A STRANGE STORY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 76, 20 March 1880, Page 2

A STRANGE STORY.

The Geneva correspondent of the “ Times ” writes under date December 17th :—“ On the last day of November the body of a man who had evidently died a violent- death was found in the Sillerthal, canton Thurgau. The body was identified as that of a man named Baumeler, a sawyer by trade, and a native of Lucerne. The local papers announced his death, and his friends -were invited to accompany the funeral procession to the grave. His kinsfolk put on mourning for him, and the deceased having been a Roman Catholic, was buried in the cemetery of Bischoffzell by a priest of that persuasion. The evening after the interment, as a number of peasants and neighbors were making merry in the village inn of Bischoffzell, who should walk in but the man who, as all supposed, had been laid quietly under the ground the day before ! Baumeler, who said he had been away on a journey, then heard the story of his death and burial, which seemed greatly to amuse him. From the inn he went to the presbytery and thanked the priest for the eloquent funeral oration the latter had pronounced over his grave. He then called on the Amtmann, and expressed his gratitude to that functionary for the trouble he had taken on his behalf. Baumeler has still another account to settle. It appears that he does not enjoy an altogether spotless reputation, and after his supposed death a journal of the neighborhood made some unpleasant reflections on his character. Baumeler, it is said, intends to proceed against this too impulsive paper for libel. As for the buried man, no information is as yet forthcoming, and the theory of the murder is again revived. ”