A TRADITION IN OUR FAMILY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 773, 9 February 1877, Page 3

A TRADITION IN OUR FAMILY.

In these good old times when men were hanged for everything or anything, a rogue was duly executed at Tyburn It was soon over. The drop fell—a strong convulsion shook him for a minute—the soul was launched into eternity; for an hour the body swung on the gibbet, and then was cut down and handed over to the faculty for dissection. Body-snatching was a lucrative profession in those days. Whether Jack Ketch acquired vested rights in the subjects he manipulated, and entered the market in competition with resurrection men, or whether the sheriff determined what school or what individual should profit by the remains of those who had been unprofitable to society,'the learned in laws, manners, and customs may tell. “ The faculty” in this instance was a then celebrated lecturer whose resources needed supplies of the kind. A shell was procured and the corpse conveyed to the surgeon’s dissecting-room. It was summer, and very sultry. Mr Danvers set a high value on a subject procured in perfect health and in the vigor of manhood, so he took care to be in the way when it arrived. He placed it in a current of air and resorted to the usual means of preservation. Nothing brings on a more abnormal state of feeling than great in timacy with death. Mr Danvers was by no means a callous man, yet to the broken hearts left behind, or the spirit in its first hour’s experience of another world he gave not a single thought. Other matters pressed on him. He had to dress in haste for a professional dinner. In ten minutes he was in his carriage, turning over what he would say when his health was drunk, what he should do with a patient in a most ! critical condition, and whether Dr Browne would be at the dinner And then the ordinary routine of a feast in the last century chased away everything of shop. The wine flowed freely, and only when leaving the room after midnight was' he brought back to his woi’k-a-day occupations by a word from Dr Browne, who had been vainly trying to find opportunity all tho evening. “ Mr Danvers,” he said, as both were leaving, “ I hear you have got Frank Burton’s body.” “ Oh/yes,” MFDanvers’ answercd ; what about it ?” “ Why, that I wanted it, and you were beforehand with me.. You were present when I read my paper on ‘Death by Strangulation,’ and I wish you would let me be with you when you examine the thorax and vertebrae. I saw the man hanged, and feel certain that his death was caused solely by the dislocation of the spine. There was no asphyxia in the care. I think you will find out every point male out in the demonstration. “ I am so glad you mentioned it,” Mr Danvers refilled, “ I am not going into the question at all. But if you can come early to-morrow morning you shall examine for yourself, and I will look on. No ono knows so .much on this matter as you do.” “ Oli, nonsense ; I only want you to he convinced; seven o’clock 1 Good night.” Mr Danvers thought over his engagements as he went homo. If he should he called away next morning, some of the appliances which would be wanted might not bo at hand. He resolved to go at once and arrange everything for the morning before lie went to bed, and so sleep to the last minute. He unlocked tho door of his operat-ing-room. To vulgar eyes a chamber of horror—in his simply a repertory full of scientific interest. In his easy chair at his table, motionless, but glaring with fixed eyca into space, sat a naked man. The surgeon’s strong nerves were shaken for a moment. There was the empty shell; all the story told itself. Nothing was disturbed or thrown down. The reanimated corpse must, from the state of tho apartment, have risen up almost Unconsciously, and instinctively found a safe and comfortable seat. There it sat, the ideal of death in life. Mr Danvers put down his candle, and gazed bewildered on the wondrous spectacle. He hold the candle to his subject’s eyes. Tho brain was stimulated—and utterance came in gushes—‘‘spars me —no, not yet—not ready—don’t—pray don’t—perhaps it may come—not yet.” The thread of existence was taken up just where it had snapped off. The prison, the jailor, tho hangman, all were present, and, with all, the mail pleaded for dolav. Mr Danvers had no such veneration for the laws of this realm as to make him grudge them the escape of a victim. Ho did not even think of tho personal inconvenience this incident would cause him when Dr Browne should come at seven that morning, nor tho disappointment of his own ' class at two. Some small vivisection »

lie was greatly tempted to, and to ono the temptation was irresistible. Ho did what in his day every professional man in the kingdom would have done. Ho tied up his arm and bled him, and as the life-blood ebbed away, it soon appeared that neither the anatomist nor the class of students would be disappointed. Nevertheless nature rallied. Stimulants undid some of the work of phlebotomy. In time the man came round, and before day dawned was fully aware of his position. Hour after hour passed in that strange chamber with that very Frankensteiuish inmate Mr Danvers supplied him withfood and wine cautiously stolen from his own larder and cellar ; laid him on some sofa-cushions on the door of the dissecting room ; impressed on him the absolute necessity of rest and silence, and locking him in, retired to his own bod and tried to sleep. Seven o’clock brought Dr Browne. Mr Danvers had ordered him to be shown into his consulting room, and there he detailed to him the strange story of the preceding night, not omitting to observe that in this case at least there could have been no dislocation cf the vertebra?. Hr Browne did not enter on that question, but asked—“ And now, what will you do with, him i” “There’s just the difficulty,” replied his friend. “ I have solemnly promised him protection, and you have been taken into my confidence. I neither know how to keep him nor how to get rid of him. My class comes at two. They know what to expect, and how to escape detection I really do not see. t hen the man is quite unfit to remove in any way in which removal would not betray him and us.” A thought occurred to Mr E,, which he did not at the time communicate, “ I am not sure of my plan,” lie said, but I think I may be able to help yon, and you shall see or hear from me by nine, or ten, at the farthest.” So speaking, he hurried off He had some idea of (lie whereabouts of all that remained of a victim of heart disease, and was successful in, procuring it, and bringing it to Lis own laboratory. He then hastened back with an unsuspicious supply of food to Mr Danvers, and unfolded his project. “ As every one knows I am interested in cases of this kind, no one will be surprised at hearing that I have been beforehand with you and disappointed sou of your subject. You say you thought you had made sure of Frank Burton’s body, but that I have got it, and finding you had promised to lecture on it, asked you to give your lecture in my rooms. I will take cave there shall lie no identification of features, and the neck shall bo effectively dealt with to prevent it from telling tales ; but the strength of the case will be this ; the subject died very suddenly from a slight accident, and I have no doubt you will find when you come to examine him, either aneurism, of the arota, or some form of valvular disease which will fully account for sudden death. You will readily divert attention from any questionable circumstance by discovering that the shock of the execution on the nerves was quite enough to destroy such a life, and prohablv did so at the moment when lie reached the crisis of his fate. In fact, that though hanged, lie died of fright. You can send to seme of your students, notifying your change of appointment, and for the few you cannot get at, have a hackcy-coach waiting at your place to bring thorn to mine. It is needless to say the offer was accepted, or to dwell on the astonishment of the pupils, or the effrontery of the teacher. Suffice it to say, the lecture went off perfectly. Great was the surprise of the voung men to find such abnormal conditions in a man who had not shown mortal symptoms on the scaffold ; some wonder that he looked so much bigger a man in his public appearance Not one suspected himself to be the dupe of a pious fraud. The lecture ended, but the difficulties were only beginning. The man was not tit to move, the room could onlv be closed from all persons and kept locked for a short time without giving an alarm; and to turn him adrift with tire great discoloration and abrasion on his neck would have infallibly got him into trouble. Mr Danvers was no lawyer, and neither felt sure that his Frankenstein, if caught, would not be hanged again ; nor what was his own share of ciminalityin harbouring a man in his position. However, whatever it might be. ho resolved to incur it. The patient was recovering rapidly, ami of course Mr Danvers • had much conversation with him. The mail had been a butler, and convicted of a platerobbery under most suspicious circumstances. Ho protested his innocence to the last moment, but he had been in charge of the plate worth some hundred pounds. ITo had hfft the house for an hour, and from that time no trace had been discovered of it except some loose spoons in a suspicious place, which wore readily identified, bearing (ho famil v crest, anil which lie affirmed w°ro among those in daily use left out when ho left the pantry. A fellowservant saw him carrying a hag that seemed heavy, and before he returned, the cook, being short of pepper, went to the castors for some, and found (he plate-cupboard cleared quite out. It was immediately assumed that Mr Burton had taken final leave of the premises, the hue and cry was raised (Continued on pa'jc 4 .)

after him, and greab was tho surprise ot every one when he walked in as if nothing had happened. Tho thief-takers, however, were not to be misled by sui a dodge as that. Trank Burton was carried off to prison, and though ’ho had borne a good •character, the case looked very badly. ‘By liis own account he had gone homo'to his wife, as he often did in tho hour ■'after dinner, and admitted having carried her some delicacy from the dining-table, which the cook looked on as 'more 'jiroperly her perquisite. He admitted 'he had left the plate ’loose,'as he had often done before, but denied earnestly any knowledge of the manner in which it had disappeared. This link, however, was supplied ; men came with a search-warrant to the house where his family lived, and there found part of the missing spoons. The wife was unable to account for them. She was certain her husband had never put them where they were •found. The only suggestion his counsel could make was not accepted by the jury. 111 news travels fast. As soon as the row with the butler began, a fellow-servant ran round to his wife, and communicated very full particulars of the charge against her husband. The poor woman hastened distracted to the house, where she found her husband in handcuffs. This interval, the •counsel said, might have been employed by the thief in divesting sus picion from himself to the hapless butler. The latter had no doubt at all that the groom who conveyed the news to his wife was the thief, and that his visit was entirely designed to enable him to conceal some of the plate where it would certainly be found. Burton had not ary doubt upon this matter. He believed himself the victim of this man’s infamous conduct. And what is more, he completely brought his two preservers to view the matter in the same light. The first step they took was to shave his head and provide him with a wig. A livery finished the transmutation, and Dr Browne engaged him as house servant until some escape could be contrived for him. Whatever his former conduct may have been, he was an excellent servant in his new place. So much so that the family became much attached to him. Ever to clear his character, or see his home and wife and children again, seemed hopeless. Even to inform them that he lived was dangerous. He submitted to every restraint his friends judged needful for his safety without a murmur, but with how much suffering and anxiety only the heart that knoweth its own bitterness -could tell. Eighteen months had now passed and the man-servant had never been sent out nor wished to go. Plans for sending him out of the country had been formed but never carried out. Burton had become reconciled to some extent with the exigencies of his position, and if his fellow-servants thought him low-spirited and eccentric, that was all. They could not make out where he had lived, nor whether he was or intended to be married, a subject in which the housemaid showed much interest. And why did he never leave the house ? Meanwhile, having been so long safe, he relaxed his precautions. He let the servants laugh ’shim out of his wig as if it were merely apeing his betters, and one evening, • when something was urgently wanted for special use, he went out to procure it at a neighboring shop. Half-an-hour passed and he did not return. An hour—and Dr Browne grew anxious or impatient. At last hernshed down thearea rails struggling for breath, and beaten as a hart before the hunters; and after a rest, too short to recover himself, went up to Dr Browne’s room. As soon as he could speak he told this story. He had just turned the • corner when he was addressed byname, and though he had the presence of mind not to answer, his questioner repeated the name. He denied it, but he knew the voice, which now added —“ I saw you hanged long ago.” It was no other than the groom who had given evidence at his trial, and to whom he imputed the robbery which had brought himself to the scaffold. Of course’he bolted at once. Probably not pursued, but he ran and doubled through the mazes that then existed near Hatton Garden, and only made his way home when he believed he had baffled pursuit. Still he returned convinced that England could be no place for him any longer, and conjured Dr Browne to contrive for him to leave the country. It was at this juncture that the narrator, from whom the writer heard the •principal statements of this story, was taken into confidence, and often told in his old age his night’s adventure •with the man that had been hanged. The Doctor came to his house, told him tho main facts of this narrative, and begged him to try whether he could not get the man off tliah very night Me heard of a ship that was likely to suit his purpose; it had dropped down the liver with the last tide and would sail with the next. Side by side with a felon, and facing a single waterman, with a single portmanteau but sufficient money, ho floated down the stream to Gravesend, and only quitted his charge when sail was set and the ship was under weigh, for somewhere or other whence people seldom come bank, and where they meet no informers.