The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-24
CHEATED THE GRAVE.
STORY OF CONVICT HAaNET's
STRANGE POWER OF WILL.

Students. Tie Came TO Life and De-
feated the Ends of IastIce-Faets
/ OnIy Came to Light After Many
Years.
From the Chicago Times.
l / had been a medical student at R.
/ hospital for about TWO years when I met
/ with singular adventure. 10 was forty
/ years ago and only few lines concern
I ing it were ever published. The prison
was situated in the same town. and. al
/ though there was no law 10 that effect,
as is the case now. all bodies OF dead
convicts not claimed b. their friends
I were turned over to our college for sub
I jects. 1t sometimes happened. however.
that We did not want them. as We drew
from other sources, and the classes
/ We're much fewer in number than now.
/ Al the time / speak Of we had three or
four subjects, and would not want any
( more for weeks.
One day-it was In June-I received
note requesting me TO cali on convict
at the prison named James Harvey. He
was man only q years Of age. and had
escaped the gallows by a scratch to be
sentenced TO solitary confinement, but it
IS well known that the sentence is not
carried out After brief period in a dark
cell the convict is set to work with the
/ other prisoners and treated just the same.
At the time. however. solitary conine-
ment was a dungeon darker than mid
night, with leave to walk In the corridor
lighted by lamps for half an hour every
third day. Harvey was a stout, robust
/ Fellow, with constitution like iron, and
had been in prison over two years when
! he sent for me-
Some influential friends Of his had inter-
| coded for him, and Harvey had himself
saved keeper from being killed by an
insane convict, and, in consequence, the
/ terms Of his sentence had been modified.
/ He was permitted to have the run OF
I corridor, an ordinary cell was allotted to
I him, ana part of the time he carried the
meals to the men still in the dungeons.
/ There was no possible chance for him to
escape and, as ne had apparently re-
| signed himself to his fate. no one suspect
ed him of such an intention. He had got
note to me on the excuse that he had
| some important matters to reveal in re-
gard TO a robbery perpctrated on my
father, then dead. ] went TO the prison,
| suppOsing that was the eOnvicts sole
/ object. j was permitted to talk with an
ting few feet away to see that l did not
pass in any article.
HaTueys holiness filled me with aston
Z ishment. He began by stating that he
1 had heard 1 was an enthusiastic student
| Of anatomy, and that / had written two
or three articles for a medical magazine
on the subject Of suspended animation and
frances.
This was a fact. but as they had been
| written and published after Harneys inn
prisonment, and, as he was supposed to
be dead to the world, + could not UNDER
stand how he had become acquainted with
I the fact.
He put his proposition entirely on the
Z ground of medical science, and 1t was no
! more nor less than that he should demand
his body should be turned over to the hos
| pital. He stipulated that his body should
not go into the vat where the subjects are
kept for twenty-four hours after being
received, and that 1 should personally
! watch over it for that length of time.
1t was only after a second visit that I
was enabled to fully comprehend his plans.
| He had discovered that he could feign
! death at day and return TO life at any hour
not over a day and night distant He
said that he had tried it successfully up
to ten hours on several occasions. and felt
sure that he could make the time twice
or three times as long.
A fellow prisoner, who had observed him
while in this state, had asserted that it
was a perfect counterfeit of death, the
heart ceasing its pulsations, the limbs
growing cold and rigid and the pulse being
too faint to be felt. He appealed TO my
enthusiasm in medical science TO make his
escape from a life sentence, and, though I
was at first firmly opposed to the idea, he
brought forward so many arguments, and
put them to me so keenly. that l was won
over.
Medical science must have dead bodies
to secure benefits for the living" he ar
gued. Il am a practical demonstration
of a medical theory you hold. You believe
/ that human life can be- temporarily sus-
pended, and you have been ridiculed for
your assertions. Here is an opportunity
to prove your theory. l will die. All the
doctors will pronounce me dead. You shall
restore me TO life. The case win make
you famous.
But your object is to escape from
prison" I protested.
Granted. l killed an old man who had
only two or three years to live at the
most / have been shut up for two years
for it. It was my first and only crime,
and 1 have bitterly repented it. Let me
| 20 into the world, and l shall be good
man under another name. The law will
suppose me dead and be satisfied
In the end he oVercame by fears and
scruples and I agreed to his plans, but
!
the fact that vacation was coming on,
while the medical college had more sub
jects than il needed.
This was in June. and it would be
near October before Harney's plan could
be carried out We could safely depend
on certain matters in this case exactly
as in all others. The prison doctor was
an old quack who had secured his place
through politics. It was Well known
among the medical fraternity that he
was stupid and ignorant, and the pa
tents who took his doses were as liable
to die as to mend. When a convict died
the case was nearly always reported as
typhoid fever The old fellow appeared
to reason that this was a virulent dis
ease which he could not be expected to
cure. and consumption. lung fever, and
nearly everything else went down in his
report as typhoid fever-a bad case"
1t was his rule to get the body out of the
way as soon as possible. If 2. convict
died early in the morning he was buried
In the afternoon, or his body sent to the
hospital in the evening. II he died about
dusk his body was disposed of before
midnight.
"Convicts are useless creatures after
~ H.ft ba soft 70