The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-06-02
NOT BURIED ALIVE
REDhErs, IN n. Y. OBSERVER.

Ir4;4,hEJS, IN n. Y. OBSERVER.
Fer same years past | have taken great
pains TO ascertain the truth in regard to the
published statements Of persons being buried
alive, under the supposition that they were
dead. In every Instance the story has proved
60 be false.
Yet there Is not ayoar withoutthe horrible
Garfativc Of somebody somewhere being con.
signed to The tomb, and for some cause or
other, the grave or vault being opened, the
discovery was made that the buried individual
had come TO-" and had persisted miserably
IN frantic efforts 10 obtain dellverance II
dss been my habit, on seeing in the ncwspa.
per5 one of these statements, TO send letter
ut inquiry to the minister or some other resi-.
dent OF the region, requesting the precise
facts IN the case. IUdFtdbly the story proves
20 DC fabrication or a growth out Of some
thing that had nothing terrible in il. One
person had heard somebody say that she had
heard OF Il man who told another that he be.
.teved that man had been buried before he
vas dead And then it gets into the papcrg
and into the traditions Of the neighborhood
ald then IutJ the books, and so il becomes a
part OF The graveyard literature OF the world.
The latest instance to which l have attend.
81, is tina. &c Dr. Green, of HoOsIc Falls, y
\. Some few years ago he lay two or three
At the. proper time he was laid in a vault
When u came 10 be talked about that he was
OHce in trance state, there was some anxiety
rs 10 his condition, and the vault was visited
udIy 10 lind the most obvious cvidence-thC
same That Lazarus gave-that he had been
dead all the time he lay there. But this wa.
enough To start The story, and the telegraph
not from HooSic n. y, but from BatHiagf0a
VI, sent the startling intelligence that signs
" lie were discovered, the body was taken
hame, ana the result was yet awaited Will
intense anxiety! | wrote 10 friend in Hoo
&c and learned the facts, which are without
any romance or sensation. The doctor dice
and was buried. That is all.
Now, do not deny that such dreadful nc
cldc1ts as premature burlals may and do hap
pen. There are on record some instances o
which there Is no reason 20 doubt the truth
But even this is admitted with a mental reser
FatlOn, Tor the books insist that no authentic
cLses are on record. The mother of In
scotch preachers, the Erskines, is tradition
ally held to have been placed in vault whel
she was supposed 10 be dead a ring on he
anger tempted the sexton 10 undertake It's al
SiEaction, but when he used his knife sh
started from trance; lie left somewhat hast
~; she followed HIM and went home, TO III
grcat surprise OF her husband. This Is Ia
tradition, bat II 1t were traced TO its source
would be as uniOunded as all the rest. n
better proof of the unreliabilI,y Ct these st,
ries than the results Of the system adopted /
Germany, OF placing the dead in houses pr
pared Tor their reception, where they al
watched professionally until decay makes
obvious that life is extinct At MentZ a su
geon was forty-iiyc years attached 10 one
ttese houses, and, although il vas rare for II
house 10 be without an inmate, in all th,
tine there WAS not az instance OF n perso
beng restored. When / was at Halle, and
1ie grave 81 Gesenius. | asked the sexton
z5Sw ire the arrangements 10 prevent prem,
o.re bcriais. He was an Old man; sexton
are often old men; he led the 10 a house nes
<isc gate Of the cemetery; in one OF Its tw
ICONS va lei. OF which the body of Ii