The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-07-14
The aaieha Daily zagle guedau 1urnime gu1y H. 1881

Il
four men, who proceeded to her grave. A
shabby looking clergyman, who has charge
| OF one of the small churches in one of the
most Insignificant parts of the city, comes
every afternoon TO the cemetery TO perform
the offices of the church for friendless waits
| OF humanity like these. He represents the
! one eternal, unchanging Friend, the one
great DISTINGUISHED, whom we forget in
| days of prosperity, but to whom we resort
| In times of trouble.
The four men from nowhere-neither
kith nor kin-at the request of the clergy
| man, proceeded with the body of the
pauper woman to the grave In the dis
ssnce is the cart rafting back to the city.
Horror! What strange movement OF the
coffin is that? One man looks stealthily at
his neighbor. Nothing, of counsel Imagi-
nationl Yet frightful sensation Expresses
him. To be buried alive. Hideous fatel
The procession passes somewhat hurriedly.
A poor old pauper woman; there is no oc-
casion TO be particularly decorous-one
pauper less in the world. Much better out
of the world than in i'll No one weeps or
grieves.
Again that strange vibration, as If the
terrible box was convulsed. Paugh! Nom
sensel Christi what noise. Never such
q sound came from earth.
One of the men in front looks around
with a white face. He meets another pair
Of eyes fixed with horror. Before them all
walks the clergyman reciting, Il am the
resurrection and the life" A few strag-
Cling people about the cemetery have fallen
into line as the little band moves onward.
Now they are at the tomb-a long, hide
Gus looking receptacle built against the
brick wall of the cemetery, containing rows
and rows of shelves.
A cheerful looking man with red face,
holding trowel in his hand, sits beside a
great pile of fresh mortar 1t is his occu-
patton to seal up the ovens. as the ugly
shelves are called.
The clergyman still read. A young child
with gold colored hair that strays from its
mother to pick a wandering vine gives a
little shrek of ecstasy.
The four men push the box into the re-
ceptacle. a frightful scraping sound min
gled with most unearthly cry. The two
men who had looked at each other again
exchange glances. The face of one is Iivid.
Another sound and the two Simultaneous
ly drag forth the coffin and place it on the
ground The Clergyman stops reading.
Something has happened" said the
man who had walked in front of the coffin.
1.-The woman is alive" said the man with
the dark face, and they began to tear open
the coffin. The man with the trowel comes
to assist. The excitement is intense Who
ever heard of such thing? In books, or
in the medical journals, perhaps, but in
life, ueverl
The men work in hurried silence At
length they have pried up the long nails
The dark man tears open the lid, and with
in the long pine box, without any sort
of decorative adornment lies the poor,
shrunken, attenuated pauper woman. The
light of the moon is brilliant in the sky
the light that beauties everything but
the human countenance-is absolutely IN
sparing and intensifes the ugliness of the
wretched, toilworn face. All look at her
with breathless curiosity. She belongs
to nobody. She has no friends No one
knows what to do. Apparently she is
dead.
After all the noise was mistake. The
man with the white face steps back, as
though he relnquished all sense of re-
sponsibility. The man with the dark face
bends over the woman. This act helps all
of the others to fresh interest. Their faces
ask, "Is she dead?" The decisive man feels
her hands; quite cold; her face cold also.
Then with an energy born of conviction he
lifts the woman up, putting his arm under
her waist. She is not stiff at ALL Her
eyes open; she looks at him. The specta-
tors gaze in shocked amazement; the dark
man feels faint. The corpse moves, lifts a
thin yellow, hand, then breaks the awful
silence by saying ENORMOUSLY, 81 thought
you would never hearP' then, Get me
some water. "-Marcia Davies In New Or
leans Times Democrat.