The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-08-28
MAKING MUMMlES.
The Curious Secret Held by an Old Wos
Virginia Mountaineer.

Virginia Mountaineor.
Three miles over the mountains from
Philippi, w. Va, is the house of G. w.
Hamrick, says the Cincinnati Enquirer.
tits flve-room Lighthouse, tho exterior
weather-boardcd, but not painted, yet
it was full of mummies, both of brutes
and human beings. Hero are mummies
that outrival any Egypt ever knew.
Tho Egyptian embalmers removed
brains and blood and viscera, and
wrapped the clay shell that was left In
bandaging, saturated with oils and ONT
ments.
In this house lie the bodies of two
adults, natural almost as in life, every
particle of skin exposed to tho air,
blood, brains AID viscera remaining.
In tho veins and arteries the blue and
black blood stands out as clear and
natural as when these people lived and
walked and knew the passions and emo
tions of being.
The finger and toe nails show the pink
flesh of life, and on the cheek Of one
who died of consumption the scarlet
mark of that disease remains clear
and distinct. For two years, exposed to
tho air, without decay or odor, these
bodies have lain in this mans house just
above his bedroom. His process is dis
covcry of his own, but it is so simple, no
says, that boy of fifteen, after single
lesson, can do the work as effectually as
the inventor himself.
The rooms OF Mr.. 1Eamricll arc minia-
ture museums. In the door that leads
to his bedroom a large white cat sits on
guard, its tongue, undecayed, lolling
up as if it were about to lap milk. For
four years that cat has been the sole
guard Of that lonesome door. On man
tel, in attitude of listening, is young
deer.
Rabbits, pigs, squirrels, chickens and
even calf are to be seen, all as natural
as in life, and all preserved by this won
derful secret. Mr.. Hamrick claims that
in an hour he can prepare body with
out making any incision of any sort or
removing any part of the body, so that
it may be taken around the world with
out ice or arsenical fluids. These two
bodies which lie in modest state in his
humble house have turned parchment
color with the hurrying of time, and the
eyes have become much sunken.
There was TO odor, no pulling up OF
the flesh. The ghastly look is wanting
and one almost feels that it is not the
solidified clay of some loved one, but a
wonderful likeness caused by a divine
sculptor from some rare wood. Think
of sleeping with these dead and petri-
fed bodies.
But this is not all that this old Won
der-worker of the mountain does. lie
can stop decay at any point. Cures
ulcers of long standing by an external
application of this discovery. BY the
same process he keeps fresh, withoutice,
salt or brine, all his meat, butter and
eggs, and does the same thing for his
neighbors. Fruit of all Sorts, vege-
tables, ETC., are kept just as easily with
out decay, and watermelons, strawber-
ries and peaches and cream are now as
sured for the Christmas dinner.
Mr.. Hamrick has made little or no
effort to put forth his process, which
such learned men as Drs. Cilley and
Freeman, OF this city; White, of Wash
ington; Doremus, of New York, and
Hordesley, of Wheeling, W. Va, pro-
nounce one of the greatest discoveries OF
the age, far ahead of what the Egyp-
tians knew. Indeed, Hamrick seems to
regard it rather as curious experiment
than otherwise,