The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-12-18
THE CORPSE WAS MAD.
His Wife Dressed Him TooShabbily
for the Grave.

A Galway gentleman tells ID London
Rare Bits the following humorous story
of unexpected resuscitation:-
THAT many people are buried alive is
beyond a doubt. / know an instance
happened in my own establishment, for
our huntsman, Jack Burke, was the sub
ject of it. Jack had a dangerous illness
a fever, L think it was-and, to all appear
ance, died. He was duly coffined and as
duly walked, and such a wake and funeral
were never remembered i'll Galway, Tor
Jack was a universal favorite, a character
and a wag, and crowds came from far
and near to the burying. The bewailing
cries were SO loud as the procession moved
along the road that they could be heard
Il mile off, and by the time they reached
the churchyard all were hoarse with cry
ing;
at is the custom in these parts TO carry
the coffin three times round the church,
after which it is laid by the side of the
open grave. All present sink upon their
knees in prayer, the men reverently I'M
covering. The immediate relatives of the,
deceased close round the remains, and
for some minutes there is total silence.
The contrast between this deathlike hush
and the loud cry of the funeral wall is
striking, and the appearance of the mo-
tionless kneeling crowd very impress
sive.
ION the present occasion the path
round the church vas rough and stony
and the ground uneayen with graves
so that poor Jack while being carried
his three rounds was sadly jolted in his
coffin.
"a rousing leap we had to take surely,
when we came to Tom Grady's tomb
stone said one of the bearers afterward.
Enough to wake the dead, it was. We
couldn't put our feet upon the new, clean
grave, and the dacent maj not a week
inside, SO there was nothing else but to
hop it.
jolted into Jack by this hop is uncer-
tain, but certain it is that the dead silence
customary after laying down the coffin
was broken, not by the usual smothered
sobs, but by vehement thumpings at the
lid!
at was quickly opened and Jack sat
up. After staring round with an air of
comical bewilderment on his astonished
friends a great coat was thrown over his
grave clothes and he was helped up on a
jaunting car, and in this plight was
driven home.
1.-The old woman who had been left be-
hind to keep the house when all went to
the funeral, and who was telling her
beads over the kitchen fire, was nearly
frightened out of her senses at the appari-
ton. There was some difficulty in per-
suading her that it was Jack himself and
not his ghost she saw
Meantime Jack had drained a bowl of
milk that was on the dresser, and now
looked wildly about.
is it wanting anything We are, my
poor fellow?' said his friends. Lie down
now and compose yerself. A drop of
spirits, with a bit of nourishment and q
stretch on the bed, will do We good after
the start We got finding yerself in the
coffin. There now, be aisy, dop
But Jack would not be aisy.' He
kept glazing about him and searching for
something. staggering here and there,
looking behind doors and shutters and
peeping into %cupboards.
'tArrah, will you get out of my way
and leave me alone" cried Jack. Its
my wife, bad luck to herl when she comes
home, And if | don't give her such a
lambastiu' as never mortal woman got
before my AMI isn't Jack Burke, that's
all Look here r he exclaimed, plucking
at his ~shirt-which had seen better days
while he painted with rage and weakness.
six brand new shirts, whole and sound
as the day they left the weaver-without
tear or rent, patch or darn left behind
me; and look at the rags she dresses up
my poor carcass in making a fool of me
in the coffin when Pm dead and gone, and
bringing me to shame before the neigh
bors and country. All the stingy one!to
grudge the dacent linen to the boy that
owned her Only let me catch sight of
her. and see if Idon't make her four bones
smart for it =
with much difficulty poor Jacks
wrath was Gained, and he was got to bed
by his friends, Mrs. Jack, in the mean
time, wisely keeping out of the way. He
never forgave her the ragged shirt-to
him the feature in the affair.
"To make an appearance at their burial
is the ambition of the lower orders of
Irish, They will undergo privations
sooner than pawn or wear the sacred I'M
dergarment laid up to dress the corpse
in Thus it was that the indignity to his
remains was so paramount in Jacks
mind, that ever after it completely set in
the background his narrow escape from
the dreadful fate of being buried alive"