, 1908-01-24
THOUGHT HE WAS.
BURIED ALIVE
THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
OF ETHAN ALLEN DOE

l remember going to bed. | have a
clear recollection of getting between
the sheets and ordering my thoughts
so that l might sleep. So far as |
recall there was nothing unusual in
my going to bed, nor were my refec-
lions in the brief period that elapsed
before slumber such as to presage any
strange illness or c%ataleptic seizure.
l had eaten heartily of lobster and
cheese shortly before bed time, but so
perfect had my digestion always been
that | had no fears of strange dreams.
To go to bed upon a live lobster in
his full armament of claws and
~squeezers might have disconnected me,
but to go to bed, as the saying is, upon
a dead one Inc cooked, gave me no
gloomy ~forebodings whatsoever.
The incidents | am about to relate
are enough to shake the stoutest cour
G Inc disturb the very depth of the
soberest logic and calm judgment. If,
therefore, to follow me through this
grim narrative shall threaten to un-
seat the reason or shock unduly the
nervous system, 1 beg you will take
warning thus early, that no untoward
results may come to you through this
strange tale.
| must have been taken off in my
sleep, so it seemed when | returned
again to consciousness. But what hor-
rible dread oppressed me as my senses
gradually resumed their functions! A
feeling of closeness, of sh~ut-inness, of
GREATNESS darkness too deep to pene-
trate. l could not cry out, for my
throat was dry and my vocal chords
were paralyzed. A terror too vast
n awful for words overcame me-
a blind, unreasoning, instructive dread.
For, through the dim shadows of my
half-formed thoughts came to me the
awful, startling, predominating, unget.
awayfromable TRUTH had been bur.
led alive.
1t is a solemn thing to wake and
discover this to be the case. 1t is
so revoking, so "unthoughtful of ones
friends, so lonesome, so unfathomable,
so intense. To have gone to sleep in
apparent health and strength, looking
forward joyfully to the morrow; to
have been seized in slumber with some
catalepsy so closely resembling disso,
luton as to be indistinguishable, to
have had untruthful eulogies pro
%nounced, and then to have been con.
signed to earth in this narrow box, tc
wake betimes and SILVER with mortal
terror.
Gradually l regained the use of my
limbs, although my voice remained as
dead as | was thought to have been
Slowly l drew one hand up by my side
for the of my cell for
babe outstretching it. | felt about my
bead-there was the smooth hardness
and polished surface that could mean
but one thing. Above me / felt, and
l encountered the same hard, polished
stubborn, immovable, wooden OBJ
stacle. l felt my hair rising erect
from its roots, and turning slowly,
gray in this perpetual night. Then
| thought | saw a reflection of my
c~ountenance in the shadows above me,
and l remembered that there was
usually glass just above the upper
part of the body and that my Inca.
ments might be dimly reflected
therein.
The thoughts that came to me in
this horrible time | shall never be
able accurately to set down. They
flashed like lightning upon me and as
quickly forsook me. They charged me
in columns, battalions, armies. myri-
ads, torturing me with their infinite
variety and their acute ~clearness. |
felt if l could only cry out-shriek in
the hope that my tones might pene-
trate the earth above met would af-
ford me some relief. But my voice
remained useless to me, and | lay
there shivering and silent, wondering
how long l might survive.
Suddenly, ~strangest of all, 1 felt the
wrappings about me move. l felt a
thin current of air strike me, cooling
my hot forehead and appearing to
come through some aperture in my
Enclosure. l felt a slight pressure
upon me-, up and down, as if a hand
gently passed over me. What awful
complication was this? Was my
resting place being desecrated by
ghouls in search of gain? Still the
laiu Sllohtu hlS ny oih NS"h L "Ro
sure it was a hand now for l felt
the pressure of fingers. Yet l lay
there helpless, unable to move, I'M
able even to turn over. / felt my
hair turning from gray to pure white.
1t was the climax of my suffering. l
felt l could withstand no more. In a
few minutes l would go mad.
But hush! In the darkness there
was a voice. oh, the music of it,
the sweet, delirious u%nforgetable mel
ody of it l shall never forget. 1t
said:
Yves only Is minutes fun Roches-
ter, boss. If you gifts off there you bet,
ter git up now and dress yourself. We
only stops five minutes!"
1t was in August, l remember. And
I had been in Lower 8.