Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1883-04-25
WHOLE NO. 2ll6.
THE HAIR AFTER DEATH.
Curious Instances In Which II Has Grown
30 Great Length.

'll'lC 10 Ncl CtIlOltttINDiO SlNh Va 90
at least one-third of the cases where
bodies are inferred in the usual
A story was told by Oscar
Wilde at a dinner party in New York
which illustrates this fact. When
Gabriel Dante Rossetti was very young
scarcely more than a boy-said Mr..
Wilde, he was deeply in love with a
young girl, and, having poets gift,
he sang a poets love in numerous SON.
nets and verses to her. She died
young, and by her wish the manu-
scripts Of these poems were placed in
caSker 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 Ros-
setti's 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 He had kept
no copies, or they had been lost. At
all events he could furnish none, and
when they asked him to rewrite the
verses he declared that he was utterly
unable to do so.
At last his friends importuned him
for permission to have the original
manuscripts eXhumed. He consented
after some hesitation, and all the nee.
essary preliminaries having been com.
piled with the grave which had been
sealed for many years was opened.
Then a strange thing was found
The casket containing the poems had
proved to be of perishaOle material and
its cover had crumbled away. The
long tresses Of the girl had grown after
death and had twined and intertwined
among the leaves Of the poets paper,
coiling around the written words of
love in q loving embrace long after
death had sealed the lips and dimmed
the eye that had made response to that
love.
There is nothing improbable in the
story 50 far as it relates to the physical
phenomenon. That hair grows after
death is too we'll established a fact tt
be challenged, and is readily enough tc
be understood by any one who viii,
give even little study to its forma'
ton, it being an appendage to the
human form, and not, strictly speak
ing, part Of it. 1t might indeed be
almost called friendly parasite.
A we'll known New York under
taker said: "a gentleman who had
lost his little boy five or six years
before came to the establishment where
| was working and said he wanted
the remains taken up and carried to
Boston. He had moved to that city,
where he 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 cemetery,
This gentleman was anxious to see for
himself that everything was done right
and went over with me to Greenwood
We had buried the child and there was
not any trouble about finding the right
grave and the right coffin, but he was
nervous about it. lie insisted or
having the coffin opened after it wa:
taken up and seeing for himself that
there was no mistake. had it done
and as soon rs he saw the body he said
4 knew it; that isn't my boy. His
hair was cut short while he was sick
and look at that In this case there
was rather unusual growth.
should say the hair was a foot long
In cases where the body has beer
buried a good many years-say hun
dred years-thc hair is sometime
found a yard long on a mans head
and much longer, of course, on
woman's."
Another undertaken said that he wa
employed at one time to remove
great number of bodies that had beer
buried in a cemetery which had beer
sold. They had lain undisturbed TO
an average of about twenty-five years
and in nearly ene-half the cases tn
hair on the heads of the men was from
q foot to foot and a half long. il
cases of women it was evident enoug
from the arrangement Of their hal
that it had grown u great deal afte
death. There was no way, so far as h
knew, of determining what causes tn
difference between cases, some hal
growing and other apparently no
growing or only growing a little, hu
he said he believed that in cases @
fever there was apt to be such a growtl
1t might be supposed that if posi-
mortem growth of hair is as commo
as has been indicated mention of tn
fact would have been made in the az
counts that have been preserved Of tn
remains of noted persons after buria
but the only such instance that is II
called is that of Napoleon |. OF hil
it is said that when his body was II
moved from st. Helena to France
was found that the hair had grown t
a great ength.--Nem York herald.
Deal very gently with those who al
on the downhill of life. Your ow
time is coming to be where they no
are. You too are stepping westward