Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1873 — Buried Alive. [ARTICLE]

Buried Alive.

With all the reverence due to the dead, and with every possible regard for the feelings of the living, which in no way would we harrow up unnecessarily, we state, and believe, that, not unfrequently, . there are instances where human beings are buried alive! To be sure this is an uncommon, but by no means an impossible circumstance, as facts havo shown, 'Under the sod in the various grveyards of the land may be further evidence of this kind. In cemeteries that have been dug over, and the remains of the dead exhumed, there have been found in coffins, nailed and screwed tightly together, bodies or skele tons that were turned over on their sides or faces, sometimes with the knees drawn up, the joints distended, the hands clenched, the arms thrust against the coffin’s narrow sides, the fingers twisted in the hairs of the head, the eyes glaring, the teeth ground together, the head doubled under, and many othcrindubitable proofs that the last death Struggle did not fake place before burial, hut that after the coffin had been laid away in the shades of the tomb, or lowered in the deep solid earth, then and there a fierce, agonizing, desperate, lonely and hopeless contest for life was waged untaexhaustion! _ln the old public burial ground in the city of Brooklyn, when a general exhumation was to enable the ground to be diverted to streets and building lots, tho writer saw no less than eight of such instances. One of these was evidently that of a young bride, dressed in wedding garments of tho richest white satin, with a bridal veil and a ring of costly style and quality, and all the evidence of wealth, refinement a»d station in life. The remains were supposed to have been buried about twenty years previously. The coffinplate was gone, aud, in the really indecent haste Of the heartless contractors and brutish laborers, who ruthlessly tore and Ossed the relics up, there was not the faintest clue to the identity. But upon examination it was discovered that the skeleton was twisted and diplaced (as no shock of the exhumation could have caused), and the garments grasped as m a vice in the clenched finger bones, showing conclusively that a terrific struggle had taken place -in the last narrow house and home of the lovely, youthful, early loved and lost bride. Even the long raven tresses, which were as glossy and perfect Us ever, Were bit fast in the fiesh less teeth as though with the fingl despairing, smothered cry and grasp of death! Numerous instances of a similar nature have transpired in different places,. The most heart-rending<hsiafice of this kind has just been reported at this office. The infoimation appears to be truthful, and - the circumstances nairited appear probable. On Thursday of last week a colored man died (or was suppbsed to have died) and great lamentation was made over his body by the relatives and friends! The

corpse was laid out, the limbs composed, the eyes closed, and the features were exceedingly natural. As is sometimes the custom, the so-called mourners were provided with vituals and intoxicating liquor, which they plied themselves with until surfeited and drunk. Noisy and indecorous demonstrations of grief tfrere made until the third day (Saturday), when the brother of the supposed corpse became incensed at the disgraceful proceeding and determined to bury it at once. ' The other folks remonstrated, declaring that the body was yet warm and perhaps not dead. But he insisted, as he said, because he would perfer to bury it than have a continuance of the shocking demonstrations. Accordingly the remains were deposited, temporarily, in a receiving vault. L . ; J — : Yesterday the vault was opened, and the coffin brought out for permanent burial elsewhere, when it was noticed that the strong screws which had been tightly driven in three days previously were strained, and the top of the coffin pried half open. Tremblingly, and with the most dreadful anticipations, the box was opened, and horrible—most horrible to relate — the body was found turned and twisted over, the face downward, one hand clutching the hair of the head, and the other reaching out, with the nails driven into the wood; the teeth clenched, the eyes glazed and distended, and ever the feet giving evidence of having been used in the last hopeless and frightful effort to escape suffocation! These are the facts as narrated- The name of the victim was Andrew .Bow. — Savannah (0.a.) Advertiser.