The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-23
LINGERING LIVES.
Some Narrowing Instances of
Living Persons Being Buried.
MIND READER BISHOPS AUTOPSY.
An mcontestable Fact that there are More
Burials Alive than is Generally Supposed
Tales Told by Undertakers.

ington Irving Bishop, and the sensation Gre
ated by his mothers claim that he was not
dead, but in a trance, when the too previous
autopsy was made by Drs Irwin and Fergu-
son, directs public attention to a matter that
has often been considered not only by sci
entists but by all thoughtful men.
1t will be remembered that Bishop had
cataleptic fit Immediately after performing
a marvellous and as yet unexplained feat of
mind reading at the Lambs club-a club of
actors, journalists and literary men with
leaning towards BohemianisIn. Bishop had
often been stricken with these fits after his
performances, and seemed to consider them
a necessary and unavoidable penalty.
The performance Of his feats-whether of
mind reading, muscle reading or thought
transferance the present writer will not pre-
sumo to state-invariably threw him into a
condition of great excitability, and his pulse
not infrequently beat $50 times to the minute.
1t may be said, in passing, that this fact
would seem to be sufficiently cogent refuta-
ton Of the argument that Bishops feats were
nothing more nor less than charlatanism.
THE AUTOPSY.
The autopsy was performed, gin the inter
est of science" only six hours after Bishop
was supposed to have died. His supposed
death occurred nine or ten hours after he was
seized with the fit. Efforts are said to have
| been made to resuscitate him, and strong
| electric current was applied to the supposed
dead body.
That which would seem to establish the
fact that Bishop was not dead when the doc
tors used their knives is the fact that his
mother claims that her son was subject to
frances, and would be apparently dead for
days at a time. She states that this physical
popularity was hereditary, and that she her
self often passes into a trance like condition
She says, further, that her son always had
morbid fear that an autopsy would be per-
formed on him before life had passed from
his body. At any rate, many of the most
prominent physicians of New York, who have
been interviewed on the subject, state that
under no circumstances would they perform
an autopsy on a body before twelve hours
had elapsed since the time of death. 1t is
well known fact that it Isl matter of extreme
difficulty to determine whether or not a per-
son stricken with a cataleptic fit, and appa-
rently deprived of life, is really dead, and it
seems strange that the physicians who per-
formed the autopsy on Bishop did not have
sufficiently strong appreciation of this fact.
The second autopsy, which was held on the
demand of Bishops mother, was productive
of no important results.
BURIALS ALIVE NOT UNKNOWN.
1t has been proved beyond all contradiction
that there are more burials alive than is gen
orally supposed. Stories of these cases are
numerous. Not more than a month ago
girl died and was buried. Her father, hav-
ing an instructive feeling that she had been
buried alive, had the body exhumed. 1t was
proved that he was right The girl had
turned completely over in her coffin, her
hands were clutched in her hair and her face
showed traces of the awful agony she had
passed through.
A New York undertaken recently told the
following story, the circumstances Of which
are still remembered by old residents of the
city:
about forty years ago lady living on
Division street, New York city, fell dead ap-
parently, while in the act of dancing at
ball 1t was fashionable affair, and being
able to afford it, she wore costly jewelry.
Her husband a -four merchant, who loved
her devotedly, resolved that she should be in
TERED in her ball dress, diamonds, pearls and
all; also that there should be no autopsy. As
the weather was very inclement when the
funeral reached the cemetery, the body was
placed in the receiving vault for burial next
day. The undertaken was not a poor man,
but he was avaricious, and he made up his
mind to possess the jewelry. He went in the
night and took the lady's watch from the
folds Of her dress. He next began to draw a
diamond ring from her finger, and in doing
so had to use violence enough to tear the skin
Then the lady moved and groaned, and the
thief, terrified and conscience stricken, fled
from the cemetery, and has never been since
heard from that know of.
''The lady, after the first emotions of horror
at her unheard of position had passed over,
gathered her nerves together and stepped out
of the vault which the thief had left open
How she got home l cannot tell, but this
know-she lived and had children, two at
least of whom are alive today, and made her
husband happy, and myself, during the alb
sence of her husband, who, as 1 have said,
was q -four merchant, paid money into her
hands for goods received"
ANOTHER CASE.
Another New York undertaken told this
narrowing story. The New York papers
thirty-fve years ago were full of its CHASTITY
details:
1.-THE daughter of Court street baker
died. 1t was in winter, and the father know
ing that married sister of his dead child,
who lived in st. Louis, would like to see her
face before laid in the grave forever, had the
body placed in the vault waiting her arrival
The sister came, the vault was opened, the
lid of the coffin taken off, when, to the I'M
utterable horror of the friends assembled,
they found the grave clothes torn in shreds
and the fingers of both hands eaten off, The
girl had been buried aliven
Until about forty years ago noted family
of Virginia preserved curious custom which |
had been reigiously observed for more than |
a century. Over q hundred years ago a |
of the family died, and, upon being |
was found to have been buried |
alive. From that, time until about 1850 |
every member of the family, man, woman or
child, who died, was stabbed in the heart
with knife in the hands of the head of the
house. The reason for the cessation of this
custom was that, in 1850 or Whereabouts, a
beautiful young girl having died, the knife
was plunged into her bosom, when she gave
vent to a fearful scream and died She had
merely been in trance. The incident broke
her fathers heart, and in q fit of remorse he
killed himself not long afterward.
There are many families in the United
States which, when any Of their number dies,
insist that an artery be opened to determine
whether life has fed or not.
.Tudpe-Ts there any raacon 1vhv shall MT |