St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-06-11
STORY OF A COFFIN.
A Dead Body Was Put in 1t, but
When 1t Was Opened Nothing
but the ShrOud Was There,

A Dead Body Was Put in 1t, but
When 1t Was Opened Nothing
but the Stroud Was There.
One evening in the summer of 1913
William Hayner Gordon, Of Philadel-
phia, lay in his bed reading Goldsmith's
Traveller" by the light of wax
candle.
1t was about II o'clock, says the San
Francisco Examiner. The room was in
the third story of the house and had
two windows looking out upon Chest
nut street; there was no bal cOny, moth
ing below the windows but other
windows in a smooth brick wall.
Becoming drowsy, Mr.. Gordon laid
away his book, eXtinguished his candle
and composed himself to sleep.
A moment later (as he afterward
averred), he remembered that he had
neglected to place his watch within
from the pocket of his waiStcoat, which
he had hung on the back of chair on
the opposite side of the room, near one
of the windows.
In crossing, his foot came in contact
with some heavy object and he was
thrown to the floor.
Rising. he struck a match and lighted
his candle.
In the center of the room lay the dead
body of man.
Mr.. Gordon was no coward, as he
afterward proved by his gallant death
upon the enemy's parapet at Chapulte-
pee, but this strange apparition of a
human corpse where but moment be-
fore, as he believed, there had been
nothing, was too much for his nerves,
and he cried aloud.
Henri Granier, who occupied an adj
Joining room, but had not retired, came
instantly to Mr.. Gordon's door and at
tempted to enter.
The door being bolted and Gordon too
terrified to open it, Granier burst it in.
Gordon was taken into custody and
an inquest held, but what has been re-
lated was all that could be aScertained.
The most diligent efforts on the part of
the police and the press failed to iden-
tify the dead.
Physicians testifying at the inquest
agreed that death had occurred but
few hours before the discovery, but
none were able to divine the cause. All
the organs of the body were in an ap-
parently healthy condition. There were
traces of neither violence nor poison.
Eight or ten months later Mr.. Gordon
received letter from Charles Ritcher
in Bombay, relating the death in that
city of Charles FarQuharSen, whom both
Gordon and Ritcher had known when
all were boys.
1nclosed.in the letter was daguereo-
type of the deceased, found among his
effects.
So nearly as the living can look like
the dead it was an exact likeness Of
the mysterious body found in Mr.. Cor
don's bedroom, and it was with: a
strange feeling that Gordon observed
that the death, making allowance for
the difference of time, was said to have
occurred on that very night.
He wrote for further particulars. with
especial reference to what disposition
had been made of FarquharsOn's body.
''YOu know he turned ParSee long
ago." wrote Ritcher in reply, $50 his
naked remains were exposed on the
grating of the Tower of Silence, as
those of all good Parsees are. saw the
bnZZards fighting for them and gorgir g
themselves helpless on his fragments. .
On some pretense Gordon and his
friends obtained authority to open his
dead mans grave. The coffin was there
and had evidently not been disturbed.
They unscrewed the lid. The shroud
was there, trifle mouldy.
There was no body nor any yestige of
one