A LIVE MAN’S EXPERIENCE IN A COFFIN.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 591, 11 May 1876, Page 3

A LIVE MAN’S EXPERIENCE IN A COFFIN.

The Providence Press says :—Patrick Rafferty, a labourer in the stoneyard near the Point bridge, fell in a fit in the yard about 11 o’clock on Friday morning. A recentlylicensed undertaker was sent for, and he felt of Mr Rayerty’s hands and face, and finding them cold and clammy, supposed him to be dead. He was taken to the undertaker’s establishment, and after a few minutes was placed in a casket and the lid screwed down. The undertaker and two labourers lifted the coffin and were bearing it to the waggon, when a kick on the lid of the coffin was beard. The undertaker asked the men if they wanted to spoil the coffin by kicking it, and they replied that they had not kicked it. Just as they spoke a tremendous kick was heard, and the men holding the rear of the coffin dropped it and scaling the fence were soon out of sight. The end held by the undertaker soon became too heavy, and he dropped it, the coffin falling on its face, when from the wood a man crept out, puzzling the undertaker more than any trick he ever witnessed. It was some time before he could realise how a live man could come from a coffin containing a dead man, but he was soon notified, and helped the now resurrected man to his home. This was the second case the undertaker had ever had, and two queries are uppermost in his mind today, to wit: Is it right to send a bill for a coffin to a live man ? Second, do many people desire second-hand coffins ? The victim is confined to his bed to-day from fright, but will probably be all right in a day or two.