The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-01-17

VAF2ILLIAM GRAY OF Washington
EAEASc2 County, Indiana. has just been
VA A;'S snaiched from the most horrible
OF deaths. Within few moments Of the
time fixed for his burial he sat up and
quietly told the undertaken that his
services would not be +, quired. Had not
the supposed corpse returned to life SO
suddenly another tragedy would have
been added to the many laid at the door
of our system of burial. Here is written
by his own pen the first account OF this
remarkable experience:
Before begin 10 tell the details Of how
l came near being buried alive, only few
days ago, would like TO say that l am
plain man, without much education, so if
you expect any fine description in my
writing you will most likely be disap-
pointed. 1 intend to simply describe as
nearly as can the horror of my feelings,
and l have no doubt the bare facts them
selves will be sufficiently interesting with
out being dressed no by fine language.
The frightful agony of mind l passed
through will be enough, l am sure, to fit
me for the task of describing il all, for not
for a moment has one detail left my
mind in fact l suppose it is now i'm
planted on my memory forever.
When l died, for I was dead according
to the doctor, there were present at my
bedside the following people, all of Wash
ington County, Indiana; Mary f. Gray.
Jennie Shields. Mary A. Shields, Robert
Shields, William BartIe ami James Bar
tie.
All of these will swear TO the truth of
what say and so will the doctor, DR..
Elrod OF Hennysville, Clark County, for
l am sure that the mind of every one
present received a shock that will remain
with them for lifetime. Even now they
all look at me as If wondering whether l
am really alive or am just a walking
spirit, and if it was not all so dreadful
could laugh when look back at the whole
affair.
l am farmer and was born IN WASH
ington County forty-four years ago. 1
have been sickly for several years. You
must excuse me if | keep saving 1 died,
for am firmly convinced that l passed
through the experience OF death.
l was first taken iii last month,
being seized with kind of collie or
=,
but after a day or two the pains grew SO
bad that l sent for DIR. Elrod. He lives
ten miles away. explained to him how
felt and he gave me some medicine and
it did me no good, and soon my pain was
awful. l began to feel hot about the head
and could not remember things very well,
and for two days / lay in some kind of a
fever. The doctor came twice day, but
| grew worse and one day toward the end
of the month the family gathered round
nv bedside and / could see by their
grieved faces that they thought l was GO
ing to die.
There was no shock in the news. 1t
seemed as if / had known for years l was
going to die, and then | felt my linn BIS
growing colder and colder, and realized
that the end was at hand. First the chill
struck my feet and it extended up my
limbs. and then from my fnger-tips TO
nv body, until / felt as if an icy hand
was Just about to grip my heart. and that
when that was done l should be dead. Ny
pain was gone, but in its place was a
haunting dread that seemed to swell my
veins until / thought that l should be-
come a maniac before / died. So much
agony of mind was crowded into that one
short moment it seemed as if | could not
contain it all. felt the sweat rising on
my brow. On the inside it felt as if every
drop was of molten iron, and that as il