Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-06-17
A CAVE OF HORRORS.

Of Young DcUins.
The finding of the body of Hon. j. Scott
Harrison in the Cincinnati Medical college
has had the effect of stimulating the search
for that of young Devins, whose grave was
robbed about the. same time. The search
has been prosecuted to Ann Arbor, where it
is thought the body has been discovered in
pickle with some forty EIGHT others, in the
cellar of the medical department of the Uni
versity of Michigan. correspondent of
the Cincinnati Enquirer, who accompanied
the detective and sheriff to the gigantic
charnel house, thus describes the scene:
Obtaining the necessary documents, Col.
Snelbaker, the detective, obtained the assist
ance of Sheriff Case, and just as the sun was
sinking behind the western hills the descent
was made upon the college.
The building, great, gloomy old stone
pile, situated on the outskirts of the town,
was found nearly deserted, the school term
having closed, and nobody but the janitor
| in charge. After some protestations on his
part, which were quoted by the display of
documentary authority, he led the way to the
cellar under the building, where he admitted
| there were few bodies which had been re-
Gently sent in, and been put in pickle by
himself.
He at first stoutly demurred, refusing to
turn up the bodies; but, finding the sheriff
in no mood for trifiing, quietly led the way
to the door of the cellar. AS it was opened
| sickly stencil, the odor of dead decom-
| posing bodies, was emitted, stopping the
party, for an instant only, when the de-
termined Snelbacker, urging them forward,
descended to the cellar, accompanied by the
sheriff and your correspondent.
There, ranged along the side of the walls,
| we're three monstrous watts containing a
large number of dead bodies floating in
brine. Piled high above these were num-
Der of empty collins rudely broken open and
rifed of their precious dead, while upon
rough table in the centre of the room was a
mixture of red paint and nitrate of silver,
used for injecting the veins. A paint-mill
on a table at hand showed that large quanti-
ties of this mixture was prepared and
used, aud scattered about the
room promiscuously were empty boxes
and barrels and trunks and casks, in
which the bodies had been shipped hither
from Cincinnati and other points, Some of
these, the bodies having been removed, were
now filled with collections of thigh bones,
ribs, skulls, and other fragments of human
| DOAASo' IAOAA CAo S1SdC CdIlhS wherein
hoated the dead, came sickening odor,
which, while it nearly overpowered those of
the party unused to such an experience,
seemed rather pleasant perfume to the old
Ghoul Negley, who, with terrible grimaces
and contortions of the body, as though in
anticipation of the horrors he was about to
display, advanced to his work.
First he hurled from their places huge
rocks which had been placed above to weigh
down and keep in place the bodies. Then
with barred arms, and an expression of fendish
satisfaction, he began reaching down into
the watts in search of the bodies. AS the
weights were removed they foated to the
| surface, and were seen to be closely packed
| in tierces in the watts, like so many slaugh-
tered hogs packed for market.
First next to the front was the body of a
young and handsome woman of about 20,
with long, golden hair, matted and discol-
ored by the filthy brine into which the body
had been rudely thrown. The face was one
of great beauty, and though discolored by
the process, still showed that it was the face
of one who in life had known no want, and
| and upon which the cares of life had left no
traces. Alongside of it, naked as the first,
lay the body of large negro, in an ad-
vanced state of decomposition, the black
skin, in large clots, slipping from its place,
aud revealing the discolored flesh. AS the
body foated to the surface with that of the
woman, the short, kinky wool was falling
from the head and floating in the water,
mingling with the golden tresses of the
| woman at his side.
Next in order beyond and pressing against
the body of the negro was that of an old
man, his feet incased in rough, filthy wooden
socks, the body again naked, the eyes sunk
deep in the sockets, the mouth opened and
filled with the liquid in which it foated,
the features distorted and discolored beyond
recognition, the shaggy, gray whiskers cut
slipped from the face.
AS old Negley made dive at the body
preparatory to hauling it out of the vat,
! aided by stalwart student whom he had
pressed into the service, the old man prepar-
ed to remove the bodies from the vat, in
order that he might see whether or not
| those for whom we searched were there.
Selling the first roughly by the head and
shoulders, his assistant grasping the feet, the
body was lifted to the edge of the vat, and
without word of caution or show of ten
derness, OF even the consideration human
would use toward dead animal, it was
tumbled rudely to the stone floor, the beauti-
full head which had been pillowed on some
manly bosom striking hard upon the stone
floor, the shapely limbs and well-rounded
form thrown prone into the cellar filth and
bones, and the golden, streaming hair sod
den down with the filth Of the vat, falling as