OUT OF A COFFIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 171, 20 July 1889, Page 4 (Supplement)

OUT OF A COFFIN.

A Cataleptic Trance, Which Was Pronounced Death. A remarkable caso of catalepsy is reported, from South St, Louis, says tho Cincinnati 'Enquirer.' A young married woman, 25 years of age, was in her coffin about to bo taken out for burial, when her brother-in-law paw her arm movo, ordered her taken out of fche coffin at onco, and called in two physicians, who after an examination pronnunced lifo nofc extinct and began a process of resuscitation. Their eiforfcs wero successful, and the woman was in a short birr.c brought back' to consciousness. Her sister, a young married woman living at. 721, South Fourth-street, and from whom an account of the case was obtained, asked fchafc tbe patient's name or exact address be nofc published, as she was too weak yeb to stand fcheGxcitomonfc fchafc might result from too much notoriety of fche case. Tbe names of fche attending physicians were, however, given, and they corroborated the statemenb. She said : ' Lasb Monday my sister, who had been sick for bub a few days, died, as far as we could see, and the afcbcnding physician pronounced hor dead, and her husband proceeded to make arrangements for the funeral. A coffin wav secured, and when fcho supposed corpso was dressed ib was laid in the coffin. The intention was to have, bhe funeral Tuesday afternoon. Friends of tho family visited the houso and mourned over tho body from which the spirib had, ifc was believed, departed. On Tuesday afternoon, a short time before the closing of the coffin was to have taken place, my brother-in-law was standing beside the bier looking on the face of his wife, when his little boy came into tho room and said, " I want to look ab mamma." ' Just bhen the arm of my sisber moved. My husband saw it, and was naturally very much startled. He informed those in bhe room in an excited manner whab he had seen, and my sister was at once taken from fche coffin and placed on a bed and two physicians summoned. They placed a glass in front of my sister's face, and could afc once perceive the signs of breath upon ifc. They then began to work with her, and in a shorb time more positive signs of life began to appear. She kept getting bettor all the time, until finally she became conscious.' * She is conscious now ?' 'Yes. Sho has had no relapse, and is steadily improving, but is still very weak, and until she is good and strong again we don't; want to have anything said aboub the case.' ' Was she conscious during the time she was in a cataleptic state ?' ' Yes. Thafc i. the most terrible feature about ib. She knew perfectly everything thafc was going on around her. When sho was being dressed for burial she realised whab was being done, and tried her best to show signs of life, but could not do so. When she was placed in the coffin an awful feeling of what was to be her doom came over her, she says, and she triod fco scream, and thought thab she succeeded, bub, of course, she did nob. When sho came bo and related to us an account of tho mental torture she had experienced during the time her tranco lasted, she said : " Where were you all when I screamed ?" We told her thafc fhe had nofc screamed, or we surely would have heard her. "Well," sho said, " I tried to scream often, and thought that once I had succeeded in emitting a shriek." When she was lying in the coffin sho tried to move, but failed unfcilher little child cams running into tho room and askod to look afc her. Then her arm cramped, and my husband, who was standing by the coffin, fortunately happened to see it. Had he nofc she would certainly have been buried alive.'