The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-11-21
Profe ssional ResnrrectiOnists.

On one occasion professional resur-
rectionist was walking in the vicinity of
q hospital when he saw man totter
as with O sudden faintness and then
fall. He hurried to him with the best
of impulses, but on bending over him
he found that he was dead. Immediately
the cold craft and sordid calculation of
his nature became uppermost, and, like
a consummate actor, he assumed, with
scarcely an effort, an expression and
attitude of the most poignant grief,
wringing his hands and entreating the
passers-by to assist him to carry his
"cousin to the hospital. On the next
day an inquest was made by the coro-
ner and the resurrection man laid claim
to the body and took it away with him,
ostensibly for burial with the usual
Christian rites. But instead of
graveyard he sought another hospital,
where he and his calling were we'll
known, and sold it to the faculty for a
considerable sum. One night young
practitioner who had gone to bed was
reused by the knock Of resurrection
man, and on opening the door of his
house was informed that subject was
at hand, in readiness for delivery, if he
cared to purchase it. 1t was paid for
without inspection and the doctor kick
ed it jocosely down a fight of stairs
leading into his dissecting room. Then
he turned and was about to ascend to
his bedroom when he was surprised to
hear complaining sound proceeding
from the sack which enclosed the contra
band merchandise. 1t was indistinct and
broken, but certain epithets and exple-
tives belonging to the vocabulary of the
British tar conveyed meaning to his
Mortified ear. His first thought was
that some one had been murdered for the
sake of the price of his body and that
the murderer or murderers had erred in
not doing their work effectually. He
turned, and was not little astonished
to behold man sitting erect on one of
the steps and beside him an empty sack.
When he advanced toward him the ap-
partition betrayed the greatest terror and
begged for his life. He afterward explain
ed that he had been drunk and had lain
down in stupor, when some rousta-
bout companions who did not love him
too well had slipped him into sack
and carried him off for sale. The doc
tor was victim as we'll as he, for he
had expended pounds, shillings and
pence for live subject, and thus had
been swindled.
But very horrible phase of this trade
in the images of God was that which was
developed during the Napoleonic wars.
It was long before the invention of
false teeth was perfected, and wealthy
people who had lost the first armament
which nature had given them we're will
ing to pay immense sums for sets made
up of molars and incisors from the gums
of all sorts of persons and from all
quarters of the globe. Agents were
sent from the chief cities of Great
Britain to the continent to follow the
armies, and after every battle to thor
oughly scolr the field and reap har-
vest of teeth. They carried with them
instruments made specially for the pur-
pose of extracting them, and the dead
and wounded alike we're outraged by
them. With this occupation they linked
others of less fendish character, hav-
ing first taken the care to protect them
selves by being licensed as suffers.
They truly were deserving to be called
vampires, since they must have caused
the death Of many a ptor wretch whose
legitimate wounds were not necessarily
fatal. Doubtless they were sometimes
resisted by soldiers, who possessed
create, strength than they had counted
upon, and thus were compelled to choose
an alternative between exposure and
their own punishment and the murder
of their victim. m.-NeaO York Herald.