Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1876 — The Morgue of New York City. [ARTICLE]

The Morgue of New York City.

The dejiot for the unknown dead, and the dead-house which stretches out on the pier in its rear, are places containing such an accumulation of horrors that the stoutest heart cannot inspect them without sickening. Death is awful when it occurs from natural causes, when Its victim has been shrived and is afterward shrouded and projierly prepared for burial. But when it is caused by violence, or the person is stricken suddenly by the fell destroyer, as is generally tlie case of those whose bodies are laid in the morgue, there is no peacefulness, no serenity; but discoloration instead of pallor, ana contortion in limb and feature. The morgue is a room with marble floor, part of which is divided by a glass casing. In this inclosure are marble slabs, on which bodies are placed to await recognition. They lie with heads raised on pillows, and are covered to the shoulders with rubber blankets. Bixiiescan lie kept two months in cold weather, but only forty-eight hours at this season. They are left in the morgue until deconqiositioh begins, when they are buried in a trenchon Hart’s Island. Their photographs are retained, and if recognized after burial, their bodies are taken up and delivered to those desiring them. The line of corpses in tlie morgue plainly betokens the violence of their death. Eyes are staring open, jaws are fallen, necks are twisted, and terrible evidences of contortion are visible. The greatest number of corpses brought to tlie morgue are of those “found drowned.” Some of these have lain in the water for weeks, when their skin is blackened, their heads are bloated and their eyeballs and lips are eaten off. Yet, in this state even, they are recognized by those who love. Hie shape and filling of teeth often indicates bodies when there is nothing beside natural about them. No day passes but persons apply at the morgue for lost friends, and recognize in these ghastly, grinning corpses the one for whom they are searching. Detectives, who are on tlie alert for the reward offered for some one missing, glance through the morgue each morning, with photograph in hand, to ascertain if the prize Is there. After an accident the morgue is besieged by those waiting to see the dead brought in, to find out if some missing friend is among the killed. The agony of suspense is well illustrated by visitors at the morgue. Women go there regularly, fearing to find stretched on the slabs a husband or lover missing. Day after day they come, getting paler and weaker with dreadful suspense, to look through the glass upon the horrors there exhibited. Tlie preparation of the dead before being placed in the morgue takes place in the dead-house, where an inquest is held, clothes are removed, a coarse shroud is placed on tlie corpse, and it is photographed. Through the day and late into tlie evening bodies are brought to the dead-house from city- hospitals and from homes where there is’not money with which to bury them. This house is a long shed with stone floor, about the walls of which hang the garments taken from corpses unknown. These clothes hang one year, When, if unclaimed, they are disposed of. In summer time, when hundreds of victims of sun-stroke daily are brought to the dead-house, theplace is crowded with corpses, and the odor of death is discernable for some distance in the vicinity. Mr. White, the keeper, and the Coroner are then busy in this awful place; but the former has become callous in years of attendance upon the morgue’, handling corpses and holding them in position to be photographed. Every morning at eight o’clock an-artist, with camera, comas to the inside court of, the dead-house, where liodies to be stretched in the morgue are held against a wall, with a white sheet covering all but the head. Stark and stiff, they stand without difficulty, excepting when accident has cut them in two; in such a case two or three attendants keep them steady for this purpose. The picture gallery of the morgue ia directly opposite the glass-en-closed room. Few would care to behold the likenesses there exhibited, as each face is stamped by agony or brutal expression. The face of the man “shot,” “ butchered with a knife,” or who died in “ delirium tremens,” is there. The back of each card describes the corpse and where found. Sensitive women look eagerly through this gallery, and nearly fainting, discover the countenance for which they long have searched. Mr. White relates distressing and affecting scenes that have occurred in this room. Again, there are those who find relations here, pictured who go away satisfled, feeling that they are better dead and buried—even 'in a pauper’s grave. The dissecting-room adjoins the dead-house. Here post mortem examinations take place of many who die in Bellevue Hospital, and of those who are taken off suddenly and the cause is unknown. “ Good subjects,” are here dissected frequently for the benefit of the students of Bellevue College. The room will seat fifty students. A stone couch ii there, on which the body is placed, over which there is a hose with which to wash it when necessary. Students from other colleges can obtain bodies for dissection at the dead-house, by paying for their cartage. The pauper dead of this city are placed in pine coffins, and are buried without funeral service on Hart’s Island. Fifty-nine bodies have been laid in the morgue since January last, and nearly 5,000 have been brought to the dead-house. —N.Y. Commercial Adoertiter. The motion to a churn is always in onjpr.