BURIED ALIVE FOR MONEY.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 118, 17 November 1908, Page 6

BURIED ALIVE FOR MONEY.

GIIM/S HEROIC SACRIFICE TO SAVE HER MOTHER. An extraordinary story of a young girl's sacrifice comes from a .town in hio. It is said "that a Hindu magician, appearing in tho neighbourhood,, announced that he would put a girl to sleep for eight days, biiry her alive five feet underground, give ■ her neither food 1 nor water, but sim- I ply allow her air, and then restore her to life. He was willing to pay ' roundly ' for the proper person, but ho ■ demanded that he be able to charge for admittance to both tho hypnotising, the' burial, and the resurrection.' The difficulty was to find an object to experiment on. He advertised, and a young- woman named Gibson volunteered. It appears that she was driven to do so by tho direst poverty. Her mother was dangerously ill,, and required someone . experienced to nurse her. Miss Gibson was only nineteen years of ago. The spectacle of her mother's waiting strength drove her almost • crazy. By the merest chance she saw tho Hindu's advertisement. Tho bribe was sufficient, and she offered herself as a sacrifice. In the pres-' enco of the three thousand spectators, tuns' tho report, she gradually dozed away. Under, the passes of the Hindu she fell, into a deep sleep, and ' attendants put her on a stretcher. Then she was carefully carried to tho great white sand beach, where tho grave had alroady been dug. In full .view of the largo, gathering tsho. was placed in a coffin, a'Tjftavy pine board box; tho lid was screwed .down, and she was buried live feet below the surface. — Eight Days in the Grave. — Proof that the. girl actually remained in this living tomb was furnished tho spectators by peering down a woden tube, six inches square and ten feet long, placed at the heatl of the grave. • A- wire mesh covered I tho top, and an; electric lamp under- I ncath so lighted the face of the young | woman that tho entire head, neck, and torso could plainly bo observed. The burial, sleep,, and resurrection occupied just eight days, and Sunday evening, in full viow of 7000 people, the grave was opened, the young woman was. removed from tho coffin to a stretcher, and carried ;itp to tho stage, where tho. Hindu finally released his subject. Tho. body of the young woman when taken out of the coffin was perfectly , -rigid, -.like that of a person some time dead.. When the sheet was taken from tho body it was seen that the young woman's lips were slightly eliscoloured, the eyelids were almost imperceptibly twitching, and the joints were perfectly stiff. Tho doctors and newspaper men who were present found the body cold and stiff, and the clothing clammy from tho dampness of the tomb. Then the Hindu stopped up beside tho recumbent figure, and for over an hour applieel a treatment as would be given first aid to a drowuing person to restore circulation and unlimber rigid muscles. Tho girl sobbed as she awoke from her sleep and said : "Trouble, trouble, what is the matter?" Then followed a low moan and the appeal "Let me go!" —Looked Worn and Haggard. — She was thon assisted off the stage bjr-iwo attendants and fed with beef broth and a litttlo egg. One of the physicians who examined her said that apart from tho girl looking haggard and worn out sho appeared to bo all right, though at times the respiration was spasmoelic, indicating nervousness. "The sensation was ono of the most horrible you could ever imagine," declared Miss Gibson to a press representative several hours

after the resurrection. "I felt myself falling from a great height and being swept over a waterfall. At times I felt as if my head was about to burst. There was something pulling at my head and feet in an effort to tear me to pioees. Every musclo in me seemed stretched to the breaking point. I feel now as if I had grown soveral inches in height siueo the time I was buried. No, Ido not feel any pain whatsoever, she replied in answer to another question, "hut I am Unusually thirsty, not hungry. I would not go through ►that experience- again, not if any one should offer mo a million, dollars; I simply did it because I whs -offered a large sum of money. I thought only of the many little tilings I could buy for my sick mother." — Science Completely Baffled.— ; Many theories have been advanced ami discusssed as to how tho Hindu accomplished the burial. Soino say that a wax figure had been substituted for tho living sleeper, while" another theory advanced by medical men was that the sleeper was hypnotised each day, and taken -.out. late in the evening by the way of a tunnel. Investigations by newspaper men found no evidence. to support any of the theories. Tho undertaker who was employed swears that the coffin was as secure as any ho ever fashioned. Visits to tho grave at unusual hours in the night and early morning always, elisclosed : the young woman at the bottom of tho tube in her tomb. It was a remarkable demonstration . and an exhibition of .^psychic phenomena that»clearl-y mystified physicians, scientists, and humane officers, as 1 well as the general public. Thousands visited tho grave. Much money was.taken : in,, and tho Hindu did better thaii, he. : over did in his- life. To everybody ho' told the same story. It is simply a long-drawn-out demonstration of the actual power of hypnotism, he said, of the power of ono strong objective mind over the subjective niind of a willing subject. . Miss Gibson was willing to l^e put into this deep sleep, or I never could havo performed tho experiment. She is sleeping and resting, and her body demands nothing save good fresh air while she is in the present condition. When she awakens $he shall have some light j liquid refreshment immediately, and I in a 3 few- . hours she can .? afc •„ heartily, j She Aviil- never -feeF'tlib slightest ef- j fects from her steep .If she does not know that she had_ been asleep nothing in her either physically or mentally, would acquaint hqr with' 'the* fact.- .- • • j