The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-08
VAINLY COURTS DEATH.
NOLLIE FANCaER CONTINUES A
PUZZLE TO SCIENCE.


Younger Than she is-She Has Not
Lost the Power, but It's Use Has
Grown Distasteful to Her-An Amsz-
ing Sense OF Touch.
From tie Ne,o York Herald
1t looks as il another crisis was safely
passed in Mollie Fancher's checkered life g,
as If the wondrous woman who has lived
so long upon the border land Of death may
live there still for many years to come.
The January sun shone yesterday, as 1t
has shone for six-and-twenty winters,
through the curtained windows of her home
at Downing street and Gates avenue,
Brooklyn. 1t made laced shadows on the
floor and on the snowy counterpane Of the
invalid's bad.
1t fell upon the pleasant face of the pa
tent woman who has borne such incredibIe
ons OF agony and PROSTATE helplessness,
who has been chained to her bed as Pro-
motheus to his rack, while the slow years
have rolled over her while disease. starva-
ton, thirst have plucked fiercely for her
life, while her luminous spirit has wandered
Ia the maEss and the blackness which lie In
the great undiscovered country beyond the
realms Of consciousness.
LINN AhA6lEEN TEARS AGO.
The face of a woman Of AZ, it looked like
one CT 50. The short hair Law in pleasant
disorder upon it. The sighsless eyes which
long ago were changed for more far seeing
and Wondrous windows-mental or psyche
logical, no one knows-were curtained by
long lids heavily fringed with lashes The
complexion was almost radiant in its purity
and beauty. 1t was angelic-mingled ala
oasier and rose. 1t almost made her besuti-
full. Yet the doctors say that it is but the
fiower-the fatal blossom-born of her
latest disease, dropsy.
Thirteen years ago, whom Mollie Fancher
had spent half Of her present term in bed
she had Jnst such an attack as her recent
one. Then, as now, it was though that she
was dying. really on the threshold of DISCO
luton, aud her friends remarked upon the
plumpness of face and limb and the seeming
return to youthfulness. But then. as now,
she beggared expectation and again laughed
death around the corner.
DEATH sHUNs THE FAMILY.
Toan old friend who called upon her yes
terday Miss Fancher said: "Can ever
diel There is nothing of me left to die. {"
And he. wondering at the miracle before
hlm-wondering at this strange and mex
plicabie exception to natures mandates,
asked himself the selfssme question.
1t has been asked many times before.
Indeed, it seems as if death Stunned the
Fancher family. 1t is a long-lived one,
aud frances seem to be birthright in il
Dollie Fancher of Westchester county, was
O centenarian. Philo, tie uncle of the
Brooklyn heroine, was almost 80 when he
died last Saturday.
Many Brooklyn people of the older gener-
alton will remember the awful story Of
Sarah Fancher, half sister or cousin, am
not sure which, of Mollle. While her hus-
band q sea captain, was at sea she died, or
seemed to die, and was placed in receiving
vault in Greenwood cemetery. When the
husband returned and demanded a view OF
his dead wise's face the coffin was opened.
and amid the snowy draperies was found
the corpse-now q corpse indsed-turned
over while the face had been clawed with her
nails a7d her hair and grave clothes had
been torn from the writhing body. Buried
alive and in trance she had awakened to
the truth and died. Her husband, when he
saw that frozen horror before his eyes, went
stark staring mad upon the spot.
TIE CRUELTY OF SCIENCE.
So it has often been with Mollis Fam
cher. So, many 8 time she has lain for
weeks the counterfeit presentment of death.
And, had it not bean for the skill and watch
fulness OF the doctors she might have
suffered. Many time they have brought
her back by manipulation, from a living
death to a suffering life. To what good pur-
pOssl | leave it for them to say.
1t seems a little strange, yet it is true, that
many of the HerdLds younger readers do
not know the story, infinitely pathetic, Of
Mollie Fancher's luminous and wondrous
life Her case has baffisd science. 1t has
perpleZed the wise and taught great lessons
to ell who were willing to learR.
SPUN AROUND LIKE TOP.
Sept. 10, 1850, she was brought as a pupil
10 the Brooklyn Heights Seminary by her
aunt, Mrs. Crosby. she was IA years old
and was beautiful girl of delicate consti-
tuition and gentle manners. Five years
later, as she was about to graduate with
high honOrs, her nervous system began to
break down. She did not eat and sleep as a
girl Of Is ought. Prof. West advised a rest
and course Of horseback lessons, and one
day. riding abroad with her riding master,
she was thrown and had two or three Of her
ribs broken. She was otherwise badly in
jured, but recovered sufficiently, however,
to get about again. In 1865 she met
with another accident. On stepping
from a street car in Brooklyn her
skirt was caught and she was
dragged over the pavement a block. BY
this accident her nervous system was SO
shattered that she never recovered from its
effects In the early part OF 1866 she would
throw herself into all sorts of contortions.
She would bring her head and feet together
and roll over the floor like a hoop. She
would stand on her toes and spin like a top.
This was in the month of February. When
IN this violent state it would require several
persons to watch her. During that month
she lost all her SeDses, even the sense of
touch. She was then given chloroform to
relax her jaws so that she could take food,
which was forced down her throat, but her
stomach would not bear iU.
She turned upon her right side and be-
came rigid, her right arm folded In behind
her head, her fingers and thumbs clinched
Ia upon the palms. For nine years she lay
thus, her muscles only relaxing when
chloroform was administered. For nine
years she lived this living death and there
were times when, save for the warmth
sbout her heart, she gave no signs OF life.
Her limbs were cold az ice and she was
pulselesS.
DISCOURAGED GIFT.
Then came a period Of transition, of
awful anguish, and the frozen muscles re-
Taxed. Whereas she had before had but
one sense remaining to her-that of touch
she now had speech and hearing and a
wonderful inner sight, like that of clairvoy-
ants This lasted for some years. She has
it yet, indeed but she has steadily dis
Outraged the gift, and OF late years has
sought not TO use 1t. But that che has the
power of second sight no one who knows
hor, medical or lay, doubts for an instant.
An places are alike open TO her mental