Year: 1872

From the Detroit Qdich), Free Press, Jan. 8.


Saturday evening, after Coroner Gnau had
empanelled jury and adjourned the inquest
IN the case of the victims of the Stearn's fire,
the body of Stewart was taken to his mothers
house, on Congress street, while those of
B9ninghausen and Geiger were handed over
to the city undertaken, and dressed for the
grave before being taken in charge by friends.
Both were put into their collins and remained
thus until Sunday morning. About eight
O'Clock, as Mrs. Beninghausen (the mother)
opened the coffin to exhibit the dead to some
sympathizing callers, she observed, or thought
she did, that the corpse had turned little in
its coffin. She was at once greatly excited,
and her excitement and that of her friends in
creased as the face of the corpse had assumed
look of life, the face being flushed, the fin
ger nails looking red, and considerable warmth
being apparent on touching the hands or
face.


The corpse was Immediately removed from
its coffin, placed on lounge and wrapped in
blankets, and in little time two or three
surgeons had been called. As time went on
signs OF life became more and more apparent,
and the news began to spread through the
city that there was hope of saving the young
man, raising him from the dead. Scores and
hundreds ofpeOple began moving toward the
corner of Russell and Antietam streets, and
during the day and evening the house and
yard were filled with citizens anxious to learn
the smallest particulars of the case. The face
was warm when touched; it seemed as if the
blood was circulating il the fingers; and by
evening the parents and friends of the victim
had great hopes that he wonld be restored to
consciousness before morning. The body was
kept warm the feet and hands vigorously
rubbed every few moments, and at length it
seemed, when looking at the boy, as if he was
only asleep. The stiffness and rigidity which
characterize the limbs of the dead were lack
ing here, as the hands could be moved easily,
the fingers bent, the arms raised and moved
from side to side, and several medical men
were sanguine that they could raise the dead
to life.


In the evening, in addition to score of
other methods being tried, electricity was
brought into use and given thorough trial,
but without, however, producing the effect
hoped for. Monday morning the body re-
mained in the same state as the night before,
and scarcely any change took place until
noon yesterday, when the flesh grew cold and
every one gave up hope of life. The limbs
did not grow rigid, and neither had the flush
left the face at three o'clock in the afternoon,
and for this reason the parents have decided
not to bury the corpse until nature exhibits
unmistakable sigus of death.


The case of the young man Geiger, whose
parents live at LAT Catharine street, is still
more singular. Sunday morning, as in the
other case, signs of life .were exhibited, and
he was taken from his coffin and placed upon
woollen blankets, and his friends, intensely
excited, began making great efforts to restore
him to life. His hands were chafed, his feet
were rubbed in hot whiskey, and every eff
fort made for the next ten hours to break up
what many believed was a trance. The news
went abroad, and half the medical men in the
city, besides hundreds of citizens paid the
house visit. Everything was tried that
could be suggested, but no further change
was made than to bring a deeper flush to the
cheek and to render the limbs less stiff. Work
was continued all Sunday night and all day
Monday, and then, every effort having failed,
it was decided that nothing more could be
done. And yet, at four o'clock last evening,
the face of the corpse was warm to the touch,
the hands were not near as cold as the un-
gloved hand Of pedestrian, and the finger
nails were as those of any person in good
health. A score of doctors in all visited and
examined the body, and some would not be
convinced that death had actually occurred,
while all were puzzled to account for the con-
dition of the body


The body of young Stewart did not exhibit
| such strong indications of life as those of his
companions, but it was nevertheless hard to
convince one that he was dead instead of
sleeping.


In Geiger's case, as in Beninghausen's,
the parents have determined to keep the body
until decomposition sets in. Hundreds Of
theories have been advanced in explanation
OF this strange phenomena Some think the
victims inhaled something to cause the pres
ent conditions of the bodies, and others claim
that death came instantly, and that the bod
les exhibit just the indications shown when
person is killed by stroke of lightning. Be
it as it may, the incidents created much ex-
citement around the city yesterday, and, as
was natural, nearly every report was grossly
exaggerated to help along the general belief
that miracle was to be wrought.