The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-08-15
HOUSE FULL OF MUMMIES.
Marvellous Discovery OF an Old Farmer
i'm West Virginia.

Marvellous Discovery Of an Old Farmer
in West Virginia.
Many of our readers have seen or
heard of G. w. Hamrich, who lives
in Barbour County, and who has be-
cIme somewhat famous on account of
discovery he has made by which
the dead are perfectly preserved in
definitely. A short time ago a cor
respondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer
visited the OIL man at his home in
Barbour County, and writes his pa
per describing the dead bodies the
old man has preserved, as follows:
Three miles over the mountains
from Philippi, w. Va, is the house
of &. w. Hamrich. 1t is fiye-roOm
log house, the exterior weather.
boarded, but not painted, yet it is
full Of mummIes, both of brutes and
human beings. Here are mummies
that out.rival any Egypt ever knew.
The Egyptian embalmers removed
brains and blood and yiscera. and
wrapped the clay shell that Was
left in bandages saturated with oils
and ointments. In this house lie the
bodies of two adults, natural almost
as in life, every particle of skin ex.
posed 10 the air, blood. brains and
viscera remaining. In the veins and
arteries the blue and black blood
stand out as clear and natural as
when these people lived and walked
and knew the passians and emotions
of beings.
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 remained
clt ar and distinct. For two years
exposed to the air, without decay or
OdOr, these bodies have lam in this
mans house, just above his bed
room. His process is Il discovery of
his own, but it is so simple, he says,
that boy of fifteen, after II single
lesson, can do the work as effectuaily
as the inventor himself. The rooms
of Mr.. Hamrich are miniature muse
ums. In the door that leads to his
bedroom huge white Cat sits guard,
tongue. undecayed, lolling up as if it
were about to lap milk. For four
years that cat has been sole guard of
that lonesome door. On the mantle,
in an attitude of listening, is young
deer.
Rabbits, pigs. squirrels, chickens
and even calf are to be seen, all AS
natural AS life. and all preserved by
this wonderful secret. Mr.. Hamrich
claims that in an hour he can prepare
a body without making an incision
of any sort or removing any part of
the body, so that it may be taken
around the world without ice or ar
senlcal fluids. These two bodies
which lie in modest state in his hum
bic house have turned parchment
color with the hurrying of time, and
the eyes have become much Sunken.
There is no odor. no putting up of the
flesh. The ghostly look is wanting,
and one almost feels that it is not the
solidified clay of some lone one, but
a divine sculptor from some rare
wood. Think OF sleeping with these
dead and petritied bodies.
But this is not all that the old
wonder of the mountains does. He
can stop decay at any point, cures
ulcers of long standing by an exter
nal application of this discovery.
by the same process he keeps fresh,
without ice, salt or brine, all his
meat, butter and eggs. and does the
same for his neighbors. Fruit of all
sorts, vegetables, &C.. are kept Just
as easily without decay. and water
melons, strawberries. and peaches
and cream are now assured for the
Christmas dinner. Mr.. Hamrich has
made little or no effort 70 put his
process to general use. which such
learned men as Drs. Culley and Free
man, of this city; White. of Wash
ington Doremus. of New York, and
Hardesty. of Wheeling, w. Va,
pronounce one of the greatest discov.
cries of the age, far ahead of what
the Egyptians knew. Indeed, Ham.
rich seems to regard it rather as
curious experiment.