Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-12-11
BURIAL ALIVE.
Popular Fear of It and Devices to Prevent Its 0ccurrence.

6OhiAk ALIVE.
 Popular Fear of It and Devices to Prevent Its 0ccurrence.
 E.'When Onoe the dread of being Fnffed alive takes hoh of man, Esusually Beeofhes a maniac on the subject. The terror of the awful possibility of the thing seems to be- como a sort of secondnature to him, and he spends the rest of his'life in 6evising ways and means 10 oprevent 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 Have which was not filled in, al though the coffin was deposited in 4. Instead of the earth being thrown H the grave was covered with boards. On these boards were tine aEGhGE5 L44hh A4E2NA DC0A AS(0 tAA A=AN Eineral. 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.
 ''Therei is a woman in that grave, he said. Her husband is a proni- Hent Chioagoan and is what might be oalled crank on the subject of being buried alive. When his wife &ed, be delayed the funeral as long as possible, but even then the idea fhat his wife might yet be alive see1Ded to haunt him. At his request bests were applied. and he was as Enred there was no possibility of any EDark of life remaining. But he had read of cases where even the doctors had been mistaken, and he resolved bo take no chances. So he made ar engagements with the cemetery man. agemc1t to allow the grave of his wife to remain open a certain length ef fine. He comes here every day, bz1t ihis mornsng he said that tho grave could be filled in tomorrow. "
 Then the man talked of some of the schemes and ideas that possess the Slinds of some men and women who are filled with the dread of being hurled alive or of fearing that some of their friends might meet such a horrible fatR He told of some of the d2ceS That bayesbeen invented withs ypotSa in view and of the tirneN spent by managers of come teries in listening 'to the inventors.
 "One man, he said, has a scheme by which he would fix 6 wire in the coffin of a person yghen-it was bu- ried. This wire Is to he carried into the ofiico of tho cemetery, and the thing is to be arranged so that with the slightest movement in the coffin Aa alarm will be set of in the office CT wherever the wire leads. Then tbe idea is for all haste to be made iD disinterring the coffin and if pos sible save a life.
 Another man would place chlo- noform in the coffins of all persons. Then if the occupant should happen to be alive and should make the least movement the ohloroform would be released in such a way as to quickly end the matter and pre- vent the unlucly victim from en- during any of the horrors of the sit nation. In this case there is no way ef knowing whether the person was alive or dead when buried.
 Another way to insure death is ky 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 a 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 have never heard of any one placing such a con- trivanOe in a coffin in Chicago, sl- though of course it could be done, and nobody 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.