St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-13
IN THE WRONG COFFIN.
Much Confusion Caused by a Sim
gular Mistake.

Much CONFUSION Caused by Sim
gular Mistake.
Public curiosity has been reused by
reports of the extraordinary confusion
which nearly led to the body of Alfred
Linnell being buried In place of that of
another patient on Saturday, says the
Pail Mall Gazette. The following are
the facts, which point to the conclusion
that other minds at the hospital besides
that of Mr.. Smith have been in a strange
state of misappfehensiOn and confusion:
A man of the name of Ham had died in
day the undertaken employed by his
relatives called at the hospital to ask
when he would be allowed to re-
move the body. AS matter of
fact an inquest had been Or
dered to be held on the re-
mains in question; however, the
undertaken was told that he might re-
move them at once, and body, which
he was assured was that of Ham, was
handed over to him. This he incased
and conveyed to the relatives, and in
the ordinary course of affairs it would
have been inferred by the widow as the
corpse of her late husband. She, how
ever, wished to take last look at the
uCCCdoCus Ullu GllC IcllOfdl VI
coffin lid, what was her horror to dis
cover the features of an entire stranger!
The body which had been made over to
the relatives of James Ham was that of
Alfred Linnell. Mrs. Ham, with her
sister, at once took steps to return the
body. and went to the hospital to ask
for the remains of Mr.. Ham. They
were naturally much agitated by so
painful an incident, and were indig-
nant to find the affair trea ed
in the most Off-hand manner,
both at the hospital and at
the mortuary, whittier the remains had
now been removed under a wrong
name. Mrs. Ham has since received
proper expressions of regret from the
secretary, Instructed by the board; but
were unfortunate enough to fall in with
E.. j. Smith and with underlings who
took their tone from this most courteous
of house surgeons.
"WeH, what do you want here?" said
Mr.. Smith, and on hearing that it was
her husbands body that Mrs. Ham
wanted, and why, he proceeded to show
his consideration for the feeling natural
to her situation and his regret for so in
eXcusable mistake by turning his back
on her without word, Struggling his
shoulders and walking up stairs, leav-
ing Mrs. Ham and her sister in indig-
nation and surprise in the hall.
But the strange features of this
strange story are not yet exhausted. On
proceeding to the mortuary Mrs. Ham
asked leave to see the body which was
labeled Linnell, and which she natur-
ally supposed had been interchanged
for her husbands. At first the authori-
ties would not hear of it. "You see the
name is Linnell," she was told; she
must be mistaken.
f However, as the body which had been
sent to her was certainly Linnell's land,
from its frightful injury, unmistakable
enough, one would think the inspection
was afterward allowed. 1t then came
to light that though the body labeled
with LiDnell's name was not his,
neither, indeed, was it that of Mr.. Ham,
VIII ;e relatives finally discovered his
remains under the name of third per-
son deceased, whose corpse was the one
which passed under the name of Lin
nell. This extraordinary story of
changing corpses and ineXplicable con-
fusion being thus concluded, the body
of Mr.. Ham was at last made over to
his distressed friends, and was inferred
Oh the following Thursday