The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-03
Snaesson gntelligenrer.
THE HAIR AFTER DEATH.
Dante Gabriel Roasettrs Romance--Tho 10
Hair OF Napoleon tho Great.

Hair OF Napoleon tho Great.
Most people understand that hair does
sometimes grow after death, but there are
perhaps few who know that there is q
very considerable growth in at least one
third of the cases where bodies are inter-
red in the usual manner. A story was
told by Oscar Wilde at dinner party in
New York which illustrates this fact.
When Gabriel Dante Rossetti was very
young-scarccy more than boy-said
Mr. Wilde, he was deeply in love with n
young girl, and having poets gift, lie
sang poets love in numerous sonnets
and verses to her. She died young, and
by her wish the manuscripts of those
poems were placed in casket and laid
under her head SO that even in the last
sleep they should be, AS they always had
been, kept beneath her pillow. Years
passed by and Rossettis fame grew until
every line of his composition became
precious, and some Of those who priced
his writings most asked him for copies
Of the songs that had been buried. lie
had kept no copies, or they had been lost.
At all events he could furnish none, and
when they asked him to rewrite the yer
ses he declared that ne WAS utterly unnbie
to do SO.
At last his friends imrorluned him for
permission to have the original manu-
scripts exhumed. He consented after
some hesitation, and all the necessary
preliminaries having been complied with,
the grave which had been cealed for
many years was opened.
Then strange thing was found. The
casket containing the poems had proven
to be Of perisiable material AID it's cover
had crum0led away. The long tresses Of
the girl had grown after death and had
twined and interwincd among he leaves
of the poets paper, coiling around the
written words of loving embrace long
after death had sealed the lips and dim
med The eye that had made response to
that love.
There is ncthiHg improbable in the
story so far Us it relates TO the physical
phenomenon. That hair grows after
death is too we'll established fact to be
challenged, and is readily enough to be
understood by any one who will give
even little study to its formation, it
being an appendage to the human form,
and not. strictly speaking, part of it.
1t might indeed be almost called
friendly parasite.
A we'll known New York undertaken
said: "a gentleman who had lost his
little boy five or six years before came to
the establishment where wns working
and said he wanted the remains taken
up and carried to Boston. He had nov
ed to that city. where ho had lost another
child, and his wife was anxious that
they should both be buried in the plot
he had bought in the Laurel Hill Come
terry. This gentleman was anxious to
see for himself that everything was done
right, and went over with me TO Green.
wood. We had buried the child, aud
there WAS not any trouble about finding
he was nervous about it, He insisted
op having the coffin opened after it was
taken up and seeing for himself that
there was no mistake. had it done,
and as soon as he saw the body he said:
Il knew it; that isn't my boy. His hair
was cut short whilc he was sick, and look
at that! In this case there was rather
unusual growth. should say the hair
was foot long. In cases where the body
has been buried good many years-say
hundred years the hair is sometimes
found n var! long on mans head, aud
!nnch longer, Of course, on woman's."
Another undertaken said that he was
employed at one time to remove n great
number Of bodies that had been buried
in cemetery which had been sold.
They had lain undsturbcd for an average
Of about seventy-iive years, and in nearly
one half the cases the hair on the heads
of the men was from foot to foot and
9 hal! long. In cases o: women it w.:s
evident enough from the arrangement of
their hair that it had grown grent deal
after death. There was no way, 30 far
as he knew, of determining what causes
the difference between cases, somo hair
growing and others apparently not grow
ing or only growing little, but he said
he believed that In cases of fever there
was ant to Be a.:ch c growth.
It might be supposed that If a post
mortem growth of hair is as common as
has been indicated, mention of the
fact would have been preserved Of the
removal Of the remains of noted persons
after burial; but the only such instance
that is recalled is that of Napoleon I.
or him 1t is said that when his body was
removed from st. Helena to France, it
was found that the hair had grown to n