Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1874 — A Mercenary Corpse. [ARTICLE]

A Mercenary Corpse.

Here is a heart rending story from Louisiana, a portion of the country that in these latter days is somewjiat prolific in sensational developments. ’ Not many days ago a most abject and poverty-stricken woman called upon one of the most prominent merchants of New Orleans, well known for his liberality and kindness of heart, and after unfolding a tale of misfortune and wretchedness, said that her husband had died forty-eight hours before. Of course the merchant was profoundly moved by this revelation of distress, and, when his visitor graphically said that she was unable to defray the expenses of the burial, and disliked the idea of a. burial at public expense, and .that the bodj- was already beginning to decompose in the room inhabited by herself and her orphaned children, he hastily put on his hat and led the woman into the street, saying he would accompany her to the place, and not only see to the funeral, but make eotnj. arrangements for the comfort of the afflicted ones thus left desolate in a cold and heartless world. Arriving at the house, which, by the way, was an especially forlorn and unclean establishment on the liver front, the woman’s action was confused, not to say peculiar. She seemed overcome, crazed with grief, first knocking violently on the door, then jerking, an old mildewed bell-handle, and Anally entering without waiting for an answer to the summons. They went up a rickety, rotten staircase, and, on the fourth floor, entered a room whose door consisted of a blanket hung on nails. Two dirty cadaverous children crouched near the fire-place, and in a rough-hewn box of a coffin lay a swollen and discolored corpse. Its face was unclean, and blue and red spots about the eyes and toouth seemed to indicate that decomposition had already set in. The gentleman was horrified. This was more than be could stand. A sodden odor pervaded the room; a frightful atmosphere <jf death and abject poverty sickened “him. He thought he would go. He felt sorry he had eVer come. It would have been so.mueh better to give the woman money without bringing himself in contact with ail this horrible misery. He took out his pocket book, and, handing the woman its contents, which happened to be only fourteen dollars, told her to call again and he would do more for her. Then he fled. But at the foot of the stairs he found he had left bis umbrella—a' handsome twenty dollar affair, presented on Christmas by his most intimate friend. He hated to do it—he positively recoiled from entering that room again—but it seemed unfeeling to call the woman down, and he must return. He did so. He hurried quickly but softly up stairs, tip-toed to the door, and saw—the corpse sitting up in the coffin, counting his fourteen dollars very deliberately. He clutched the umbrella without a word and returned to bis place of business, a specially discontented and sheepish-looking man.