Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1879 — A Shocking Scene. [ARTICLE]

A Shocking Scene.

The funeral of the murdered Mrs. Hull, in New York, was a chapter of accidents. When the coffin'was placed over the grave, preparatory to tne recital of the burial service, the earth at the grave gave way. The Herald says: “One of the crossbars fell and the end of the box dropped to the bottom of the grave. The bar under the head of the coffin slipped and the coffin itself was thrown down into the

grave. It lay for a moment at an angle of about forty-five degrees, the foot still supported by the crossbars and the head on the fallen box below. Mr. Mollison and Mr. Field had fallen partly under the coffin and partly into the grave. A small monument over the grave of one of Mrs. Hull’s nephews was upset by the starting back of one of the pall-bearers. A shudder of irrepressible horror passed over the entire company. For an instant every one was paralyzed. Several of the women wept and turned away their faces. Dr. Hull stood as if rooted to the ground. He moaned and wailed with awftil grief. The tears rolled from his eyes, and, as he wept he repeated again ana again, “Oh, dear! oh, dear! oh, dear!” Apparently he could not stir, and he stood absolutely still while the coffin was lifted up by a dozen quick hands and placed on a grave near by. It was slightly broken, though it retained its shape and held together. The seams at the head had sprung apart about a quarter of an inch, and the lid over the plate was partly displaced, though fortunately not enough to disclose a view of the rudely shaken corpse. < It was replaced at once, and preparations were again made for following the coffin to its last resting place Unfortunately this could not be readily done. If suitable pieces of timber had been at hand a trestle work could have been easily made, even with the edges of the grave displaced. But no such timber was there. Excepting the four stout crossbars, all that was available was a wormeaten, decayed plank. This was broken into half a dozen pieces, and one laid upon another to form an edge for the support of the bars, after at least twenty minutes of confused work and much talk by a dozen men. Even the support seemed frail, and mauy thought the body, thus pursued by a seemingly relentless fate, would again fall. The mourners stood for these twenty minutes in the full glare of the afternoon sun, unwilling witnesses of the unseemly occurence, and when at last the lowering was actualy accomplished, thejre was a general sigh of relief.”