SAVED HER LIFE BY A WINK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 65, 17 March 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

SAVED HER LIFE BY A WINK.

A Mrs Christina Hirth, of St. Louis, emerged from a trance the other morning to find herself under process of being embalmed and prepared for the grave. The discovery of life proved startling- to the undertaker.

The movement of an eyeiid saved the woman from death at tho hand* of the undertaker or from burial alive. Early in the morning;, while her husband watched at her bedside, she had given a deep sigh and then seemed to breathe no more. A trance-like condition set in, and when a doctor arrived at the hospital where she lay, it seemed that she was dead. 1-1 c felt her pulse and made other tests, and officially pronounced her dead.

The county undertaker was .summoned, and shortly afterwards proceeded to embalm the body in the den; 1, room. He set about preparing' his instruments fox- the injection of the poisonous fluids used in embalming. While engaged moving the body the woman screamed, giving him such a fright that he dropped his burden on the iloor. The doctor was called and restoratives were applied. Gradually the woman came out of her coma and was able to move her body. ; A report two days later says that the woman is recovering, and physicians think she may get well. She was able ft tell her experience to the Mother Superior at St. Mary's Hospital. She said:— "I was conscious all the time I was In the trance. My mind was in a confused whirl, and in my despair I. concluded that my relatives and friends were In a horrible conspiracy to bury me alive. Then I tried to cry out. To my astonishment I could neither move nor speak. I endeavoured to make some defence against the scheme I thought was about to be played upon me. "Poor Christina is gone at last,1' I heard my husband say as lie turned from my bedside wiping the tears from his eyes. ; 1 was shocked at what I considered his mockery. The mourners began to tiptoe out of the room. Someone kindly laid a cloth over my face. A window was raised. "Curtains were lowered. A hush fell upon the scene. I knew what that meant. They had gone for the undertaker. "Presently neighbour women tiptoed in. They stood near and whispered, and I heard them say what a good womanl had been and what a pity I had died so soon. Then the undertaker's assistant came. He moved all the chairs out of the room. He pushed the bed away from the wall so that he could perform his work more rapIdly and skilfully.

"I was painfuly conscious of his every movement. I beard him set out his embalming utensils and bottles. I gathered all my forces for a scream, for a cry, for a movement of the eye, foot, or limb that would tell the man that I was not dead and arouse the neighbourhood to a sense of the conspiracy I now felt certain was being put into actuality.

"By what seemed to be a miracle of

good fortune the undertaker decided to '

postpone further proceedings until he could secure the presence and assistance of some of the neighbour women. He left the room, and again I was alone. My brain was on fire. I could feel the strange cold in my feet and hands and the dew on my forehead.

"It may have been halt' an hour—l thought it half a day—when the undertaker returned. He was beginning again his dreadful preparations for the disposing of my body. He walked up to me on the bed and removed the cloth from my face. He put his arms about my body to remove it to the cooling board.

"It was my last chance of life. I knew that in another moment the worst would happen, and that death was now certain. Gathering my energies into the last desperate effort, I suddenly regained my voice and to my own surprise and joy emitted a scream which almost frightened the undertaker out of his senses.

"He almost let me fall upon the floor. He threw aside the shroud which had been prepared for me, and was about to summon my husband and neighbours to his aid when I grasped him and made him remain by my side until he had calmed his fears." George Brugglemeyer, the undertaker, corroborates her story so fur as he had to do with the case.