The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-12

currence.
Dr. H. 5. Tanner in Chicago Herald
The publication Of the alleged marvel
Gus experience of the girl named Alexan-
drina Schitkine of Bogirodska, in the
province of Moscow. Russia, given to the
Herald readers in the issue of Monday,
May p, under the caption of 'Fifty-one
Days Under Snow" gave birth to an ami
mated discussion among our hotel guests.
The majority of the disputants were in
credulous and disposed to relegate the
story to the realm of ''tishy yarns" They
afirmed-with more zeal than wisdom
that unless the days of miracles had re
turned such an experience was an impos-
sibility.
am not prepared to affirm the truth
fulness of the alleged occurrence reported
by the st. Petersburg papers, but that it
is within the range of possibility is sup
ported by facts too palpable to be denied
and too significant in their character to
be lightly regarded
l hold that whatever experience is pos
sible to the lower order of animals is pos
sible to man. he being the browning glory
of the animal creation. Now, it is not
necessary to go to Moscow for proofs that
animal life has been sustained for a period
OF htty-One days or longer buried in snow
drifts or otherwise. l have it on trust
worthy authority that in the very severe
winter of lS30-'3l, in 10 Daviess county,
Illinois, hogs and sheep were buried for
months in immense snowdrifts, their
whereabouts unknown to their owners,
which in the springtime came forth from
their hibernatiOn-for such / term it
healthy and with but a small loss of flesh
Prof. Bernard, the French psychologist,
cites the case of hog confined in a pen
at the foot of one of the chalk cliffs at
Dover, England, that was buried beneath
100 feet of chalk, the resultOf one of those
immense chalk slides so common among
the cliffs. 1t required $40 days to remove
the chalk, and great was the surprise of
the workman to find, on reaching the pen,
the hog still alive and in possession of a
vigorous squeal.
MANY PRoTRACTED BURIALs.
The live burial of a steer in a straw
stack on farm near Syracuse, NY, fur
nisheS strong presumptive, if not posi-
tive, EVIDENCE that the Russian girls eX-
perience is within the range of proba-
bility. This history preserved in the
county records, told in brief is as fol-
lows A number of cattle were feeding
from the straw that was being rapidly
formed into a stack from threshing ma
chine elevator. Intent in feeding, one of
the younger animals was buried in the
straw, and there it remained from Sep
TENDER until the following April, its
owner supposing it had been stolen or
gone astray Cattle fed at the stack all
the winter and in the spring ate an open
ing through to the prisoner. The steer
was released in good flesh and otherwise
normal, after months of live burial
Tom Howe, living near Tuscola, Ill,
two years since, was the owner Of a sheep
that was buried in a strawstack for sixty
days, under circumstances that precluded
all possibility of obtaining water or food,
which, when found and released, had
sufficient strength to Outrun it's pursuers.
A Lynn Mass paper published q story
of the live burial of a cat, of eighty days
duration, in the ash pit of an old brick
oven in the basement of the old Newhall
house, that stood for a century on Broad
street. This hoteh was consumed at the
time of the great Lynn fire of Nov. %,
1889. The facts, as alleged, are as fol-
lows 'Workmen were engaged in re-
moving the debris of the hotel that had
fallen intothe basement The men, after a
time, reached the ash pit, the door of
which had been broken, making a hole as
large as a mans hand. The man was
u. AIJeT
the ash pit had been reached, to see a cat
stagger out of the pit through the open
ing in the door and escape before he
could regain'his presence of mind. The
cat was seen by the other wOrkmen.
Eighty-five days had elapsed since the
great Lynn fire, and this cat coming out
alive and from a place where it certainly
could find neither air, food nor water,
furnishing presumptive evidence that
Ia
sion. na eS ga .--.-t
The animal when released staggered as
it ran. The ash pit was only few feet
from the hottest of the ruins, and that
the cat got badly scOrched was showneby
the fact that it came from its living tomb
with it's fur badly singed
From TOmpkinsville, KY, comes the
story of an old hen which was buried
seventy DAYS in the debris of an old barn
belonging to Sam Mcpherson, near
Mount Herman, which was blown down
by furious cyclone that passed over the
northern part of Monroe county, June 90
1891, and literally torn TO pieces The
debris of the barn was not removed until
the next September On removing some
timbers and other debris out jumped an
old hen and pounced upon the first thing
eatable that came in sight. On making
calculations it was found that she had
been confined in her narrow prison for
seventy days. Nothing disturbed by her
Imprisonment, she attended to her knit
ting, for it was in evidence that that she
had laid an egg and Matched a chicken, as
the bones We're found in the place of
burial.
1t were easy to multiply histories of
this character ad infinitum, but we have
no need of such to establish the possibility
of burial of a girl under a snowdr,ft for
ffty-one days.
DO THEY HIBERNATER
take the position challenge a sue
cessful contradiction-tha animals when
thus environed hibernate, like the bear
Opossum. etc. There can be no other ex-
PLANTATION. In normal conditions of ami
mails air is an absolute necessity of physi-
cal life and activity. In nearly all the
cases cited the air supply was cut off,
proof that the oXygenation and carboniza-
ton of the blood was suspended.
How can phenomena of this character
he accounted for is the question for sci
cntists 30 consider.
There are few scientific men who will
admit-at least from personal observa-
tion-that a man can voluntarily suspend
his breath more than very few minutes;
in fact, a number of authorities are on
record as stating that a failure of respi-
ration for five minutes is sure sign of
absolute death. But / have at this writ
ing nothing to do with authorities; pre-
fer to deal with facts that cannot and do