The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-07-25
THE CORPSE SAT UP.
Singular Exposure of n Novel Method
of Making n Living without
Working.

| A clergyman whose field is in n
neighborhood where cases of desti-
tuition are not unusual, assured Il
| reporter that not one in ten of those
| who applied to him for assistance
proved worthy upon Investigation,
says the New York Mail and Express.
Among the incidents of pretended
misfortune which he related, the fol-
| lowing was the most remarkable:
"A couple of strange children"
said he, came to the Sunday school
connected with church i'll another
city, where l am we'll acquainted.
They were put into a class and told
the woman who was their teacher
that they were very poor. Their APP
pearance agreed with their words,
and, taking their address. she made
up her mind to do something for
them. Before she had time to call,
demanded her immediate. interest i'll
their behalf. They went to her home
and with tears announced that their
father had died and their mother
did not know where to get money
with which to bury him. incidental
ly they mentioned that they had moth
ing to eat in the house and were hun
cry.
blaming herself for not having
visited this afflicted family sooner,
the teacher atoned for her neglect
| by feeding the children and sending
them home with basket full Ct
good things. Then she sought two
women of the aid society who con-
stituted a standing committee to
look out for the destitute in the par
| ish and laid the case before them.
They took up a hasty coniribntion
| from the church women in the neigh
borhood and repaired at once to the
home of suffering, the teacher con-
tinuing the work of soliciting aid for
the funeral expenses.
when the committee reached the
address given they found the fam
lily occupying two plainly furnishd
rooms. The door was opened to
them by II rather coarse woman who
had an apron at her eyes as if weep
ing. The children also began crying
when they came in. They comforted
the family, gave the woman the
money they had and promised to do
what more they could to relieve her
distress, The woman said that the
collin in which her husband lay was
not paid for and that it would take
$40 TO bury him, They babe her not
to worry about that, The woman
invited hcr visitors TO enter the front
room to look at tho body. They
went with her to the door of dark
encd room. At the further end of
the room was a plain black casket In
which lay the body of q man. The
visitors did not advance beyond the
doorway.
"On their way home one of the wom=
On, who told the incident nfterward
10 my wife, expressed curious
feeling of skeptlcism. She was im=
PEELED to go back for reasons that
she could not analyze. Her COM
rades tried to disslIadc her, but she
was determined, and at length both
rntraced their steps. They entered
the abode Of poverty without knoe<=
ing. The living room was deserted.
Feeling some delicacy about enter-
ing the chamber of death, they nat
urally made no noise as they pushed
open the parlor door, which was
ajar. The sight that met their eyes
made them give little scream. The
corpse was sitting up in the coffin
| 90 nf hn Food hof
day provided, and in front of him
on the lid of the casket was the
money the women of the church had
contributed for his widow which
he was counting over with great
content.
"The surprise of the supposed
dead man was at least as great as
them In the doorway. He got out of
the coffin in quite an agile way and
began to buster. That brought
! courage back to the woman whose
premonition had been so astonishly
/ justified, and she told him without
any hesitation that if he made
trouble she would go straight to the
! llCdltSt JoliNC anu HHft Hl1l
, arrested. That quieted him. He
begged for mercy, and said he had
been in such a desperate pass that
he had been forced to this eXpediept
to keep his family from starvation.
"Close questioning and little eut=
! side investigation proved that he lied
! in this statement, and before a week
had passed he confessed that he had
long been living by appearing to die
( under various names in different sec
tons of that and the neighboring
cities. The children had been trained
| to tell their narrowing tale and to
substantiate it with an appearance
/ of grief.
81 think" concluded the clergy
man, that the sequel of the story
shows the genuineness of the char
ity of those VINO investigate before
giving. The women did not cause
the mans arrest, but they held the
threat to do so over his head for his
own good and that of his children.
They found employment for him. and
promised not to prosecute him as
long as he retained his position and
continued to reside in that house.
and tho last | heard he was support
ing his family faithfully, and the
|