Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1889-07-12
DEAD OR ALIVE?
EERIE STORIES ABOUT PRENIA-
TURE BURIALS.
How the Cardinal Thrilled the
French Senate-The Story OF
Ginevra-A Shiyery Tale
ola Spectre Guest.

CURED IN the Frencn Sendtc-a sceuo III
real life that would have been voted i'm
possible on the stage.
A petition had been presented point
ing out the dangers of hasty interments
and suggesting measures for their preven-
ton NJ de la Gueronniere proposed to
shelve it. But the venerable Cardinal
Donnet, Archbishop of Bordeaux, arose
in support of the petition.
His argument was long and interest
ing. He had himself, he said, while yet
cure, saved several persons from being
buried alive. He had seen a man taken
from his coffin and restored to health.
He had seen the body of a young lady
laid out for dead, the attendants cover
ing her face as he entered, yet allowing
him to observe so much as convinced
him she was not dead, but sleeping.
With a loud voice he cried out that he
was come to save her.
s'You do not see me, perhaps" " he
said, "but you hear what am saying"
And she did hear. His voice reached
her numbed sensations. She made a
mighty effort and woke into life.
"That young GIRL" said the Arch
bishop in the midst of profound silence,
sis to-day wife, the mother of children
and the chief happiness of two of the
most distinguished families in Paris"
But the Archbishop had another and
still more impressive story to tell. In
1926 young priest tainted in the pulpit
and was given up for dead. He was
measured for the coffin, the funeral bell
was tolled, the De Profundis was recited.
Meanwhile the seeming corpse could hear
all that was going on. "You will easily
feel how impressive was the agony of the
living in that situation. At last, amid
the murmurs around hin, he distinguished
the voice of one known to him from
childhood. That voice produced a
marvellous effect and stimulated him to
superhuman effort. OF what followed |
need say no more than that the seeming
dead man stood next day in the pulpit
from which he had been taken for dead.
That young priest, gentlemen" and here
the old mans voice thrilled every listener;
"that young priest is the man who stands
before you to-day-more than forty years
later-entreating those in authority not
merely to vigilantly enforce execution of
the legal requirements in regard to burials,
but to enact fresh ones that may prevent
the occurrence of firreparable misfortunes. J"
In spite of official resistance the Senate
voted that the petition should be referred
to the Minister of the Interior. Some of
its notifications of existing laws were
eventually adopted. But the French, like
the English, have always resisted the in
novation of mortuary chambers, such as
the German and other nations have
adopted, in which the dead are retained
for time before interment. Here me-
chanical appliances are so arranged that
the slightest motion on the part of the
buried would sound an alarm and sum-
mon an attendant. Since 1928, however,
when the system was adopted, not a sin
gle case of apparent death has been
proved to occur. OF course this negative
1,o ~
either for or against the system.
History is full of instances of burial
during suspended animation, many of
which from their grewsome and startling
character have passed into literature.
said to have been buried while in a fit,
in the absence of his servant and of all
who know that such fits were periodical
with him. When the servant returned
he insisted on opening the vault. The
corpse was found dead then beyond hope,
but bearing all the evidence of terrible
struggle, one hand being bitten off and
half eaten. 1t was no doubt the finding
of other corpses in similar condition
after burial that led to the hideous
medieval superstition of vampires, which
fed upon human bodies.
A celebrated romance of real life, which
has also found curious counterparts more
or less authenticated in all lands and peri
ods, is the Florentine story of Ginevra.
Married against her inclination in the year
400 to Francesca degli Agolanti, the one
of her two lovers who loved her least,
Ginevra was buried alive during trance
which looked like death. At midnight
she awoke, and horror-struck, made her
way out of the vault to her husbands
house. But he, sorrowful for her death
as he was, refused to believe that this pale
revenante crying at his door was aught