BURIED ALIVE.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 91, 15 September 1874, Page 3

BURIED ALIVE.

HOERIBLE DEATH OF A BOY IN HIS OWN COFFIN. [From the Salt Lake Tribune.'] Our readers will recollect an account ol the sudden death of William Blackhurst, a boy of this city, which took place while attending a picnic of the Seventh Ward Sabbath School, at Hill's farm. He had been with some companions bathing in a pond, and afterwards entering a large swing enjoyed it for a few moments, when the bystanders observed that he ceased to exert himself and hung by the arms in a lifeless condition. Being taken down he almost immediately ceased to breathe, and was pronounced dead. The boy was taken to his home in the Seventh Ward and arrangements made forhis funeral to take place on the following day. On the next morning many persons who were present observed that the remains were yet warm, one of whom, a lady of the neighborhood, informs the writer that she called particular attention to the warmth of the neck just before starting to the cemetery. We have authority for stating that

medical advice was had on the case, when the physician pronounced the youth dead, notwithstanding the singular appearance of the body. The funeral took place on Saturday, and more than fifty hours after what appeared to bo the deatli of William Blackhurst. He was decently interred that day. Was the body buried al'ive? This question has been asked by hundreds of men a id women in this city during the last week, and whether following the inquiry or not, the painful impression has gone abroad that the boy was not in reality dead at the time of burial, but that this remarkable ease must have been one of suspected animation. This impression has taken the further shape of a belief, to the effect that several persons who had known the deceased in life, went a few days after to the cemetery, where, upon opening the coffin, they were met with a spectacle most fearful to contemplate. The boy, coming to life in that narrow prison under the ground, struggled to escape the horrible incarceration, and in the effort had torn the skin and flesh from his face, and dragged his hair out by the roots. In that dark conflict the poor creature had turned over in his coffin and died. Alas ! there was no rescue there. One neighbor, present at the funeral, insisted that the boy was not dead, but a subject of suspended animation. This same person related that he had himself passed through a similar condition, having been at one time apparently lifeless for the space of eight days, with much less evidence of dormant vitality than he saw in the warm body of the boy before him. But there was no doubt in the minds of the friends and attendants as to the death of William Blackhurst, and he went into the grave alive. This is now the almost universal belief, and we hope th*t an official inquiry will be made into the facts to determine the true state of the case. The public are entitled to know the truth of the matter.