The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-01-08
AGAIN CHEATS DEATH.
Another Crisis in the Disease OF
Brooklyn's! Fasting Woman.
"ISIHEREANYIHING5LEFTTODlE
Twcnty.six Years Bcdriddcn aud
Helpless Yot She Looks Ton Years
Younger Than sho is.-.Discourag,
Ing Second sight...An Amazing
Sense or Touch. lli ,t.l

New ioRK, Dec.i1-lt looks as II IN.
other crisis were safely passed in Mollie
Fanchcr's checkercd life, as II the Won
drous woman who has lived SO long up
on the border land Of death may live
there still for many years to come.
The january sun ;shono yesterday, as
1t has shone for six-and; twenty winters,
through tho curtaihed windows Of her
homo at Downing street and Gates
avenue, Brooklyn. II made laced
! shadows on the floor and on the snowy
counterpart Of the invalid's bed. SS
Itfell upon the pleasant face Of the
patient woman, who has borne such
incredible cons Of agony and PROSTATE
helplessness, who has been. chained 10
her bed rs Prometheuse 10 his rack,
, while theslow years have rolled over
her, while disease, starvation, thirst
have plucked fiercely for her life, while
her luminous opirit has wandered in
! the macs and tho blackness which lie
in the great undiscovered country be-
yond the realms Of consciousness. *
LIKE THIRTEEN YEARS AGO.
The face Of woman Of :iorty.two, 1t
looked like one Of thirty.live. The
short hair lay in pleasant disorder upon
it. Tho sightcss eyes which long ago
were changed for more fat-seeing and
wondrous windows--mental or psycllo-
logical, no one knows-were curtained
. by long lids heavily fringed with lashes.
Tho complexion was almost radiant in
its puritynnd beauty. II was angelic
mingled alabastor and rose. it almost
made her beautiful. Yet the doctors
say that it is but the flower--thc fatal
blossom--born OF her latest disease,
dropsy. N
Thirteen years ago, when NIollie
: Fancher had spent half OF her present
term in bed, she Ind Just such IN at.
tacktas her recent one. Then, rs now,
it was thought that she was dying,
really on the threslioldo dissolution,
and her. friends remarked upon the
plumpness OF face and limb and tho
seeming return to youthfulness. But
then, rs now, she beggared expectation
and again laughed death around the
corner. III ~ --,.sss Il "a
DEATH SItuNs TIE FAMILY.
To an old friend who called upon her
yesterday Miss Fancher said: "Can
ever die? There is nothing of me left
to die" And he, wondering at the
! miracle before him-wondering at this
strange and inexplicable exception to
natures mandates, asked himself the
selfsame question.
1thas been asked many times before.
Indeed, it seems as ii death Stunned
the Fancher family. 1t is lonStlived
one and frances seem to be birthright
in it. Dollie Fancher, OF Westchester
county, was centenarian. Philo, the
uncle Of the Brooklyn heroine, was
almost ninety-nine when he died last
Saturday. ~
Many Brooklyn people OF tho older
generation will remember the awful
story of Sarah Fancher, half-sistcr or
cousin, am not sure which, of ,Mollic.
While her husband, a sea captain, was
s. at sea she died. or seemed 10 die, and
was. placed in receiving vault at
Greenwood cemetery. When the hus-
band returned and demanded view. of
his dead wife's face the coffin was
opened, and amid the snowy draperies
was found .ithe corpse-now q corpse
indeed-turned over, while the face
had been clawed with her nails and her
hairand grave clothes lad been torn
from the writhing body. Buried alive
and in 4 trance she had awakened to-
tho truth and died. Her husband,
when he saw that frozen horror before
Z his eyes, went stark staring mad, upon
the spot. IS " s5 ~
s. THE CRUELTY OF SCIENCE. ,iSS
Soft has often beenwith Nlollie Fan:
cher. So, many a time she has lain, for
weeks the counterfeit presentment.s OF
I death. And, had it not been for the
skill and watchfulness Of the. doctors,
she might have suffered. Many q time
they have brought her back .byman;pu-
lation from living death 10 Il suffering
Lille. To what good purpose 1 leave it
8 for them: to say. 9. :. .z... y
ltseems n. little strange, vet is
true, that many. OF tho younger
readers do not knowthe story, infinite
! pathetic, of Mollie Fancher's lumi-
nous and wondrous life Her case has
4 baffled science. 1t has pcrplcxed the
d wise and taught great lessons to all who
were willing to learn. IL -ss
IsPuN AROUND LIKE 4 TOR. 2. 90
September 10, 1860, sho was brought
AS a pupil to the Brooklyn Heisi;.s
Seminary by her aunt, Mrs. Crosby.
! She was fourteen years old and was a
beautiful girl OF delicate constitution
4 and gentle manners. Five years later,
\ as she was about to graduate with high
y honors her. nervous system began to
break down. She did not eat nor sleep
as a girl OF eighteen ought. Professor
West advised u rest and a course OF
I horseback, lessons, and one day, riding
Z abroad with her riding master, she was
thrown and had two or three OF her
ribs broken. She was otherwise badly
injured, but recovered sufficiently, how.
\ ever, to get about again. In 1855 she
y mot with another accident. On step.
ping from street car in Brooklyn her
I skirt was caught and she was dragged
over the pavement block. By.tiis nc:
] cident her nervous system was so shat.
,5tered that she never recovered iromtits
effects. In tho early part OF 1865 she
would throw herself into ull2sorts Of
contortions. She would bring her head
and feet together and roll over: the floor
like a hoop. hewould stand on her
toes and spin like top. This was in
y heimonth OF February, Wheniin. this
violent state lit would requireiseveriil
persons to watch her During that
y innnth che Inst all hnr isen.es Issnrnn be