Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-14

Harry Beno Buried Alive, VIII Re-
main Nine DAYS.

A New York Herald dispatch from Chi
cago, H., says: Harry Beno, who was
buried in grave soon after midnight Mon
day morning at Jackson boulevard and
Kedzie avenue, will remain under ground
without food OF water for 216 hours. but
he will he supplied with air through
wooden pipe.
His grave was dug and the burial took
place in the presence OF a large crowd OF
persons more or less skepticaily Inclined,
but WHO were unable to find any suspicious
flaws In the arrangements. Benos last
statement was that the feat was made pos
sible by a series of induced sleeps, which
he termed trance slumbers-" These last
twelve hours each, and at the end of each
he conyerses with the audience present
through the wooden tube, which is his only
connection with the outer world.
Thousands of persons have visited his
grave since he was buried and conversed
with Beno through the wooden tube His
face was visible through a glass PLACED in
such a position that his features, though
not his body, could be seen. Beno- says
his trance slumbers'' maintain him, and
that it would make no difference to him
if he had neither light nor air.
1t was possibly O'Clock on Saturday
night when two grave diggers appeared at
the place selected and began to prepare the
grave. Beno, who boasts that he is without
the sense of feeling, taste or smell, was all
ready for the ordeal for he was dressed in
deep black. He took with him his only
solace pocket mirror. He slipped into the
caSket, babe farewell to the crowd and was
lowered into the hole in the ground. The
cover of the coffin was nailed down and the
earth filled in over it, leaving nothing but
the ventilation tube above the surface of
the ground. e
Beno awoke at midnight Monday night
and talked to the crowd. He will remain
buried nine days, and will be watched
closely by scientific men.
Beno declares that it is impossible for
him to experience pain, and that he can
can hang a chair on its handle. Red-hot
needles passed through his flesh cause him
no annoyance, he says. Beefsteak tastes
the same to him as eggs. he declares while
the only way he can tell paris green from
sugar is by the color.
Beno says that he recently ate large
quantity of paris green, following II up
with doses of arsenic and belladonna. Then
he smoked a cigar and smiled at the doc
tors who were waiting to pump him out IL
he began to get ill, but the deadly drugs
had no effect upon him.
In the Cook County Hospital Beno aston
ished the surgeons some time ago by allow
ing them to cut his head open without TAX
ing an anesthetic- He had broken off an
awl in his skull and he wanted the piece of
steel removed. He said he did not feel thet
operation.
Beno says he can pass into a state of
coma at will and sleep for days without
nourishment. He declares he has sold his
body in advance to Bellevue Hospital I'M
New York for $500. Upon his death the
institution is to receive the body and a
study will be made of it.
Beno is wrapped in two blankets in the
casket. The grave is about three feet deep.
the ventilating shaft is at the foot of thee
coffin and an electric light is so placed that
his face can be seen at all times. He says
his mother is an Egyptian and his father
an Englishman.