Year: 1878

A WOMAN ROASTED TO DEATH WHILE HELPLESS


WITH RHEUMATISM.


The st. Louis Republican of November 81 says that
Julia Clark. aged negro woman in that city, while
lying helpless with rheumatism before an open fire.
place. caught fire and was burned to death. Her hus
band. the reporter says, "siderably'' sev.
enty years ola he said. and born slave in .Ole
Kaintuck" He sold into Missouri when nine
teen years DID, and for nearly fifty years he lived at
what is now Georgetown. suburb Of Sedalia. He
married there, and his first wife died, leaving him
three children who now live st. Louis. Twenty
years ago he married his second wife. who slave
in the possession of William Jones there. When
the war broke out they were emancipated and
came to St. Louis. He took to wood saving
and rented little house in Lowell. on the
main road. He paid rent for eleven years. and then
word up from the city that whoever could build
them little house on the commons there might live
rent free. So he knocked up his cabin about
three years ago, ana had been living comfortably
there ever since. getting small living by wood saw
ing. His wife became afflicted with disease like
rheumatism about fifteen months ago, and she kept


went slap down her leg to her foot" and she had
Of herself after that Perfectly helpless she lay
day after day the old lounge in front Of the re
place. sometimes receiving call from neighbor
and always cheerful. He did all the cooking and
housework and came home whenever he could to
that she all right. She wasted away till she had
hardly any flesh left and her and legs were as
small infants. Her voice kept up its strength
remarkably and no one would suppose she was so FAR
gone by hearing her talk. She = good woman.
he said. and a true Christian and never murmured
about her affection. t.,s


All these points having been obtained the officer
turned down the sheet and the reporter hideous
sight. Every stitch of clothes burned of
the stockings. The hair completely burned Off.
the eyebrows and the head with its total alb
sence of flesh and Its shiny skin drawn tightly
the bones looked like bronze. The trunk. hardly
large that of baby. that of skeleton. COW
cred with slirny skin, and the arms were simply
bones. The eyes were burned out, but the Are had
not produced such revolving effects it would have
done on ieshy person. She lay on her back. with
her legs and arms drawn up. though in agony and
II WAS plain that she. In her frenzy, had mustered
just enough strength to throw herself In .
somersault over the back Of the lounge. alighting
her back, with her head under II.


"Wese seen awful troubles in our days." said the
old man, "but never would thought such thing
could come to my little home. I'm old man now.
an I'm badly crippled with rheumatic, an don't
know just how III bury her.


"Oh. the city will bury her. Uncle


''The ethyl No. sahl Now, Use been . bonded
slave, but Tse never been bcggar, an I'm too proud
to let the city do that Old Uncle Isaacs got enough
friends to help him git his poor old wife into . de-
cent grave. 1t won't take much to bury her out at
the Sx-Mile house. Jes' a little one horse
wagon will do an Ill take her out myself. Wes
grown ole folks together. an want to know whsr
her bones is." tN&