A WOMAN WHO OBJECTED TO BEING BURIED.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 131, 1 December 1894, Page 1 (Supplement)

A WOMAN WHO OBJECTED TO BEING BURIED.

On the top of a mountain in West Virginia, is a sight which is well worth going to see. About 23 yeara ago Mrs Isabella Smith, wife of Alex. Smith, one of the oldest residents of the state, died after a lingering illness. Before she died, she expressed the wish to her husband that she should be placed after death in a coffin and put into the front yard, a short distance from the house. She had a horror of being buried underground, and implored her husband to grant her wish and not to bury her as ordinary corpses are disposed of. Her husband promised that hei wishes should be complied with. A short time after this unusaal request was made, death claimed hei as a victim, and she was shrouded and placed in a common coffin, made by one of the neighbouring carpenters. The coffin was placed in a boa and the following day the remains were placed on a flat rock in sight oi the house where in life she made hei home. There the ■ corpse remained the talk of the neighbourhood, the wonder of all who saw the unsighth view of a burial, and yet not a burial Here the box containing the corps: was suffered to remain for a period of a year or more. In the meantime the relict of the deceased concluded that it was not well for a man to be alone in the world, even though the remains of his late lamented were so near to him, and above the ground • So, after a brief time had elapsed ' he again took unto himself a wife— a comely woman of the neighbour ■ hood. While wife No. 2 was willing to share his home she objected t( wife No. 1 being so near at hand and immediately after marriage prevailed uponher husband to removi the remains of his first wife to i more fitting place. This he agreec to do. The remains were in du<

!- time taken to a clifE of rocks, probably v a mile from their former resting- place. Here, under the cliff, on the top of a high monntain, can be seen this ghastly sight, which has been viewed by hundreds of curious people. . There is now at this late date no - nails to hold down the lid of the box, ? or of the coffin, and people who go d have no hesitation in removing them j and gazing on the remains. It is j hardly reasonable to suppose that V after 23 years, the remains could ' have any resemblance to a human * t being, but such is undoubtedly the li case. Not only are the bones 3 r et in >l their proper place, but the skin. 3 which is like parchment, and about _ the colour of manilla wrapping a paper, remains tightly drawn over t the face and head, and thelong, black - hair adheres to the skin, even the eyebrows being as natural as in life. The hands are crossed over the f breast. Altogether it is a ghastly ; % sight, the shroud being yellow with s age, the corpse, which yet retains : resemblance to a human being, the B long black hair yet clinging to the » skull, and the wild and desolate ' place in which it is found, cause an " involuntary shudder to escape from * ono, on beholding it for tho first t time.