ROOTING AROUND IN A MARBLE YARD.

Dunstan Times, Issue 660, 11 December 1874, Page 3

ROOTING AROUND IN A MARBLE YARD.

—o— When Washington studied medicine, a great deal of difficulty was experienced in procuring Head bodies fur dissection, and the students at his college used to make forays upon the cemeteries at night for the purpose of maintaining the supply. One day they hoard of the interment of a person who died of a mysterious malady, and they determined to resurrect the remains. That night Washington and hi* friends started out without a lantern, but with plenty of spades and shovels. When they came to the place, and saw the white marble tombstones, they climbed over the fence, and after a while found a spot where the earth was apparently fresh. Then they began to dig. They dug for two hours, and went down about 24ft. After they had excavated a big enough hole to make a couple of cellars and a rifle pit, they concluded that they must have been at the wrong spot. They picked out another place where the ground had just been upturned, and after nearly bursting a blood-vessel a piece, and getting out a few hundred tons of dirt, they knocked off, and as they set down on the edge of the hole to rest ami wipe off the perspiration, they expressed their astonishment at the scarcity of bodies at that particular burial-ground. It was getting on for morning then, but they determined to try once more. Just as they removed the first shovelful of earth, Washington, who had been wandering around the place meanwhile, suddenly said, in a mournful voice : Boys, I think we had better go home now.” “Why? What for?” they asked. “ Well, I think, anyhow, we'd better knock off now* on account of various things.” What d’youmean ? What d’you want to go homo for ” asked the crowd, “Well,” said Washington, “ I think it would be judicious (or several reasons, but principally because we’ve been rootin’ around hero all the night in a marble yard. They did go home. They had gotten over the wrong fence, the cemetery being a few steps further down the road.—American paper.