Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 March 1875 — Dead-Heading Across the Continent in a Hearse. [ARTICLE]

Dead-Heading Across the Continent in a Hearse.

A few days ago a hearse arrived from Rochester, N. Y., consigned to Easterday & Morgan, of this city. The hearse was transported from the shop in Rochester without change of cars from the flat on which it was originally placed. Before shipment the manufacturers placed a large box over it to protect it from the weather. The box rested on the axles, inside the wheels, being long enough to extend from the rear over the dash-board in front. Owing to the construction of the driver’s seat on the hearse, the corners of the box extend far enough to allow room for the body of a man to pass between the box at that point and the hearse. The front and rear of the vehicle is so constructed as to swing open, and thereby hangs the tale. This was noticed by some one whq| silently contemplated how easy it woula be to save a few scads and see the country where strawberries grow as large as hen eggs all the year round, and then pounced off to lay in a stock of provisions. These he procured and poked them through the cavity between the hearse and the box, after which he followed. Once within the wooden sepulcher, it is thought he wafted a song of praise, for there reposed a large box partially filled with silver-plated casket trimmings, etc., which had been packed in straw and shavings, as also the seat cushions. After arranging his corn-beef, bread, rardines, hermetically-sealed cabbage and a quantity of tobacco, he arranged the ornaments in the box so as to leave a nice place in the center for him to repose in. And then, after taking a drink and a chew of tobacco, he reclined amid the straw and fine shavings and quietly snickered. The appearance of this suffering soul as he laid back and ejected the nicotine from between the ruby lips against the plate-glass sides of that hearse must have been eminently satisfactory. As was seen by the remnants left in his lodgings his appetite remained substantial throughout the journey, but his amiable weakness seems to have been in lining the glass walls of his sanctum with tobacco juice. A highlycolofed, short-stemmed clay pipe found in the corner gave proof that it was not allowed to rust with inactivity and told how vacation between meals was sometimes passed.— Oakland (Cal.) Tribune.