The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1890-07-12
SCORES OF MunMIEs.
A Strange Discovery in q West
Virginia House.

"A 0LTau80 O4ScOV0ry III WeB
Virginia House.
Three miles over the mountains
from Philippi, w. ", is the house
of G. w. Hamrick, says the Cincin
natl Enquirer. 1t is a five-room log
house, the exterior ather-boarded
but not painted, yet it is full OF
mummies, both of brutes and hu.
man beings. Here are mummies that
outrival any Egypt ever knew
The Egyptian embalmbers removed
brains and blood and viscera, and
wrapped the clay shell that was
left in bandaging, saturated with
oils and ointments. In this house
lie the bodies of two adults, natural
almost as in life, every particle
of skin exposed to the air, blood,
brains and visera 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
passions and emotions of beings.
The finger and toenails show the
pink flesh of life, and on the cheek
of one who died of consumption
the scarlet mark of that fatal dis
ease remained clear and distinct.
For two years, exposed to the air,
without decay or odor, these bodies
have lain in this mans house just
above his bedroom. His process is
a discovery of his own, but it is so
simple, he says, that a boy Of Is,
after single lesson, can do the
work as effectually as the inventor
himself. The rooms of Mr.. Hamrick
are miniature museums. In the
door that leads to his bedroom a
huge white cat sits 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 a mantel,
in an 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 pre-
served by this wonderful secret.
Mr.. Hamrick claims that in an
hour he can prepare a body without
an incision of any sort or
removing any part of the body, SO
that it may be taken around the
world without ice or arsenical
fluids. These two bodies which lie
n modest state in his humble house
nave turned parchment color with
he hurrying of time, and the eyes
nave become much sunken. There
vas no odor, no putting up of the
1esh. The ghostly look is wanting,
md one almost feels that it is not
he solidifed clay of some lone one,
out wonderful likeness caused by |
/ divine sculptor from some rare
wood. Think of sleeping with these
lead and petrified bodies.
But this is not all that this old |
Of the mountain
loes. He can stop decay at any
point. Cures ulcers of long stand
ng by an external application of
his discovery. By the same process
he keeps fresh, without ice, salt or
'rine, all his meat, butter and eggs,
nd does the same thing for his
Fruit of all sorts, veg
tables, etc., are kept just as easily
Without decay, and watermellons,
trawberries and peaches and cream
ne now assured for the Christmas
inner. Mr.. Hamrick has made
title or no effort to put his process,
,hich such learned men as Drs.
,illey and Freeman of this city,
White of Washington, Doremus of
lew York and Hardesley of Wheel
lg, W. Va, pronounce one Of the
reatest discoveries of the age, far
head of what the Egyptians knew.
indeed, Hamrick seems to regard
rather as a curious experiment
nan otherwise.