Year: 1859

Come, bitter conduit, come, unsayouTy guide
| Thou desperate pilot, now at once run OH


The dashing rocks thy sea.sick weary bark!


Here's te my Lowell o true apothecary;


Thy drugsare quick. Thusw with kiss die.
/ Romeo sought the tomb of Juliet, to
die beside, what he supposed was, her
dead body; the only instance recorded, SO
far as we know, of such devotion as to In
duce one to seek living tomb. But this
case has had its parallel in New Orleans,
if we substitute mourning father for a
mourning husband.


The New Orleans Crescent give the de-
tails. An Englishman, named Sylvester
Rupert, lost, by yellow fever, his pet child
Lizzie of four years and with his own
hands-being too poor to purehase-he
built brick tomb and there deposited the
body of Lizzie.


At the tomb he made wooden frame,
and be fitted a piece of board, and secured
il with screws in the four corners. On this
board with which he closed the vault, he
carved nicely with his knife the burial in
scripiion of his child. He fastened the
board with screws, in order that he might
afterward have no trouble in removing it
when he felt like gazing upon the decay
ing remains of his child.


This employment finished, it was his
habit to visit the cemetery, open the tomb,
and look at the corpse of his pei. He al
ways carried screw-driver in his pocket
with which 10 remove and replace the board,
and also to remove and replace the lid of
the coffin. His visits were frequent, and
sometimes his wife went with him. He
frequently complained to her that he could
not get work; and this inability doubtless
fostered the dependency which was draw
ing him to death On Thursday, when he
left home, he told his wife that if he had
no better luck in finding work she would
never see him again.


That evening or that night-for no one
saw him in his gloomy proceedings-he
visited the cemetery; taking with him his
screw-driver, an iron trunk handle, small
rod of iron, a piece of wire, some new
screws, and large vial oflaudanum. I'm
screwing the board of the tomb, he threw
away the screws and filled the screwholes
in the board with clay.


With bis new screws he then secured
the trunk haudie to the inside of the board.
This work, of course, had to be done oul-
side the tomb. Pushing his child's coffin
aside, le got in by its side, taking with
him his poison and the other articles with
which he had provided himself. His hat
he placed upon the coffin; his coat, which
he had taken off, he wrapped around q
brick for pillow. He shut himself in
with the board, by fitting outside the
wooden frame. The iron bar, wich was
of the proper length, he placed across the
frame inside.


The thickness of the frame would not
allow the bar to bass through the trunk
handle on the inside of the board; so he
secured the handle and the bar with his wire
coiling it through the one and around the
other. He did not succeed in fitting the
board squarely upon the frame. One
corner of it caught upon the brickwork out
side the frame; this he did not discover,
probably, owing to the darkness of the
night; and but for this little circumstance
his fate would probably have never been
discovered, or not at least for many years.
Having thus hid himself away, as he fan
cied, beyond mortal discovery, he drained
off the contents Of his laudanum bottle,
composed himself on his back, placed the
brick and coat beneath his head, and went
to sleep, and off into thu unknown region
OF the suicides.


AS he did not return home on Thursday
night his wife feared the worst, remember
ing well the tendency of his late conduct
and the tenor of his parting words. On
Friday morning she rose early went out
TO the cemetery. She looked around, and
failed to fiud her husband. She went and
looked at their tomb, aud was about to
leave, when she happened to notice that
the board did not fit snugly into the frame
as usual Looking closer she discovered
the mud IN the screw holes; and putting
her hand on the board, found it was stand
ing loosely. She pulled it out a little,
and the first thing she saw was the dead
face of her husband. She tainted away,
and laid in the grass she could not tell how
long.