The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-12-12
BURIAL ALIVE,
Popular Fear of 1t and Devices to Prevent
Its Occurrence

when once the dread of being
buried alive takes hold of a man.
he usually becomes a maniac on the
subject. The terror of the awful
possibility of the thing seems to be-
come sort of second nature to him,
and he spends the rest of his life in
devising ways and means to prevent
such a calamity happening to him
self or to other persons.
The speaker was man connected
with one of Chicago's largest ceme-
teries, and the incident which
brought out the remark was a re-
markable one. A man in walking
through the cemetery had seen a
grave which was not filled in, al
though the coffin was deposited in
it. Instead of the earth being thrown
IN the grave was covered with
boards. On these boards were the
flowers that had been used at the
funeral. The men connected with
the cemetery seemed disinclined to
talk about the incident, but finally
one was found who was willing to
tell what it meant.
There is a woman in that grave, :"
he said. Her husband is promi-
nent Chicagoan and is what might
be called crank on the subject of
being buried alive. When his wife
died, he delayed the funeral as long
as possible, but even then the idea
that his wife might yet be alive
seemed to haunt him. At his request
tests were applied, and he was as
sured there was no possibility of any
spark of life remaining. But he had
read of cases where even the doctors
had been mistaken, and he resolved
to take no chances. So he made ar
raneements with the cemetery man.
agement to allow the grave of his
wife to remain open certain length
of time. He comes here every day,
but this morning he caid that the
grave could be filed in tomorrow.
Then the man talked of some of the
schemes and ideas that possess the
minds of some men and women who
are filed with the dread of being
buried alive or of fearing that some
of their friends might meet such a
horrible fate. He told of some of
the devices that have been invented
with this motive in view and of the
time spent by managers of GENE.
teries in listening to the inventors.
Zone man." he said, "has scheme
by which he would fix a wire in the
coffin of a person when it was bu-
ried. This wire is to be carried into
the Office of the cemetery, and the
thing is to be arranged so that with
the slightest movement in the coffin
an alarm will be set off in the Office
or wherever the wire leads. Then
the idea is for all haste to be made
in disinterring the coffin and if pos
sible save life.
Another man would place chic
reform in the collins of all persons.
Then if the occupant should happen
to be alive and should make the
least movement the chloroform
would be released in such way as
to quickly end the matter and pre-
vent the unlucky victim from en-
during any Of the horrors of the sit
uation. In this case there is no way
of knowing whether the person was
alive or dead when buried.
Another way to insure death is
by means of the old dagger plan.
Like the chloroform idea, it merely
provides for death in case it has not
taken place before burial. This dag
ger idea is from the Italian, and the
plan of it is that as soon as certain
weight of earth rests on the coffin
lid a powerful spring is released
which in it's turn releases a dagger
so placed that it will penetrate the
heart of the person in the coffin.
This idea has been used for years in
some parts of Italy, but I have never
heard of any one placing such con-
trivance in coffin in Chicago, al
though of course it could be done,
and r0body but those who did it
would be the wiser. Sensible peo-
pie, however, when in doubt about
death having taken place will have
the coffin placed in the vault, and
then it can be watched daily until
there is no doubt as to dissolution. )"
Chicago Tribune.