The record-union., 1898-09-18
A ROMANCE OF THE DEAD.
w. T.. HAMILTON TELLS THE
YARN OF THE SEASON.
Story of a Girl Who Fell in Love
With a Deceased Eng
lishman.

There are men in almost every busi-
ness who have unique experiences; but
| from the fact that some men remem-
| Der their unusual encounters With the
| life that surges around them comes the
interest that always attaches to story
| telling, oldest of arts.
| One Of the Sacramento men with a
| long memory for the unusual is w. 7.
Hamilton, now a special policeman,
| though formerly a well-knoWn under
taker in Oakland.
L am glad 1 quit the business
| that l followed in Oakland said he a
| few days ago, though it is fact that
| there is a singular fascination in min
/ 1Stering to the wants of the dead, if /
| may use such an expression. There is
a pleasure inplacing garlands of flowers
over them, arranging their white faces,
and laying their bodies in the last rest
ing place.
| Il have had some queer experiences
! myself" he continued, "but the strang-
est thing I ever heard in connection
| with the undertaking business was told
me by an old fellow who worked for
| me. We always called him Pete, and
| If he ever had any other name I have
now forgotten it. He was a man of
education and good talker.
"Now Pete would rather work among
the dead than among the living. He
used to say that he could read peoples
lives by their looks when they were
dead. Isn't that a lovely facet he
would sometimes exclaim; and he
seemed lonely when the noblest faces
were taken from our strange galaxy of
the dead He took pleasure in pinning
a little bouquet upon their garments
or in adjusting their heads upon their
pillows, saying that different positions
gave a better effect, or that change
Of attitudes gave the whole contour a
| more pleasing appearance.
pete said he was once an under
taker In San Francisco, but he never
went into details on that matter, so
we let it pass. He said that while he
was in the business he had a pretty
girl for sort Of bookkeeper and gen.
eral assistant, and that she enjoyed
helping to prepare the dead for burial
having much taste in arranging the
| little things that pleased women His
story was interesting"
| Mr. Hamilton then gave Old Pete's
| yarn about the girl, which ran as fol-
| lows:
"I often noticed" said Pete, that
the girl spent many idle hours among
the coffinS after the dead were pre-
pared and properly clothed. That was
| all right, for she was learning the bust
ness, and she made many little changes
that were artistic. But one day a
strange thing happened. One Of the
handsomest young fellows I had ever
seen was brought to our parlors to be
prepared for burial. He was unknown
but from papers found among his ef-
fects it was learned that his family
lived in England. He had been hunt
ing and had accidentally shot himself
in the right thigh, severing large ar
terry and bleeding to death OF course,
you know that he would be very pale.
Two efficient aides in my department
helped me 80 prepare him for the
grave. We dressed him appropriately,
combed his beautiful hair, arranged his
mustache, gave his CHASTITY cheeks a
few tints with the blender, and left in
structions for the young lady to make
floral piece for the Elks, who were
to manage the funeral.
girl was still working over the mans
face, giving a. few touches to his hair,
etc. She was enthusiastic over his
beauty, and you would have thought
she was speaking about a living man.
In fifteen minutes I returned, and she
seemed to be talking to him. I could
not make out what it all meant. 1t
was with delay that she needed my re-
1aSff fn II i'm md OFT fn 1n,.
other work The next day she fingered
about the place where the young Eng
lishman awaited the coming of the
Elks to return dust to dust
when the Elks came for the body
will you believe me when I say that my
pretty girl kissed that cold face and
went on over the dead as if he had been
her brother or husband? 1t was hard
for us to calm her.
THAT was twenty-five years ago"
said Pete, ''and she was then about IS
years old. I suppose you are wonder
ing what became of her, and what I am
telling you this yarn for, anyhow.
We'll, I saw her when was East
two years ago, for the world is small
and people drift apart. I had been in
vited by her relatives to call and see
ueT, anu S0e iOOheu WeIl ana seemed
happy. She was really handsome,
though her hair was silvered with the
frost that catches us old ones.
"She told me she was very happily
married, then she turned and chatted
with a man she said was her husband,
but that was all bosh, for she was liv-
ing in the dreamy land of phantoms
You don't understand? Listen
when she quit working for me she
went East to live with her family One
evening she was led from gas-lit par
lor into that part of the insane asylum
where I met her last; and for a quar-
ter of a century she has loved that
young Englishman with all the reality
Of the hallucinations of the insane,
though she never saw the man before
the day we got him for burial.
"As I stole away I could hear her
voice echoing through the great corri-
dors Of the asylum; for she was talk
ing and laughing with what she
thought was her husband. the bodi1ess
creation of ecstasy. Her eyes We're
bent on vacancy, yet she was happy.
And this is the strangest thing I ever
heard or saw in the undertaking trade,
was the way Old Pete always wound
up the story.
The Proof.
A patient in an English insane asy-
lum imagined himself dead, and moth
Ing could drive the delusion out of his
@I,x-cs a. 1o1