The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1866-02-22
From the Washington Star
Remarkable Adventure of a Corpse.

Not long since native Of the Emerald
Isle, one of the victims of the late arsenal
explosion, died in this city. and imme
diately preparations were made to give
him a nice, genteel funeral 1t was at
first arranged that he should be buried
here. but some of his kindred being bur
ied at Parkersburg West Virginia, it
was finally determined that what remain
ed of poor Jotnny Nj should be sent
to that place. Accordingly, after a
wake, Zone of the good old sort,
the remains were accompanied by his
sorrowing friends and relatives to the
depot, to take the ears for the place OF
burial. The funeral procession arrived
at the depot some time before the de
parture of the train in which tae remains
were to go. and the mourners spent the
/ intervening time in assuaging their sor-
rows at the neighboring bars, so abund-
ant in that vicinity, the corpse mean
while remaining on the platform, ready
to be placed on the p. NJ train, which
would connect al the Relay House with
the western train.
The party meanwhile drank so many
libations to the memory of the departed
that they returned to the station in a
very mellow condition, and the railroad
officers being apprehensiye that they
would be incapable of taking eace Of the
corpse, teit itgraphed TO the agent ct the
! Relay to sea tlat The corpse was taken
/ of at that point Shortly before tie
time of starting the corpse was placed
on the train, and an attempt was made
s., to muster the mourners when it was as
I ccrtained that one or two of them had
got SO obfusticated as to have taken the
New York train. The rest of the party
however, managed to get aboard, and
ere long Johnny Ms body was again
marching on. At the Relay the corpse
was transferred to the western train, but
two or three of the mournerS were too
far gone to get out in time, and so pro
ceeded to Baltimore, while the balance
Of the party with the corpse was hurried
on with extra speed westward.
At the points along tie road where the
engine stopped '.to water" the mourn
ers as invariably stopped = to wet, and
not being up to time, quite as invariably
a brace or more were left behind ut each
watering and wetting place, and by the
time Grafton was reached, where the
corpse was to change cars for Parkers-
burg, but few O. the mourners remained
with it, and these were SO bewildered
that they failed TO get in the proper train,
and Johnny's corpse wen on to Wheel
. ing without them. From thence, by
, some means, it was sent to COlum bnS,
Ohio, the corpse thus having got into
! the wrong State, and the mourners be-
ing scattered through Maryland and
West Virginia, and along the line of the
Baltimore, Wilmington and Philadel phia
and Camden and Amboy Railroads. By
this time the telegraph was put into ex-
cited operation, and various messages
were whisked over the wires in various
directions in regard to the missing corpse
and scattered mourners, making confu-
sion doubly confounded for awhile.
From Grafton an anxious mouTner in
quired, Where in the ID is the
corpse This dispatch was crossed
on the road by a loud inquiry from Col
| umbus as to the ownership of stray
corpse arrived there unconsigned. A
Baltimore scattered mourner telegraph
ed to postpone the funeral till | get
, there and the squad of mourners by
the New York train were sending wildly
confused messages to Parkcrshurg, Re
lay House, Grafton and Washington, all
helping to intensity the prevailing mud
die. The corpse, meantime, had resum
ed its travels, and, like poor Joe, not be
ing wanted in any locality, had been
kept moving on, until it arrived at Little
Miami depot, where it created no little
excitement, b2ing without any mark for
Identification, and foul play being at
once suspected. A coroners inquest
was held without throwing any light
/ upon the mystery, which was, however,
cleared up by a telegrsphic despatch for
the missing corpse. The railway offic-
iaIs thea got the corpse in motion east
I ward, and the mourners headed west
ward, and finally, after the most event
full history OF any corpse or set of
mourners on record, Johnny's body was
duly committed by them to mother earth
where we trus. it may rest in peace.