Smyrna times., 1866-06-27
A Romance of the Dead,

an old ac0mm buried ,oih ttoenty thousand
dollars on her person. Singular recOreru of
the money
The N. T. Dispatch publishes the following
very curious story, yOuching for its truth in
every particular:
About two years ago Coroner Naumann held
an inquest on the body of an old lady, who was
found dead in her room, in the Fourth ward.
1t seems that the lady, who had, at that time,
recently arrived from the western part of this
this State, hired this room, and seemed to live
there alone, receiving occasional visits from her
daughter.
Her neighbors had missed the old lady for
several days, and observing an offensive OdOr
proceeding from her rOOm their suspicious
were aroused, and they resolved to institute
Of the offensive smell
Accordingly an axe was procured, and the
door Of the room burst in, when, to their mex
presslble horror, they perceived the old lady
lying dead upon the floor.
As several pays had elapsed since her death,
the body of course was in an advanced state of
decomposition, and the stencil from it perfectly
horrible. The body and features were swollen
and purple, and the poor remains altogether
such mass of lOathsOme putridity, that even
the deputy coroner was averse to handling
them. The body of the old woman was put
into the coffin as it was, and she was buried in
her clothes.
As there were rumOrS about that the old lady
possessed considerable amount of money,
dlhgent search was made to ascertain if the ru-
mOrs were correct An old trunk that stood in
the room was thoroughly searched, together
with the bed and bedding, also her pockets,
but nothing at all was elected to indicate that
the deceased had left any money behind.
Now comes the sequel. &,
On Monday of last week, Coroner Naumann,
In passing through Chambers street, was ac-
costed by genteel-lOoking young man, who in
CURED OF the Coroner If he did not know him.
The Coroner replied that he did not. The
young man then inquired of the Coroner if he
dld not recoect the fact of holding an inquest
some time ago, on an old lady, who had been
found dead In her room, in the Fourth ward.
The Coroner replied that he did. The young
man then stated that he was the son-in-iaw of
the deceased, and that he was present at the
inquest. He also stated that after the death
of the old lady he had married her daughter.
| After their marriage, III frequent converse
tions with his wife, he learned that her mother
had been possessed of considerable property in
Buffalo, n. Y, which she had sold, and CON
verted into money, previous to her coming to
reside in this city. She also had recovered
heavy damages in a suit against the Erie Canal
| 1OL IuO ONCiuOWlhS VI pIOpCiIJ VduoCu Wy d
break in canal As this had been elected
from the wife, it was matter of considerable
conjecture where all this money had gone.
| He also ascertained from his wife that ON en-
tering her mothers room, she frequently saw
her mother sewing about her dress, while it
was still on her; and her mother on such oc-
casions, invariably drove her from the room.
Putting this and that together, the young man
got sly notion into his head that the money
could be found.
He accordingly, one day, had the body dis
inferred, and, taking the dress from the corpse
took it home with him. His wife and himself
then proceeded to cut up the dress very care
fully. They had not proceeded in this busi-
ness very far when they thought they felt some
thing like writing paper, and sitter than the
stuff that the dress was made of.
They cut around it very carefully, when, 10
to their almost specchless astonishment, they
discovered number of Treasury notes of the
largest denominations
Their astOnishment at thus being made sud-
denly rich, almost deprived them of the power
of counting the money. They finally counted
the money over, and found themselves the
lucky possessors of the snug little fortune of
twenty thousand dollars.
Coroner Naumann congratulated the young
man upon the very happy denOotenaent of such
a sad event, and informed him that he was the
onlv person that he had ever heard of who had
sncceeded in obtaining a fortune in greenbacks
out of the earth, by digging for them.
Two duelsts having exchanged shots with
| ovo of tho sacnnds intarfarad ond