The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-05-14
BODY SNAroHERs SAVED HI1r.
Tho Grewsome Experience of Man Now
 Living in Missouri.
From the Kansas City Journal.l

| ltrOm the Kansas Clty JOurnal.l
 To be buried alive while sorrowine
 friends are standing about the open grave, and then come to life in a dis
 secting room, is the actual experience
 of George Hayward, an Independence | 1eweler. Although years have elapsed
 since he was lowered gently into his grave, the memory of the moment when
 the undertaken screwed down the lid of
 his coffin, shutting out the sunlight,
 and the sensation he felt as he was low | cred into the grave, while funeral | dirge was being chanted by the village | choir still remains to him as horrible
 dream. He was conscious from the ! time he was pronounced dead until he
 was snatched from the grave by the medical fraternity and laid on the dis
 sectlng table in the interest of sci | ence."
 MT. Hayward still retains the grim l recollection of hearing the damp earth
 falling on the coffin lid, a mournful ac-
 compartment to the sobs of relatives.
 He was unable to help himself or make
 a sign, and, Knowing this, his agony
 was at times intense. His greatest ag-
 ony of mind occurred when the sexton
 rounded up his grave on top and the
 sound of recedlng footsteps emote his
 ear. MT. Hayward says that at this
 moment he fell into the dreamy sensa-
 ton peculiar to drowning man, How long he remained in that condition he
 does mot know, but his sense of living
 again came over him when he heard a | scraping on his coffin lid some little l time after he had been buried.
 | MT. Hayward Is a man sixty-nine | years of age. For years he has been in
 the jewelry business at Independence,
 and at present conducts shop on South Main street. He has the belief that many people are buried alive, and his own experience has a tendency to confirm this belief To journal repre- sentative MT. Hayward yesterday rela- ted his burial and resurrection with the
 unconcern of a man who does not fear death.
 Tt was in Marshville, England, coun- ty Worcestershire. where was bur- led" said Mir Hayward, very grimly. My father had large family of boys, and he raised us all on the farm near
 the village. I was quite young. and 1t
 was my chief delight to go to the fields
 WILL lily Olu6T DTOtHeIS. III IipSe uayS
 the farm-houses were surrounded with big yards filled with straw. This straw was allowed to rot, and in the fall of the year 1t was loaded on to wagons and carted to the fields as a fertilizer It was bright morning when we started for the fields, and ran ahead of the horses The horses in England are not driven with reins, but they follow the command of the voice. After reaching the field the pitching of the straw com menced. The men used hop picks, which are fashioned somewhat after @ heavy pitchfork. While standing near one of the hands, by accident I was struck on the head with one of the picks. It penbtrated my skull and at the time made me feel faint and dizzy. My Injury was not considered serious After returning to the house was sent into the cellar, and, much to my sur prise. could see III the dark as well as In the light. After coming from the cellar my strength failed me and I was soon bedfast. Two doctors were called. One of them insisted that my condition was due to the blow on the head, the other that had plemisy. At any rate two weeks elapsed and my eyes closed in supposed death.
 "It was death as far as my relatives were concerned. Yet I was painfully conscious of every movement going on around me. My eyes were half closed, and as I was laid out heard my elder brother, John. walk into the house. I saw him approach the cot with tears in his eyes, and sympathizing friends con- soled him by asking him to dry his | tears. 'Ho is gone they said, and oth- | CT similar expressions were used | around the bier. Well-known faces | would peer down at me as I lay with | my eyes half closed. Tears rained on my face as the burial shroud was wrapped around my body. As soon as the undertaken arrived knew that I | was to be buried alive. Try as I would, | nothing could break tho spell which | bound me. Every action and every | word spoken are as distinct to my mind now as then.
 Well, the time for the funeral ar- rived, and the service was preached over my living but rigid body. The approached and the lid of my little prison house was fastened town. Life seemed all but gone when -nlS LOOK place, Dut, as Stateu, no eT- 'ort of mine could break the spell. The ,offln was showed into the wagon, and he trundling of the vehicle sounded in ny ears. I was painfully conscious of he fact that I was soon to be lowered nto my grave. Strange as 1t may ieem at times did not feel fear at my late. The coffin was taken out of the wagon and lowered into the grave. In hose days boxes were not used as a re- ,eptacle for the coffin. The clods of ,arth fell heavy on the lid of the cas- ret. There I was being entombed alive, lnable to speak or stay the hands of ny friends. My effort to move proved utile, and the close air of the coffin eemed stlfiing to me. Suddenly the ceased, and the silence of the omb was complete. I did not seem to