San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-02-17
A BRAKEsMAN's TALE
OF A Corpse the Devil Got Before
1t Entered He'll.

OF A Corpse the Devil Got Befor,
1t Entered He'll.
Two we'll known local rail road men
sitting in the lobby of the Menge
hotel last evening, were discussing
the appearance of contagious dis
ease in the northern part of the state
"I've got good one on the Pales
tine authorities" said ole of the two
speakers.
Of course the second party wanted
to know what it was, but there was
scarcely need tor the question, as the
| first speaker, q most Voluble fellow,
by the way, was on the verge of ex-
| plOdiDg, SO anxious was he TO tell his
tale,
"You see, over in Palestine we had
u few cases of the disease, and one of
! the victims died from the malady.
Well, it was the first thing of the
kind happening in Palestine, and the
| authorities hardly knew what to do
| with the corpse that they had on
hand. They went to work and hired
two negroes to dig the grave, away
! out of the city limits. They dug the
grave at night and proceeded to bury
the corpse early next morning. Well,
it was placed in o coffin, and pretty
| we'll covered with lime. A large bot
tie of carbolic acid was also put in the
coffin with the corpse, and the next
morning it was placed in an am
bulance and the two colored
men were ordered to drive it
to the grave they had dug,
and there bury it. Those two negroes
were daisies. OF course, they had to
create a little artificial courage and
they proceeded to drown ther super
stition by few frequent swipes at
the bottle. Well sir, they hit the
bottle just enough to put the team in
| a good trot, not caring for the frequent
jOlts, caused by hitting stumps, Oh no.
This jolting motion, you see, evident
ly threw the bottle of carbolic acid
against the side of the coffin and thus
broke it, for when one of the over
joyous negroes looked back in the
ambulance, he noticed an unusual
odor and saw smoke arising from the
coffin. This apparent miracle brought
them to their senses, and you never
saw more excited set of blacks, than
these two negroes were.
'Yo', niggah, what you make of
dis" the first inquired of the second,
with vigorous punch in the ribs.
The second one braced up and
viewed the phenomenon. Holding
his head as though he had boil on
his neck, and letting his lip hang
down an inch longer than usual. he
excitedly gasped, Bill, Bill Eyes,
sah,'. answered his companion
huskily. Say, Bill, of dat amt de
debbtl burnin' dat sinner right here
In dis wagun, I'll eat my
head! Well, those negroes
actually thought tn t the devil
was roasting that corpse before
he got it within the portals of hell!
Then the second man resumed his ex-
cited talk. Say, BILL he continued,
dis yere haint no place for dis mig
gah' and with that he sprung out of
the buggy, dropping the reins. Lab
Mosesv exclaimed the deserted negro
as the horse began to increase the
speed. Use goner, he yelled "a he
plunged out of the runaway ambu-
lance head foremost.
Well, sir, those two negroes picked
themselves up and stole off 10 more
cong genial spots, the horses shot like
fury over the rough country road,
splitting the coffin, corpse and all, in a
very short while, and finally wedg-
ing the ambulance in between two
trees, the horses of course breaking
out OF the harness.
Well sir, the authorities waited un-
til the next day, but still no team,
ambulance, driver, or grave digger
showed up. SO they finally started
out over the road, keeping up the
search until they ran across the bad
ly charred coffin and corpse. Then
began the search for the two men,
who it was thought, had deCamped
with the team, when 10 and behold,
one of the deputies located the wreck |
ed ambulance, wedged in between |
two trees. Scraps of harness, too, |
were found close by, and do you |
know those frightened coons never |
turned up IN that town up to this |
date? Well they haven't" The rail
road man had finished his tale and
a few of the listners pretended to
swallow it in its entirety, but it was
most painfully evident that the germs
of skepticism were crawling all over
the atmosphere.