be dead.
About twilight on Monday evening,
when everything about the house was per-
fectly quiet, except when the stiffness was
broken by the sighs of the bereaved Wild
ow. there being but few persons i'm the
room, the badly seemed to move. 1t was
but slight motion, vet sufficient to ar
rest the attention Of one fearful eve.
When the wife insisted that life was not
extinct, that the body did move. her
friends became anxious about her reason
and tried TO divert her mind from the sor-
rowful scene. Two long hours were spent
in conversation. the friends urging that
she was deceived, possibly by the
fickering light, as the shadows it cast
might have produced the effect she ascrib-
ed to vitality. l
/ The feeling ofthat little circle ofdevotcd
friends is known only to themselves and
Him whose all-seeing eye visits the init
mate recasses Of our hearts. During the
conversation all eyes invoIuntarily rested
upon the lnbiIiments or the grave aud The
features ofhim whom they supposed would
soon become one of its occupants. At the
end of the two hours another slight rrove.
mcnt was perceived by all the party. The
scene which followed can never be- dos.
cribeti. 81 - err. q -~ "a MOOT .
The wife clung to the motionless form of
her husband. alternately weeping and
heering of him to speak just enc word,
while the friei,ds wept for joy, hastened
fora physician, alarmed the servants bv
their strange couduct and presented a
scene OF confusion generally.
When the physician arrived, the friends
We're assembled about the Iiyt,o man. s,,p.
r---~-.s-s- ~rfSpIs fesIorativtS
ever heard or dreamed of by any of the
party, while the wife, overwhelmed with
joy and completely worn out with. excess
i've excitement, had swooned away and
was lying at The side of her husband, in
the same teatblike stiffness that had en-
bra,.eti his form, but few moments, be-
fore. b EE ~. N@ Ia
The physician took the necessary steps
to restore the woman and res,lscitate the
man. which was speedily accomplished i'm
both cuses, and as we write to-day, the
woman is Joyous and happy, while the
man thinks his escape from living grave
one of ,he marked FEATURES of his life.