A NIGHT IN A WATCH-HOUSE.

Evening Star, Issue 3270, 13 August 1873, Page 3

A NIGHT IN A WATCH-HOUSE.

Under this head a writer has contributed an article to the Melbourne Australasian, from which we make the following extract : Equally grotesque and more unpleasant was the story of a death in the cell of a watchhouse which stood on the site of the present Post-office twenty years ago. A detective, having to visit the eell in the dead of the night, found one of the inmates dead. The constable in charge of the watch-house had neglected to visit the cell at proper intervals, and the man been dead so long that the body was quite cold. He vowed, however, that the man was quite lively a few minutes before the detective arrived, and sent the latter for a doctor. The detective, meeting a constable outside, transferred the message to him and returned at once to the watch-house. Something prompted him to look in the window of the office, and he was horrified to see what appeared to be a ghoul in uniform feasting on the corpse. Looking again he saw that the constable, who bad taken all the clothes off the body, was busily engaged in rendering the cold, stiff corpse warm and flexible. He placed the feet close to the fire, and then beating his own hands, rubbed them quickly over the chest, face, and limbs of the dead man. The detective peered in on the strange scene for some minutes, and then, retiring softly, met the doctor coming towards the watch-house. As the two approached the office the detective was careful to make plenty of noise, and when they entered, the body was out in the corridor close to the cell, and the scheming constable was bending anxiously over it, with his hand on the region of the heart. He looked up, and ejaculated, “Too late, doctor, Fm afraid ; he’s just dead.” The unsuspecting medico placed his hand over the heart and face, and declared that the body was quite warm ; the man npist have only just died. The detective, being an old member of the force, who had seen many queer things and was accustomed t» hold his tongue, said nothing, resolving only to speak if the inquest should show that there had been foul play. The post-mortem showed that death had been caused by disease of the heart, and nothing was ever known but to a few, including Pewtress, of the strange scene in the office All the parties concerned are n°w- dead, and therefore no one can be injured by the story.