Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-04

ST. LOUIS, May IA most remarkable
case of catalepsy is reported from South st.
Louis, names being suppressed, for the rea-
son that the victim is so weak that the com.
motion certain to be aroused by knowlI
edge of her identity and consequent exciteA
ment among her neighbors would be fatal.
The story is to the effect that young mar
ried woman, 25 years of age, was in her
coffin and about 10 be taken out for burial,
when her husband saw her arm move,
ordered her taken out of the coffin at once,
called in two physicians who after an ex4
animation, pronounced life not extinct and
began process Of resuscitation.
Their efforts were successful, and the
woman was in short time brought back to
consciousness. This story was,told to her
sister, young married woman, who lives at
721 South Fourth street. The sister related
the following facts in connection with the
strange case:
A STRANGE STORY.
"Last Monday my sister, who had been
sick but a few days, died as far as we could
see, and the attending physician pronounced
her dead, and her husband proceeded to
make arrangements for the faneral. A
coffin was secured, and when the supposed
corpse was dressed it was lald in the coffin.
The intention was to have the funeral
Tuesday afternoon. Friends of the family
visited the house and mourned over the
body from which the spirit had it was be-
heved, departed. On Tuesday afternoon, a
short time before the closing of the coffin
was to have taken place, my brother-in-law
was standing,before the bier looking at the
face of his wife, when his little boy came
into the room and said: I want to look at
mamma
"Just then the arm of my sister moved,
Ny husband saw it and was naturally very
much startled. He informed the people in
the most excited manner Of what he had
seen, and my sister was at once taken from
the coffin and placed on bed and two ply.
sicians summoned.
POSITIVE SIGNS OF LIFE.
'They placed glass in front Of my sis;
ter's face, and all could at once perceive the
signs of breath upon it. They then began
to work with her, and after short while
more positive signs of life began to appear.
She kept getting better all the time until
finally she became conscious.
fThe most terrible feature about it all is
that she knew perfectly everything that
was going on around her. When she was
being dressed for burial she realized what
was being done, and tried her best to show
signs of life, but could not do so. When
she was placed in the coffin an awful feel
ing of what was to be her doom CT GoYeF
her, she ssys;ahdshe tried to scream and
thought that she succeeded, but Of course
she did not.
When she came to and related to us an
account of the mental torture she had exl
perienced during the time her trance lasted
she said: Where wereyou whenI screamed?
HER EFFORTS TO SCREAM.
We told her that she had not screamed OF
we surely would have heard her. Well,
she said, I tried to scream often, and
thought once I had succeeded in emitting q
Shrek When she was lying in the coffin
she tried to move, but failed until her little
child came running into the room, and
asked to look at her. Then her arm crsmped,
and her husband, who was standing by the
coffin, fortunately happened to see it. Had
be not, she would certainly have been buried
alive
The story was further eorroborated by A.
Hartwig, grocery keeper at S27 South
Fourth street, who said be saw the girl who
told the story, dressed in black and crying,
going by his store Monday, and when his
wife asked her what the matter was, she
said her sister was dead and she was going
to the funeral. She afterward told them
the story Of her sister being brought back
to life. ALI efforts to ascertain the name Of
the woman who was so nearly buried alivef
or the names of the physicians in attend4
anee, have thus far failed.