Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-06-30

Wakes and SLEEPS
!. IN own COFFIN
Nebraska Eccentric Asserts
He Does So to 3alk
Undertakers.
WANTS NO FUNERAL
WANTS NO FUNERAL
Declares That Money Spent for Funer-
ais is Pure Waste-HOme.Ma Made
Coffin Cost IS and Sons Wagon
Will Be the Hearse.

Lincoln, Neb., June 29.-Every
right in the year E. T. Hunger, for
merly CHIEF OF Police OF Lincoln,
sleeps in his coffin. The homemade
hoy stands on the front porch OF the
Hunger residence, at No. 23l4 Ran
dolpn street, and at night, after the
relghbors have gone to bed, "Old
Man" Hunger goes out and climbs
into the box. Ii the weather is cold,
or if a shower comes up, he pulls the
top of the coffin over the opening,
leaves crack through which he can
get a little fresh air, and camly goes
10 sleep. Mr.. Hunger is now sew
enty-six years old, and for many
years he has been sleeping in his
coffin.
"And l made that coffin myself,
too" he says proudly. "Costs too
much to die in these days. So l
just thought I'd play joke on the
undertakers and make my own coffin
while / was we'll enough. to do it.
So got me some inch plank about
foot wide and several pieves of 2x4.
put the latter at each corner to
make the box stable, and thea l
rallied it together with S-penny nails.
Whole thing cost me less than SIS, but
it's enough to hold a man about
my size without any trouble. And
won't those undertakers be mad
when l die and they can't get any of
my money!?
The Hunger home sits back from
the street and there are trees all
around it. In the summer these trees
shade the porch and the grewsome
object cannot be seen plainly. But
when winter strips the limbs and
branches Mr.. Hunger's homemade
coffin can be seen by all passersby.
For more than twenty years Mr..
Hunger was a constable in Lincoln
and is one of the best known men in
the city. But the fact that he sleeps
in his coffin every night is a fact
Known to few others than his neigh
bcrs and close friends.
No Undertakers for Him.
Hope I'll die some night right in
that coffin," says the ex-Chief of Po-
lice. my family knows just what
want done. l want them to nail that
lid on just as quickly as they know
I'm dead, and then haul me out to
the cemetery; don't want any OF
these undertakers holding me up for
big bill for funeral expenses. NO,
sir: what's good enough for me to
sleep in is good enough for me to be
buried in"
The old man has his sleeping box
nicely arranged. He built the casket
little bit deeper than. usual, and
then he fitted a set of springs in the
lotion. On these he placed a small
rd - III &C
and quilts.
Heard of lots of people who've
built their own collins, | suppose?
says Hunger. "But you don't very
often hear of fellow who turns
round and sleeps in it after mes
made it, do you?"
Il don't like this thing of putting
]ewelry and expensive qRohes in the
ground. They are needed hse OH the
surface. Thousands of Mars are
wasted that way eve d Now,
I'm going to die simply any want
to be put away just as slmpE I've
got things fixed sd that all ex-
pense will be thet OF diggiA the
grave. I'll furnish the coffinA md
my son has a wagon. We are Mot
going to have. preacher. And Qse
won't be srsy funeral exercises of ~
kind. r'-lese here undertakers cha&ssl
Z. yellow more than a hundred dollaf N
fts outrageous" n
But then. I'm only seventy-si1
ars old and l dol't expect to die
tor about twenty years. My
andmother lived to be one hundred
SFd three, and in twenty years l
VIII De seven years younger than she
was when she died. But if L live a
hundred years more I'm going tc
sieep III that coffin every night.
DO you know. that's the most
Gs;Usn'tortable bed ever got into in my
lMe. Well, it is. That's one reason
why ! sleep in it right along"
AS Sleep, So May l Die"
hunger is an interesting character
rae was born in Germany and took
part N the Franco-Prussian war
ii, n..er that conflict he came to Amer
M ,sa" was a roustabout on a Mississi-
X X river steamboat for while and
~, tseh went over into South Carolina
49, he didn't like the country, SO he
3S Jn.ed around. He was street car
s saAk sEsufauctor in Philadelphia and held
S3fSe n't positions in dozen cities.
unio ne married and he and his
Ias n sue came West, settling at Lincoln,
Iou never can tell just what will
ppeh, said the old man as he
oh the side Of his box. "You see,
may ne called upon most any time
occupy this thing permanently,
certainly am ready for that
! nave seen enough of life, any
as ! sleep, SO may l die, and az
- ma me. may they let me be,''
hunger. Some morning. when
come to- wake me they will find
=, sleeping the long sleep. Then |
M ,hena not to disturb me, but
JUST NAN the lid on and cart me
- The cemetery That's all"