The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-02-06


A REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE.
There is no more inhunan euston, nor one which
calls more loudly for legal interference, thar
that which consigls the body - the grave With.
in few hours after the deceese. Il h sooceded
that even medical men have no certain indica,
tions of death but the ineipisat stages II decay
Of the body, and However stsoag other signa
usually relied upen to prove Tie death Of The
individual. they have all bee, proved in count,
less instances to be unreliable and fallaeieus.
1t is but shsrt time since youug and bsau.
tiful and beloved lady in New Orleans VA
stricken down in the midst It perfect health BY
what was called corp de solieI sad was inhumed
the next forenoon. Followed TO the grave by Q
lsng csncourse Of friends, she was sincerely
incurred BY an aged mother aad An affectisnats
and doting husband. But the custom of burial
was imperative, and in Les than twsnty.fsur
hours after she was stricken down, ahe was en-
closed in metallic case ald consigned to the
grave.
laws of mind with which ~ arc aoquaiAtsd, it
was impressed upon the aesd mother that her
beloved daughter Wa net dead, but lad been
buried alive. So real was this impression that
she demanded that the body should DO exhumed,
and raved like lunatic, as she waA supposed to
be, until her demand had been fulfilled, and the
coffin was opened Her Impression WAS but too
true. The glass over the face had been broken,
the hands cut and bleedy, showed the struggle
that the poor creature had made; Large looks Of
hair had been torn from the head in great agony,
and the whole body, though confined in suSh
narrow space, had turned ever and laid upon the
face.
Whit horror must have seized those friends As
they gazed upon these svidences of their inhu.
man haste to dispose Of the remains of the being
whose death they 20 deeply deplored 2 - They
can never forget that terrible picture. 1t IL en-
graved on their hearts, aad never will memory
become so dead as that it will not preserve fast
and fearful the great wrong TO loved cOmpan.
ion and daughter. While life lasts, aud if there
be any future, while the cycles Of eternity shall
revolve, that scene of horror will be retained in
the recollection of those who witnessed it as the
great terror of their lives.
la the year 183-, was seized with, q fever,
the effects of a journey across the Isthmus, ON
return from the Golden State 1t was not sppa-
rently . viraleat disease, bat slowly and surely
it brought me to the gates of death. fancisd
could see across the cold river, and a. fully ex-
pected that sholld make the dreamy voyage
Is if the fiat Of Omnipetsnoe had been audibly
spoken directly in ny ear. had arrived 1t that
state which he's been noticed - . premonition Of
death, when / had no care or desire in relation
to my fate. Whether was to die or live was
matter Of not the smallest moment. Lying in .
kind Of dreamy reverie perfectly cognisant Of
what was passing around me, but having no care
for matters either celestial or terrestrial swallow
ing what was pat to my lips BY the hald Of love
and friendship, without question, days passed by
me UNDECIDED
One morning at daybrsak, Just after had
been raised in the bed 20 could swallow pre-.
scription that had been ordered, as I laid back
upon the pillow, a strange and new sensation
Overpowered me. 1t seemed to me that the bsdy
upon the couch was mine, but that WAS not
there; that the spirit had left the body and was
at that moment lowering in the air above it. I
distinctly remember to this day that feeling of
pity, such a. one friend feels for another took
possession of my real self, as looked xpen the
body which had suffered 90 much, but was new
ct rest The thought also arose - to my present
oondition.-Was this severance of the body and
spirit the death which all must undergo? Had
really passed the dark valley with no psrcspti-
BILE shook of tho mature, terrestrial Or CELESTIAL
While my better self was thus engaged i.
contemplation Of these reconcile and new themes,
I was not 80 wholly absorbed in them - 70 pre-.
vent my observing what was going on in csnnsc.
ton with my body. There was shrek from
ny attendant who WAS dear friend, hurried
were gathered around with fearful faces, and
one whose plighted love was mine, fell upon the
body, bestowing upon it Ill the eadesring names
she had so sften used. and beseeching me net to
die and leave her desolate. Overosme by her
emotions, she tainted and vas borne from the
room.
When she tainted, oould distinctly eco the
spirit leave the body, aud rise a. mine had
done upon the air, and Immediately exps-
rienced feeling indescribabls, but which l at
ence knew to DO ~ assurance that the prayer Of
the dear girl shsuld b granted, that sholld
net die. For one moment there seemed to be q
kind Of community Of affection between the dis
embodied spirits as they scared above the sad
soene-a scene Of the most exalted and inefsbls
bliss, Is il some long-sought boon had been Oh
tanned, that had been the enc desire for life
time. There came blank in my experience.
What next remember, 10 seeing the coffin in
which had been placed and which both IF my
selves-l use tho term fer want Of better to
express it-had been placed surrounded BY my
weeping friends, AID my betrothed Was expostu.
latlng with them against my burial He can.
not be dead! !" she said. 'He told me he was not
dead, and it would be wrsng to bury him. See
his eyes are partially open and he sees Look /.
And she pointed to the lids opened 20 slightly
that nothing but love would have admitted thev
were separated at all.
She brought the physician to examine the
eyes. "Thers WIS life in them, she was sure"
To please her the man Of medicine raised the
eyslid and said, vou see there 10 no indication Of
life neither in the circulation, in the lungs. nsr
in the eye. He is dead
1t cannot, it shall net be she cried, IN she
threw herself upon the coffin and besto we'd mum.
berless warm kissss upon my cold and blosdless
ups During all this time, when Icould not
feel, see nor understand, made the utmost ef,