Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1874 — An Awkward Mistake. [ARTICLE]

An Awkward Mistake.

The following very singular occurrence took place at Flint and Mount Morris simultaneously on a recent date, the truth of which is well vouched for: Two persons, one a white man, the other a negro, died at points distant from their homes; the bodies were forwarded to their friends, and the coffins in the course of their transit came aboard the same train, whence they were delivered at the respective stations. The funerals at each place were in waiting; the colored people received the body of their fallen brother, and the mourners sadly followed it to the church, where they listened to a pathetic discourse. When the speaker had concluded his sermon the coffin was opened, and, horror of horrors! the sable African was found to be bleached out perfectly white. The short, crisp hair had given place to the long, straight locks of the Anglo-Saxon, the features were European, and the general semblance was that of a fullblooded white man. The consternation, horror, and superstition of the distressed mourners and friends of the departed colored man were boundless as they gazed with amazed countenances upon the face of the dead, so suddenly and unaccountably metamorphosed into that of a white man. That was at Flint. As soon as reason could assert its sway it became evident that there must be a mistake somewhere, and that the right man had somehow got off at the wrong station, and the corpse was immediately boxed up again and carried back to the depot, where it was ascertained that at the time of the delivery of the coffin to the colored mourners there were two coffins on board, and the corpses had merely been exchanged. At Mount Morris a scene was enacting similar to that described at Flint; at the close of the services the mourners gazed with agonized features upon the horrible spectacle before them. In the coffin lay, not the form of the loved friend whose ftmeral services had thus far been performed, but that of a stalwart negro! The feelings of the afflicted relations and friends can be better imagined than described. Matters, however, soon became understood, and a telegraphic dispatch was received from the managing officer of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway explaining things. The corpses were exchanged, and representatives of both nationalities finally had the satisfaction of receiving their own dead for interment. The apparent fearful discoloration of the white and the unaccountable bleaching out of the colored man was now no longer a mystery, and the friends were relieved of any superstitious anxiety that might have attended the circumstances. The baggage-man whose gross blunder in the delivery occasioned the difficulty was promptly discharged. — Adrian (Mich.) Press.