St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-05-19
ALIVE IN THE GRAVE.
A st. Paul Attorneys Horri-
BILE Experience as q
Cataleptie.
Three Days In a Coffin, He
Heard Talk Of an
Autopsy.
Finally Saved by the Acct
dental Slip Of a Screw
Driver.
A st. Paul Man Whose Beard
N~oyvv mt APkon
A st. Paul Man Whose Beard
Grew Out After
Death.

"It was horrible. horrible. sir-I lay
i'll that coffin alive and just as conscious
of what was going on around me as l
am at this moment. have always been
| of a hysterical temperament, and on
one grievous occasion had lain in a
cataleptic state for twenty-four hours.
This last time I lay for three days, per-
| fectly conscious, as said before, but to
all appearance as dead as Caesar"
The speaker was we'll known young
attorney of st. Paul, who related the
story of his thrilling experience with
catalepsy, conditionally, that his name
be withheld from publication.
| SIT has been said," continued the
hero of this blood-curdling adventure,
''that there are infallible signs which
| denote death, and are nnmistakable to
the practiced eye OF the medico. I deny
has had better opportunity of judg-
ing than have /. When 1 died,
OF rather when three of the best-known
medical men in Boston had asserted
that was dead. had been for three
days previous to my supposed demise,
in a condition of violent hysteria. bor-
dering almost on insanity, owing to the
death of sister whom l loved to dis
| l subsidized into the condition have pre-
viously described. My death was at
tributed by the learned disciples of Es-
culapiuS to disease of the heart.
THE THREE OLD FOGIES
held consultation over me, and /
heard them discuss the ACCESSIBILITY of a
post mortem examination. there being
a slight difference of opinion among
them as to what was the actual cause.
At this time / was lying on board,
perfectly rigid, and fully realized the
fact that 1 should be buried alive if I
couldn't brace up and explain matters
within the next few hours, immedi-
ately blessed my mother and brother
for their refusal to allow those old
butchers to go for me with their
knives. That's all that saved me, I
tell you. This seems wild story, but
Just the same it's true one. Why. I
can even remember laughing quietly to
myself to think that the windows had
been opened all rou nd the room. twas
devilish cold weather. too; but could
not feel the cold much. knew, how
ever, that those windows had been
opened to prevent the decompo-
s s Of Of my i IL. frame;
the fix? Well, it was just by the skin
of my teeth. When the undertaken and
his fool assistant brought the coffin and
l was lifted into it, knew at once that
that coffin was too short, and just ached
to save my life. I was tongue
tied; hadn't control of a muscle.
The merest accident in the world pre-
vented my being buried alive. l had
been lying in the awful condition have
described for over three days, when
that beast of an unde rtaker came round
again to
SCREW UP THE COFFIN.
A tack had been left sticking out
from the drapery graclng the interior of
my sarcOphagus, and the fellow in the
coffin business commenced a series of
vicious jabs at it with sharp edged
screw driver. On one of these occasions
the instrument struck nail head, and
flying off at a tangent took me on the
jaw with considerable force. The blood
spouted forth and / instantly re-
gained the use of my limbs.
1 wanted to knock seven kinds
of blue fire out of the coffin man, and
was out of that in no time. The under
taker skipped, but / put it all over his
assistant, / am ashamed to say, for the
man was too Mortified at my resurrec-
ton to defend himself in the. least.
Now you can just bet am as healthy a
man as the most of them nowadays,
and I've issued strict orders that in the
event of my death l am not to be buried
until an artery has been opened and
my decease absolutely proven"
A LOCAL PHYSICIAN TALKS.
A we'll known st. Paul physician
ills, which is now receiving more atten-
ton than has ever before been accorded
it. "Catalepsy," he says, 'sseldom or
never attacks people Of sluggish
temperament. 1t is a form of
hysteria, and is peculiar to persons
of hysterical disposition. People get
some very curious notions about the
length of time, for instance, for which
a person may lie under six feet of dirt,
in state of catalepsy, without death
ensuing. Pll tell you an incident. A
few years ago there died at the::hospital
in this city a man about thirty years old.
He was one of those daylight sleep
ers, according to his own state
before the interment occurred. Of
course, the man was shaved before
being buried, and when saw him in
the coffin his face was as smooth as an
infants. The man was buried in Oak
land cemetery and news was sent
to his wife in Chicago, who, by the
way, is now resident of this
city, apprising her of the fact.
A few weeks later the lady came here
from Chicago, and not liking the
place where the body lay, she ordered
the remains exfumed. The lid was
wrenched off the coffin in the operation,
and by the great Scott! the fellow had
raised a beard an inch long since his
interment. The dead mans wife re-
marked that he had not been given
decent burial, and like fool 1 assured
her that her husband had been clean
shaved and buried
LIKE A CHRISTIAN.
That settled it. The woman at once
asserted that her husband was buried
in fit of catalepsy, and that he must
have been alive for over week for his
beard to grow that long. Reasoning
was useless, and / believe the lady
holds to her original idea to this day.
Now the hair on a dead
body will continue to grow
for many days after life is extinct, and
this fact has in many cases given rise 10
the susposition that people have been
buried alive. No, sir; in my opinion
cases of burying alive in this day and
age of the world are few and far be-
tween, although there are conditions
under which such thing might occur.