The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-07-16
a WomANs STRANGE WILL

Her Body Was Watched fc- Fifteen
Days After Death.
There is an attendant at the Odd Eel
lows cemetery whose duty il - 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 will continue till fifteen
DAYS have come and gone. He Is per-
forming the work in obedience TO wish
expressed in the will of she late Mrs.
Augustine Perichon, q Frenchwoman
who died in this city recently. Mrs.
Perichon entertained q 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 TO
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 a 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 a divorce from her husband,
but soon married again. Her second
husband died in 1858. Besides q few
personal effects, she has left money and
iewelry to the value of nearly $1,000,
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 a coffin and then il
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 K
visit the vault and look upon it at briei
intervals. This was to be kept up fol
fifteen days, during which time prepare
tons were to be made to place the body
in its last resting place in the same GENE
terry.
Some years ago Mrs. Perichon pur
chased q plot in that cemetery, and hel
win directs that vault be built in i
suitable for the reception of three bod
ies-her own and those Of two friends
The exact dimensions of this grave AT,
given, and an iron framework is to b,
placed at the bottom, upon which, sid
by side, the three collins are 10 rest Be
sides this, directions are given in regart
to the headstones and the epitaphs the,
shall bear, as well as minute details O
matters Of less importance
OF the two friends who are to shar,
the grave with the remains of Mrs. Peri
chon one is still living. Noone seems t
know why these two Of the many VIII,
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 busi
ness but her own. The two are ]. Bonde
FrenchInan, who died about Eve year
ago, and whose body now lies in the Odt
Fellows cemetery, and William Weiss
mann, Il German. The latter is sevent
years OF age ard is an inmate of the Sol
diers' home at Santa Monica. He ha
been notified of the provisions in tn
will of his old friend.-San Francisc
Examiner