Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-08-28
90 suRlALs ALIVE


= He6acol journal Soyv SCH Stories Are
Unfounded.
Very comforting news is brought TO
those who stand in daily dread of being
buried alive The current number of
the Medical ana Surgical Reporter says:
The fear OF being buried alive haunts
the minds OF % many of our fellow
men that it may hardly be regarded as
strange, in some respects. that it was re-
Gently reported that number of physi-
clans in . city near Philadelphia had
banded themselves together TO devise
means to prevent such a catastrophe in
their own case And. when physicians
could take such measures in view of a
supposed danger. it is not remarkable
that the community should have
special and exaggerated horror of being
buried alive. But this horror is as with
out reason as is the timidity OF the ply
sicians referred to. There seems to be
no good ground whatever for supposing
that it IS possible in this enlightened
age FOR any person to be committed to
the grave while yet living. Stories re-
porting such occurrences are by no
means rare; but any one Who examines
them closely will certainly remark that
they are wholly lacking in originality,
and that there IL in fact SO strong re-
sembiance between them as TO excite
the suspicion that one has been copied
from another. Investigation viii show,
too, that this suspicion is . well-founded
one; At least such has been the expert
ence OF the editor of the Medical
and Surgical Reporter, who has FOR
some years followed up every story
of burial alive which came to his notice,
and always with the result of learning
that they were false or OF falling to
learn any thing about their origin
The most recent experience Of this
Sort occurred in connection with a story
published in the daily papers on June
10. 1890, of 4 man who was said. to have
died and to have been buried alive in
Chicago. After tracing the story from
one point of the newspaper world to an
+ other it was found to have originated in
Chicago paper, which said the man
had been sent as dead from hospital
in that city on February %, and that
afterward he had been buried; that the
buriers had heard sounds like knocking
on the coffin lid, but went ahead with
the burial, and that after an interval
the grave was opened and the coffin lid
removed to disclose that the man had
turned over, torn his hair out, buried
his fingers in his flesh, and so ON. AT
the end of our investigation we received
a letter from the hospital stating that it
never had patient of the name given,
that no person died in the hospital on
the date given, and treating the story
as hoax. The Associated Press agent
in Chicago, who started the story round
the country, on being asked if he
thought there was any truth in it, re-
piled to our representative: I am not
supposed to believe every thing these
fellows (meaning the reporters) write
This is the latest story, and it illus
trates the unreliability of all that we
know any thing about. and the utter
lack of principle which usually lies al
the bottom of them As physicians we
may, by publishing the fslseness Of
such stories, do something to allay the
awful fears which they excite in the
minds Of many Of our fellow-beings;
and we may hope that those who man
age the daily newspapers will some day
properly punish reporters who furnish
them with such cruel Inventions