Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-23
A woMAN's STRANGE WILL
Her Body Was Watched for Fifteen
Days After Death.

Her Body Was Watched for Fifteen
Days After Death.
There is an attendant at the Odd Eel
lows cemetery whose duty it is to enter
a vault there at brief intervals and look
into the face of the dead. He has been
doing this for several days and nights,
and his vigil viii continue till fifteen
days have come and gone. He is per-
forming the work in obedience to wish
expressed in the will of the late Mrs,
Augustine Perichon, a Frenchwoman
who died in this city recently. Mrs,
Perichon entertained a fear that it
would be her lot to be buried alive.
How she came to dread this is told in
the story of her life.
She was born in Orleans, France. in
1926. In 1S4S, when she was but twen-
ty-two years of age, she came to this
country and soon thereafter was mar
ried in New York city. From early
childhood she loved to read tales of ro-
nance and fiction, but nothing had q
greater fascination for her than a story
of some poor unfortunate, whose fate it
was to be buried while in trance. It
is said that she accumulated the printed
announcements Of all the most horrible
incidents of this kind that have been re-
corded during the last half century. In
1854 she crossed the continent to San
Francisco.
Two years after her arrival here she
obtained divorce from her husband,
but soon married again. Her second
husband died in 1858. Besides q few
personal effects, she has left money and
jewelry to the value of nearly $4,000,
but she has no relative either in America
or France to inherit from her, although
during the last few years of her life she
spent much time and money in trying
to trace some one descended from either
her father or her mothers line.
She directed in her will that after the
doctors pronounced her dead her body
should be placed in coffin and then in
the vault of the Odd Fellows cemetery.
The lid of the coffin should be so ar
ranged that her face could be seen, and
some one should be paid literally to
visit the vault and look upon it at brief
intervals. This was to be kept up for
fifteen days, during which time prepara-
tions were to be made to place the body
in its last resting place in the same ceme-
terry.
Some years ago Mrs. Perichon pur-
chased plot in that cemetery, and her
will directs that vault be built in it
suitable for the reception of three bod
ies-her own and those of two friends.
The exact dimensions of this grave are
given, and an iron framework is to be
placed at the bottom, upon which, side
by side, the three cofins are to rest. Be
sides this, directions are given in regard
to the headstones and the epitaphs they
shall bear, as well as minute details of
matters of less Importance.
Of the two friends who are to share
the grave with the remains of Mrs. Peri
chon one is still living. Noone seems to
know why these two of the many who
formed the circle of friends of the de-
ceased should be singled out, and if Mrs
Perichon were living, her friends say,
she would declare it to be no ones bust
ness but her own. The two are j. Bonde,
a Frenchman, who died about five years
ago, and whose body now lies in the Odd
Fellows cemetery, and William Weiss
mann, German. The latter is seventy
years of age and is an inmate of the Sol
diers' home at Santa Monica. He has
been notified of the provisions in the
will of his old friend. San Francisco
Examiner.