Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1883-05-17
THE HAIR AFTER DEATH.
Instances I'm which It Has Grown To
Great Length.

N. Y. Herald.
The extraordinary fact noted in the
subjointed narrative is now for tho first
timo published
In the year 1868 the bodies in the
vaults of the church which then stood
on the north side of Carmine streets,
were removed. In some of the vaults
the collins had been ranged in rows,
as many as ten being placed on the top
of the other. Up to the time that the
removal of the bodies was begun there
had not been burial-if the placing OF
body in the vaults can be SO termed
underneath the church for seventeen
years. 1t was notsurprising, therefore,
that when the men went to work most
of the collins were found decayed, and
that where there had originally been
several collins nothing was found but a
mass of rotten wood, remnants of bones
and now and then fragments of bodies
that had held together, but had only
the bare resemblance TO skeletons of the
human body.
| There were, however, few collins
which were found to be in fair state
of preservation, but, even the majority
of these fell to pieces at the slightest
touch. The work had lasted nearly a
week when one day vault was reach
ed in which every coffin but one had
crumbled Their contents lay in scat
tered heaps on the top of the casket
which had been the first to be placed in
the vault. Strange to say, although the
workmen made rough use of their shov-
els, their coffin remained intact. and
when the last shovelful of rubbish
as the men called it-had been scraped
off the lid there was no indication that
the casket was not as strong Us the day
when it was tenderdly laid, as the
friends of tho dead ones fondly hoped,
never to be disturbed from its resting
place.
One of the laborers with q broom
swept off tho mould and dust of years
that covered portions of the lid, and
faint glinting near the center of IL
caught their watchful eyes. Holding
lantern over the coffin one of the men
found this to proceed from the plata
heavy silver one. Bending down and
scraping it with trowel the workman
described the name and age OF the per-
son who had been buried in the casket.
1t showed that the body was that of
boy of twelve years which had lain
there upwards of sixteen years. In at
tempting to lift the coffin the LID came
off, the worn and rusted screws falling
TO The ground.
The sight that met the eyes of the
lookers-on theywill probably never for
get. One of them knelt down on the
stone floor and devoutiy made the sign
of the cross. The interior of the coffin
the satin lining and the delicate fringe
that bordered it - was yellow and
mouldy, bat the body of the boy-a
handsome boy he must have been--in
its white shroud, with q broad white
silk ribbon about the waist; looked rs
though it had but recently been laid in
the coffin. The face was marble white,
the lips were half parted, as if in a
smile, and beneath the partly closed
eye-lids could be seen by the lanterns
rays the eyes themselves. The little
hands were folded across the breast, and
most wonderful of all, perhaps, was the
hair. 1t was neatly parted ut the sides,
and appeared as if it had just been
combed, for the dampness of the vaults
was upon IL, and this dampness seemed
like the trace of n wetted brush. The
hair fell in long tresses on either side,
and had curled and stretched down and
along and over tho body to the waist,
covering it here and there like thin
veil
All this was seen at glance. The
wonderful appearance of tho body re-
manned unchanged for much less time
than it takes to tell it; for, as the men
stood as if transfixed to the spot, gaz-
ing upon the child, an almost imper-
ceptiblc motion was discerned about
the face. The eyes commenced slowly
to sink, the shroud to crumble, and in
an instant almost the air had done its
work, and the frail shell that had once
doubtless been the pet of a household
faded into nothingness. When those
present (and the writer of this sketch
was one of them) had regained their
composure they stood before an almost
empty coffin; for, besides skeleton
that fell to fragments when touched,
there lay at the bottom of the casket
nothing but the glossy curls that had
once adorned the lads head in lifetime,
but had continued to grow probably for
years after the day when the grave first
claimed its own.
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 eases where bodies are
|! inferred in the usual manner. A story
was told bv Oscar Wilde ut n dinner
party in New York which illustrates
this fact. When Gabriel Dante Rossetti
was very young-scarcely more than q
boy-said Mr.. Wilde, he was deeply in
love with young girl, and, having Il
poets gift, he sang poets love in
1 numerous sonnets and verses to her.
She died young, and by her wish the
| manuscripts of the 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 be-
meath her pillow. Years passed by and
Rossetti'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 nc
copies, or they had been lost. At al
events he could furnish none, and wher
they asked him to rewrite the verses he
declared that he was utterly unable t.
do so.
| At last his friends importuned hin
for permission to have tho original man
l ,oor;nto oxbumad He copseutad affa