The Opelousas courier., 1889-08-03

land then there was anotbon
o fnas happened about twelve wears ease
d coio winter night, the snow . fso.
oeep' l was notified tbat Au" q 100,
WIZ under mysterious circumstanceS
wan my closed wagon and driver
"en TO the house designated and fo,,nd
anu powerful mulatto lvino m .
mattfess on the floor. The woma ou d
p that the man had entered the
ereat 'wo hours before, apparently in
scat agony, and thrown himsalf ,,na-
oeo. 80 evident were his strnad1as
mat lest he might fall from Tho &c .es
.hey mad placed mattress and man a.
can,a he was too heavy for us to
sarrJ easy SO the driver took him ~,
sne ieet and grasped the shouldars
"nu mus we dragged him to the stair.
way SID him down to the sidewalk
~ managed to shove him feet fore.
0 INTO the wagon through the door
aI the rear When I attemnted ~
olose ne door | found that the bodv
was longer than the wagon. Bv rails
Ing the head and propping it up on a
plliow l 1oreshortened the BODY so
lhaC the door could be shut and fast.
eneo and drove to my Office, nearly a
1nen came a surprise. On opening
.he door to remove the body ! saw
1nat the MAI had rolled over IN his
sue This man is alive | said to nv
a''enoant, and proceeded to place nv
hano on the small of his back. irectIy
over the kidneys, the place where
natural heat is longest retained. AID
sure enough, though the head and
hands were cold as death. the back
was quite warm. A patrol-wagon was
summoned and by the time the sup
posed corpse reached the station there
was irregular breathing; few minutes
later the breathing was regular and
natural"
did the man recseT'
HE was taken to the hospital and
llVed ten days. | buried him then"
but | must not forget to tell YOU a
good joke on the late Inspector John
Bonfield and n that illustrates his
peculiar methods. A year or two ago
pdrunken man quarreled with a street
car conductor, and was pushed or
thrown from the car. He fell on his
back, was rendered unconscious by the
conclusion, pronounced dead by by
ISLANDERS, placed in a patrol-wagon,
brought to my Office, and turned over
to me as a corpse. He soon revived
OF his own motion and I summoned
another wagon and had him removed
to the police station, where he was
booked IS drunk and d~isorderly.'
Bonfeld ordered the arrest of the con-
ductor and driver of the car and had
them locked up. He then informed
the night reporters that a murder had
been committed and that he had the
perpetrators under sarrest. Of course
they came to me fr certain partic-
ulars, and the next morning all the
papers published the facts. When Bon
field read the reports he tele phoned to
the station: Kick that driver and con-
ductor out They had been held all
night on a charge of murder, while
the supposed victim was quietly sleeps
ing off his drunk. The fellow was
fined five dollars and costs next morn
ing"
The many casa of suspended anima-
ton reported reel pity have made nerv-
Gus people more nSgyous than before.
There is more fear IF being buried
alive than of the GRIM monster him
self. To counterfeit thissear by pro-
viding some certain test ssat will
discriminate between permanent and
temporary death and suspended aRSiS
nation medical scientists have lona
been striving. Electric and galvanIe
batteries have all been tried, as have
all nerve excitants known to the ma
terra medica, and yet there is positive
proof in the revelations of the tomb
that in many all have failed
and that the mible victim has con-
sciously endured the horrors of torture
of gradual s~uffocation in the grave.
Since ante-burial methods have failed
Iatterlv attention has been directed to
the possibility of devising a way by
,Sch a person actually buriedA alive
IAN inform the outer world of hi ter
/. rible condition and be rescued. Nwo
years ago letters patent were granted
to two Chicago men, whose invention
consists of an apparatus having one or
more electric circuits and an indicator
and alarm located therein and one or
ssore burial caskets and make-and-
break devices located in the caskets,
connected with the circuit wires and
arranged to be operated BYE move
ment of the body within thescasket;
also Of an air or gas reservoir arrangeS
in connection with the casket n
operated by the circuit to furnish a
sunply of air or disappearing gas to
the body within. It is claimed tnat a
motion of a foot or an arm TO the e1-
tant of one thirty-second of an inch,
whether by contraction or expansion.
will sound the alarm The design
intended to supply fresh air in cases OF
resuscitation consists of a magnet
shaped cylinder, the armatures nelng
on either side of the head, ana IL Is
onened simultaneously with the sound
inc Of the alarm. This will prevent
s~nffocation until a rescue is effected.
Tn case of an alarm the ordinary
nrocess of shoyeling Sut the earth