The morning times., 1896-02-24

Nefarlous Traffic AS broken Up
at Last.
The recent grave robbery at Payne's Gene
vandalism brought to light in Washington
for q long time.
Not many years ago, however, this city
| was blighted by the active and audaeious
operations of a colony OF resurrectionists,
more commonly termed body snatchers"
or grave robbers, and not infrequently re-
| ferred to is ghouls.
Those were the palmy days of Vigo Jan
sen Ross, the crafty Russian, who gained
| the appeation OF King OF the body snatch
ers," and his uncanny co-workers, Percy
! Brown, Dr.. Chrstman, Jimmie Fallon, DR.
| Beall, Bowie, the negro giant, and others.
| Some of the originals remain but they are
not al H. the business of raising stiffs"
at this time.
| Public sentiment was first excited against
| the ghastly crew when Vigo Jansen Ross
delivered his lecture on body snatching.
with scenic effects, one Sunda night, about
thirteen years ago, on the stage of the old
| Theater Comique now Kernans
The stage was set with graveyard scene
| by moonlight In the center over long
trap door, was a nIounded grave, consisting
of the natural earth itself, the mound being
nicely sodded and provided with white
ana cleaning tombstone, across which the
! artificial moon cast its fitful rays.
JANSEN'S CHASTITY LECTURE.
|
assistants on the stage. provided with
grave hooks, spades, pickaxes, and the
other paraphernalia of his ghostly trade.
His lecture was written and volumnous,
and had evidently been prepared with great
| care.
| About an hour before the lecture was adj
vertised to commence, two mischievous
medical students from Georgetown College
Informed Jansen that If he attempted to
deliver the lecture he would be rotten
egged by their classmates.
And. :" added one OF the students,
"some OF the boys may throw something
harder than Spoiled eggs At you.''
Jansen was Thoroughly alarmed AT this
| threat and appealed to- Col. Snelbaker,
manager OF The theater. TO postpone the
| lecture. This SneIlbaker refused TO do.
but he sent around TO the Twelfth street
police station and Lieut.. Dick Arnold
had his reserve go TO the play ayhouse to pre-
serve order and prevent vioience. 80
In the meantime Col. Snellbakcr sup
| piled Jansen withfiberal potations in order
Ito screw his courage up to the sticking
| point. The presence of the bluecoats and
| the liquor jointly brought about the de-
sired result aud the 1resurrccttonist went
on the stage to deliver his novel lecture
He was too drunk, however, 10 read the
! manuscript. and banded the roll of copy
TO a reporter in one OF the private boxes.
Then in a stombiing almost tncobcreTt
manner he proeee,ledto make an extempo
raneous effort, which was as good as a
farce comedy, and kept the house in
roar Of laughter. When the time came to
| dclve into the grave Jansen's assistants
appeared and quickly removed the turf
from the grave and sboveled the earth
away, disclosing the open trap-door.
HAD A PROPERTY STIFF.
T. Beneath was n six foot oolorcd man who
had been hired for the occasion 10 rep
resent the stiff or corpse. The grave
hooks were placed under his arms and he
was dragged to the stage from the depths
of the make e-bceyc grave. The gaunt
form OF the ColoTcd man was devoid of
clothing, but be was wrapped in a large
sheet, and as he lay prone upon the stage
he was recognized by d friend in the
audience, who sung out:
Hey, dere, Peter, youse a healthy
lookin' niger corpse, you is
| The supposed corpse smiled broadly and
showed his white teeth, while the audience
fairly howed. Col. Sncllbaker, thorough
y disgusted, rang the curtain down on
the farce, and thus ingloriousy ended the
first and only public lecture on bod y-snatch-
ing.
This attempted expose OF the business
brought Jansen into bad repute with the
medical colleges here, and he went to
| Milwaukee and commenced operations as
a resurrectionist. A year later he came
back 10 Washington and one stormy night
stole from the Jail authorities the body
of Charles Shaw, Il colored man. who
had been executed that day for the murder
of his sister.
Jansen placed the body in n hack and
drove with it TO Georgetown College. En-
route he took on board a full cargo OF
whisky and became drunk and noisy.
Failing To get fancy price for the
cadaver from the Georgetown people. he
next drove to the dissecting room of
Columbia College.
HE HAwKED THE BODY.
Failing there in like manner, he started
for Howard University. While he and
the hackman were in a Seventh street
saloon drinking more whisky, a passerby
noticed the dead mans feet protruding
through the hack window. He called a
policeman and Jansen was arrested, the
driver fleeing in terror.
The body snatcher was taken to the
police court on the following morning, but
the prosecuting attorney found himself in a
quandary. He cahid find no law under
which Jansen could he prosecuted. Finally
he ascertained that the prisoner was only
liable under health regulation, which
prohibits the conveying OF dead body
through the streets without a permit from
the health officer.
Under this Jansen was tried. found guilty
and sent to jail for1one year, minus one day.
Other malefactors. including Percy Brown
and DR.. Beall, were similarly punished
afterwards. a precedent having been estab
lished by Judge Miller.
Prior to that time the business of resur-
recting had been carried on here with
impunity. These Jail sentences, however
put a udden check on the traffic in deao